Report of Middletown Planning Commission 2012

The following account of the activities of the Middletown Planning Commission for 2012 is presented

to the Middletown Town Council in accordance with Virginia State Code.

Membership

The following members served for the entirety of 2012: Chairman, Walter McCauley; Vice-Chairman,

Anita Holley; Commissioner Stephanie Pendleton.

In January, Council Liaison Mark Davis was replaced by John Blaisdell, a change which seemed to

those present at the January Council meeting to be more reflective of the dictates of then-Mayor Mark

Brown than it was of the will of the Council as a whole. Mr. Blaisdell’s position as liaison was negated

shortly afterward when he resigned from Council with Messrs. Brown and Barrington. Council then

reinstated Mr. Davis as liaison.

Zoning Administrator Wharton first resigned in January from most of his positions, later amending

this to resignation from Planning Commission alone. Council did not appoint anyone to serve as

Administrative Liaison.

The Year in Review

Three major items occupied the Planning Commission in 2012:

1. The Comprehensive Plan Update. In a remarkable display which managed to combine

exceptional boorishness in equal parts with complete disregard for protocol or courtesy, then-

Mayor Brown attacked the Planning Commission before its January meeting came to order for

not advancing his agenda in general and not rewriting the Comprehensive Plan to his dictates in

particular. The opinion of the majority of the Commission on this issue remained what it had

been in 2011, that the existing document was sound and not in need of extensive revision or

rewrite. However, a rewrite was agreed to by Commission at the insistence of Mr. Davis, who

had been involved in the discussions formulating the current plan, and who felt that a different

format would be beneficial. As a result, work on the Gateway Commercial ordinance was tabled

in favor of this. It must be stressed that as the Comprehensive Plan is the most important

document a community can have, work on it must be done with care, objectivity and rigorous

analysis; simply cobbling together a cut-and-paste version from an existing plan, with no other

criteria for choices of inclusion or exclusion than personal like or dislike, will not do. It is

necessary to look at events affecting the area as a whole and gauge possible impacts, which is

why the Update Committee contacted Chris Boies at Lord Fairfax Community College so he might

talk with them concerning the college’s plans for expansion, as this would naturally affect any

projects the town might consider for the North End of town. It must also be stated that the

claim that not changing the Comprehensive Plan has put the proposed Reliance Road Boundary

Adjustment at risk is unfounded. The only changes to the Comprehensive Plan that had been

requested by the County had been handled in 2010 by then-Commissioner Heffern; in discussions

with Messrs. McCauley and Davis, Eric Lawrence stated that more changes might be requested by

the County in the future but there were none at present; and if the Steering Committee had any

information to the contrary, it should have been forwarded to Commission, properly

documented.

2. Crosswalk on Main Street. Some years ago, the desirability for a crosswalk on Main Street had

been raised and investigated by then-Councillors Bernhards and Hickman; their findings had been

discussed by Council and further action tabled for a future time. That appeared to be the end of

the matter until late 2011 when Commission was asked to evaluate a proposal from Lellock Con-

sulting concerning a crosswalk at the intersection of Main and Second Street. A report of this

evaluation was prepared by Ms. Holley which was presented at the February Commission

meeting. It was given to Mr. Blaisdell who was instructed to present it to Council. It was,

however, intentionally misdirected by him to Mr. Wharton. Repeated requests for its return so it

might be forwarded to Council by Mr. Davis ended with Mr. Wharton’s claim that it had been

“lost”. The report was reconstructed by Mr. McCauley and forwarded to Mr. Davis. In an

attempt to clear up the confusion surrounding various details about establishing a crosswalk , Mr.

McCauley and Ms. Holley met with Messrs. Balderson and Carter of VDoT, who reiterated the

information originally given to Messrs. Bernhards and Hickman. Messrs. Balderson and Carter

also felt that a basic crosswalk could be managed on Main Street at a cost of roughly one

thousand dollars.

3. Mobile Concession Units. The recent state of the national economy has seen a rise in popularity

of food vending vehicles as a venue for small business. In January, Carl Story was granted

provisional approval with a temporary use permit for his Hillbilly Dogs vehicle, provisional

because there is nothing in Town Code to regulate this type of business. In preparing an

ordinance to regulate these units, Commission received templates from NSVRC from Madison,

Wisconsin and Old Town Winchester for consideration. Matthew Cloud of the Department of

Health suggested using the Fairfax County ordinance as a reference. A final draft for this

ordinance is being prepared by Mr. Davis.

The Year Ahead

Work should resume on the aforementioned Gateway Commercial zoning designation, as well as the

designation for the southern end of town and Main Street. As stated in last year’s report, there needs

to be a stronger working relationship with both NSVRC and the Valley Conservation Council.

Appendix A

Appendix A

Summary of Permits Issued 2012

The following information is taken directly from the Permit Reports presented at each of the regularly

scheduled meetings of the Planning Commission. For further information regarding any of these

permits, please contact Zoning Administrator Wharton.

January 7695 Main; electrical

7723 Main; temporary electrical service

February 7723 Main; building

7969 Main; building

2182 Shawn; building

7889 Main; mechanical

March None

April 7780 Main; building

May (No Permit Report forwarded in time for the Commission meeting or since)

June 2130 Shawn; building

7969 Main; plumbing

2153 Shawn; electric

July 2177 First; building

August 2112 Fifth; building

2433 First; building

September 7710/12 Main; building/electrical/plumbing

October 7800 Church; electrical

2460 Third; mechanical

November None

December None

Appendix B

Certification of Monthly Minutes

The undersigned hereby affirms that the minutes on record are an accurate and unbiased account of the

discussions and activities that took place at each monthly meeting of the Middletown Planning

Commission.

Walter McCauley

Chairman for the calendar year 2012

Middletown Planning Commission