City Council

CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA HON. MARY KATHERINE GREENLAW, MAYOR HON. CHARLIE L. FRYE, JR., VICE -MAYOR, WARD FOUR CITY COUNCIL HON. KERRY P. DEVINE, AT-LARGE HON. MATTHEW J. KELLY, AT-LARGE HON. JASON N. GRAHAM, WARD ONE HON. WILLIAM C. WITHERS, JR., WARD TWO Council Chambers, 715 Princess Anne Street HON. DR. TIMOTHY P. DUFFY, WARD THREE Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401 Council Work Session October 26, 2021 Planning Commission Interviews Economic Development Updates: Regional Industrial Facility Authorities (RIFA), Economic Development Authority Strategic Plan Update The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a joint work session on Tuesday, October 26, 2021, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers of City Hall. Council Present. Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, Presiding. Vice-Mayor Charlie L. Frye, Jr. Councilors Kerry P. Devine, Timothy P. Duffy, Matthew J. Kelly and William C. Withers, Jr. Council Absent. Councilor Jason N. Graham. Also Present. City Manager Timothy J. Baroody, Assistant City Manager Mark Whitley, Assistant City Manager David Brown, City Attorney Kathleen Dooley, Director of Economic Development and Tourism Bill Freehling, Assistant Director of Tourism MC Morris, Community Planning and Building Services Director Charles Johnston and Clerk of Council Tonya B. Lacey. Others Present. President of Fredericksburg Regional Alliance Curry Roberts, King George County Director of Economic Development and Tourism Nick Minor and Stafford County Director of Economic Development and Tourism John Holden. Planning Commission Interviews. Curtis Roberts – Mr. Roberts spent 20 years at the Department of HUD Headquarters in Washington, DC and he was responsible for the development of various software systems that supported the Secretary, Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development Housing and office of the General Counsel and he has a good idea of what Cities, States and townships require. Over the years he has volunteered a lot of time to the after school STEM 1 programs. He said his time has always been spent volunteering. He moved to Fredericksburg four years ago and he’s noticed the increase in traffic and he would hate for Fredericksburg to look like Fairfax or Woodbridge. Mr. Curtis said Fredericksburg had a lot of construction projects going on and he said if the City wanted green it must be done in the beginning. He noticed that there were a few brownouts and in order to green something it should be done as that project is being built. Mr. Curtis said with development comes a lot of traffic and smart development must be used in the downtown and he said if it was not built the right way it would begin to look like Woodbridge. Mr. Curtis said when reviewing a project, he must ask what does the money buy you, what is the result of the development, what does it get you, how much does it disturb the population over time, does the money pay for this project overtime. Mr. Curtis said Fredericksburg was a place that has everything he enjoys. He asked the Council to be judicious with the planning and have a good over watch of the processes they employ. He said he moved here for the quality of life and it has good history here. He said the quality of life can be interrupted if the planning is not done properly. Chris Dorle – said as a Planning Commission member in order to make decisions he would look at the plans, the vision, goals and other documents, and talk to other departments that have stakes to play and leverage the expertise around it. When asked about formed based code he said he did not have a developed philosophy on transects for form based codes. He said he would talk to planners that do have a background in it. Mr. Dorle said when he talks about Fredericksburg he speaks on the things he loves, the downtown, walking along the river, great place to raise a family, his church and it is manageable, close to DC and he could be around people with solid values. Ms. Dorle said he could see opportunity for sharing great ideas from other localities or states which could help with attracting businesses, solar programs, etc. Mr. Dorle said, evidence informed, was whatever the issue is you are trying to approach, you look at other areas to see the evidence of whether it has or has not worked. If it has not worked, you see why it has not worked. He said this saves time and money. He said his concern about his approach to decisions as a Planning Commission would be that he does not 2 know the community like someone who has been here all their life. He said he has only been in the City since 2018. Mr. Dorle said he was familiar with the Council Vision and priorities but he was not familiar with the processes that went into it. He said he had read it and it was very impressive. Mr. Dorle asked the Council what they were looking for in a Planning Commission member and Mayor Greenlaw said someone who was thoughtful, willing to be educated, someone who was able to look at all sides of a matter, and someone who was willing to do the work. Councilor Duffy added someone with a different background that will bring something new. Mary Margaret-Marshall – stated that she was a resident of the 300 block of Princess Anne Street and she was close to the center of the City. She said she had time to serve because she was home. She has worked with developers in the City and she enjoyed the work. She said history, environmental, and community were the three strong means of the City. The City must develop to keep those three things. Ms. Margaret-Marshall said she served on the planning Commission in North Carolina and there were some similarities, but not many. The town was about 300 people and there was a lot of farm and a developer came in and they had to deal with infrastructure, water and sediments, how much space should be between buildings and multi-uses. This was a huge project and the City was dealing with similar things. Ms. Margaret-Marshall said he first visit to Fredericksburg was as a small child then again in the late 1990’s and in 2014 she came back so that she could walk, have access to trails and to build a community. She said she loved Fredericksburg, the people of Fredericksburg, its history, it was the best decision her family could make moving here. Ms. Margaret-Marshall said she was willing to do training and she would not want to serve unless she had the training. Ms. Margaret-Marshall said when looking at a decision she would like to have the architectural, site plans and the Board needs to work together to address the goals of the City for development and how they apply to the projects. She would also need to know how the project affects surrounding citizen’s other things that go on in the City (traffic, pedestrian traffic). 3  Ms. Margaret-Marshall said she was familiar with the City’s vision and priorities and she said she had noticed how the Council had drawn back on some of the things that were important. RIFA – Mr. Curry Roberts, President of the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance presented a PowerPoint and he explained that a RIFA does not require a locality to participate or invest in a project, it does not tax or regulate, it does not create locality or exposure and it does not replace the local Economic Development Authority. He explained that a RIFA is created by two or more localities, at least two need to be counties or cities to collaborate on development of regional industrial properties. The localities agree to share costs and tax revenue using the RIFA as the administrator. The RIFA was created by the General Assembly in 1997 and it must be created by concurrent ordinances, to be filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth. There will also be two members from each member locality serving four-year terms. Mr. Roberts stated that the agreement establishes rights and obligations and it may describe agreement share costs, which could be a general statement now followed by more details later. It could also describe agreement to share revenues but the cost and revenue sharing agreements do not have to be the same across all facilities managed by the RIFA. There are currently 10 RIFA’s in Virginia to include 47 localities. Mr. Curry gave some examples of exiting RIFA’s. The FRA has received a GO Virginia grant to assist in facilitating the establishment of a RIFA. The grant contract is approaching a termination date unless additional progress is made on the goals set in the application. Councilor Kelly said the city had been trying to work on regional projects and he asked if the jurisdictions are going to support this. Mr. Curry said King George is interested in proceeding. He said regionalism is hard in most places but the FRA colleagues are a collaborative bunch and they go after projects jointly as a region first. He said with economic development they tend to work together. Vice-Mayor Frye asked what jurisdictions would be included in this and Mr. Roberts stated that it would be the Planning District 16 that the FRA represents, could be a part of the RIFA. He said there was nothing preventing other jurisdictions to join but the member jurisdictions must agree. Councilor Wither’s asked if the EDA could collaborate on this and he 4 said the revenue sharing was the way to go. Mr. Curry said the EDA could but they would have to figure out how to funnel the money back to the EDA. Mayor Greenlaw asked how this helps the City and Mr. Curry gave an example that King George was almost full in their industrial park and would have to go look for more land but they may not have the resources to make the improvements on their own and the City could invest with them and split the revenues. This step will show that the city is open to the process. Councilor Duffy said he was supportive of regionalism and to have this tool would be awesome. He also asked how the industrial component would serve the City and he wanted to know what was eligible. Mr. Curry said this would allow them the opportunity to play to their strengths. The benefit was getting things site ready. He explained how compressed development was now. He noted that Virginia had lost a lot of big projects lately because they were not site ready. He talked about the workforce that was in the area and how beneficial it was. Mr. Baroody said this makes sense for Fredericksburg and he said it was better to have this in order before a big deal come through. He said King George was looking for a partner and he would like to bring something for approval with the hopes that the other localities would join in at some point. Council gave a thumbs up to move forward. Mr. Minor from King Gorge said they were set and ready to go just waiting on a partner to get started. Economic Development Authority Strategic Plan Update. Mr. Freehling updated that the Economic Development Authority had set up a Committee to work with the City on Economic matters, they include Lee Murray and Will Mackintosh. The committee would collaborate with staff and hopefully with Council to update the strategic plan. He requested the Council appoint two members of the Council to help with Economic Development and updating this plan in mid-2022. Mary Washington Lodge. Ms. Morris updated that they had a successful meeting with the members of the Washington Heritage Museum. They said they were still interested in a possible future proposal with the Council on the lodge property. They would be appointing a taskforce to determine what path they would like to take. 5  Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this time. Mayor Greenlaw declared the session officially adjourned at 6:51 p.m. ______________________ Tonya B. Lacey, MMC Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg 6