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CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA

CITY COUNCIL Council Chambers, 715 Princess Anne Street Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401

Council Work Session

August 11, 2015 City’s Transportation Priorities and New Commonwealth Transportation Board Project

Selection Criteria Regulating the Hours of Businesses in the Commercial/Office Transitional Zoning

Requiring a Special Use Permit for Retail On-Premises Sales of Alcoholic Beverages in the Commercial/Office Transitional Zoning

Rezoning in the Lafayette Corridor and Area Plan Priorities Noise Ordinance

The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a work session on Tuesday,

August 11, 2015, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall Conference Room.

Council Present. Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, Presiding. Councilors William

C. Withers, Jr., Kerry P. Devine, Timothy P. Duffy, Bradford C. Ellis, Charlie L. Frye, Jr. and

Matthew J. Kelly.

Also Present. City Manager Beverly Cameron, Assistant City Manager Mark

Whitley, City Attorney Kathleen Dooley, Assistant City Attorney Robert Eckstrom, Planning

and Services Director Charles Johnston, Deputy Planning Director Erik Nelson, Zoning

Administrator Michael Craig, Public Works Director Doug Fawcett, Police Chief David Nye,

Police Captain Brian Layton and Clerk of Council Tonya B. Lacey.

Others Present. Virginia Department of Transportation District Program Manager

Jason Robinson.

Transportation Projects. Deputy Planning Director Nelson presented a

PowerPoint presentation on the transportation projects that covered: the New Process, Planned

Projects, Available Funds, Interim Funding, Scoring and Ranking Projects, Scoring Factors,

Schedule, Practical Matters, Projects in Long Range Plan, Statewide Projects, District Projects,

Potential City Projects, Transportation Projects in City and Recommendations. (See attachment

A for more information).

HON. MARY KATHERINE GREENLAW, MAYOR HON. WILLIAM C. WITHERS, JR., VICE -MAYOR, WARD TWO HON. KERRY P. DEVINE, AT-LARGE HON. MATTHEW J. KELLY, AT-LARGE HON. BRADFORD C. ELLIS, WARD ONE HON. DR. TIMOTHY P. DUFFY, WARD THREE HON. CHARLIE L. FRYE, JR., WARD FOUR

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Mayor Greenlaw asked if a third rail would impact any of the plans and Mr. Nelson

said they would not impact the plans, but they would need to be considered. He said there was

an interest in keeping the station in the City, and that there would be some substantial changes.

Mr. Cameron explained that staff would submit a resolution to Council at the

September 8 meeting for Council to approve the application and Mr. Robinson said they would

not need the resolution until December 1.

Councilor Frye brought up a concern about drainage issues on Lansdowne Road on the

City side of the tracks and Mr. Fawcett said he would discuss that with Councilor Frye offline.

Councilor Kelly said the City needed to determine its priority projects and he also

stated that the chance of getting funding for the projects was slim because the City does not

have a large tax base. Councilor Withers further explained that the larger counties would

receive more funding because they have a better tax base and could put up more money for

their projects. He said in order to compete the City must come up with more funds.

Mr. Fawcett said the HB2 funding was 12% of all VDOT funding packages that would

be available over the period of time. There are still revenue sharing and transportation

programs, as well as separate money just for bridge projects that could provide funding for the

City’s bridge projects. During this same time period the Fiscal Revenue Sharing Program will

come available and staff plans to apply for funding for the pavement maintenance and

reconstruction as the City had done the past two years. This is a 50/50 program.

Mr. Robinson stated that during his meeting with staff it was determined that the

City was out of big project. He said they had identified things on the book that offer hope for

the future such as Route 3 access management improvements, a Route 2 and 17 corridor study

was being done in Spotsylvania and this was could be an opportunity for Spotsylvania and the

City to determine what they wanted Route 2 to look like. Spotsylvania was also looking at the

Route 1 and 208 corridor he said this could also be an opportunity for the City to work with

Spotsylvania. Councilor Kelly stated that the Route 2 and 17 corridor was critical. He also

added that anything on Route 3 should be next on the City’s list. Mr. Robinson said VDOT

always working with Spotsylvania County on ideas for Route 3 around the mall. He also added

that the river crossing was considered a regional project project and FAMPO would be

applying for this project through the HB2 as a regional project for the south and north bound

segments. Mr. Robinson explained that VDOT had identified $18 million worth of safety funds

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and they had looked at several corridors and Exit 130 was identified as one of the high crash

and safety areas. He said they plan to address the weave as you come off of I-95 Exit 130.

Regulating the Hours of Businesses in the Commercial/Office

Transitional Zoning. City Attorney Dooley answered whether Council could require a

special use permit (SUP) for the sale of alcohol in an eating establishment in the

Commercial/Office Transitional Zoning District (CT) and could Council regulate business

hours of operation in the CT district through the zoning ordinance. She concluded that the

Council does possess legal authority to require a special use permit for the sale of alcohol in an

eating establishment in the CT district and to regulate hours of operation of businesses within

the district. Existing businesses would not be exempt from compliance with the hours of

operation regulations, but existing uses would be grandfathers against the SUP requirement. In

regards to hours of operations, she said it was rare to see a locality regulate hours of operation

for all businesses in a zone. She said the hours were often used as a tool with special use

permits. (See attachment B for more information).

Mr. Craig described that the existing land uses in the CT district as mixed. The CT

districts contained 194 residential dwelling units, thirty-seven of those units are single family

detached homes, 151 were apartments and six were charitable homes. There are also roughly

159 businesses operating in various CT zoning districts, 113 are office uses which equals

64.57% of all businesses in the CT. Ten of those uses were restaurants and seven of those

restaurants serve alcohol. (See attachment C for more information).

Mr. Craig explained that business operations produce noise, light, and traffic and the

CT district contains tools intended to mitigate the impacts of business operations on adjacent

residential uses. Limitations on hours of operation would be an extension of the existing

regulatory tools in the CT district. Hours of operation for 82 out of 159 businesses operating in

CT were analyzed to see what impact limiting hours of operations may have on the existing

businesses:

• 1 business opens before 6 a.m.

• The remaining 79 businesses open at 7 a.m. or later.

• 77 businesses close at or before 11p.m.

• 4 businesses close after 11 p.m. on weekdays

• 3 businesses are open after midnight on weekends.

• 4 businesses may be open 24 hours a day.

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Nine businesses operate outside of the hours of 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. on weekdays and 6 a.m. to

midnight on Friday and Saturday. (See attachment C for more information).

Council Kelly asked what was meant by a show of record for SUP and Ms. Dooley

explained that it meant that the City should show that it was a valid exercise of the zoning

authority. He also asked how shifting the hours would affect the Police Department and Chief

Nye stated that from a public safety standpoint the earlier the bars close the better it was for the

Police Department.

Councilor Frye was concerned with limiting the hours of operations for businesses such

as Labor Finders because those employees needed to be there early.

After some considerable discussion Council agreed to forward these items to the

Planning Commission for recommendation.

Noise Ordinance. Assistant City Attorney Eckstrom presented the noise ordinance

and stated that there were two types of prohibition: general prohibition of unreasonable noise

and a list of specific prohibitions. He said general complaints that were heard about the current

noise ordinance were: the general prohibition was too vague; the ordinance was ineffective at

addressing noise created by people leaving bars; ineffective at addressing loud motorcycles and

barking dogs. Most of the citations have been for parties or loud music a business’s

downtown. There was about a 60% success rate in court with the current ordinance. Mr.

Eckstrom said the plan was to address the vague prohibition by making it more specific for

yelling, shouting and college parties. He said they also looked at decibel meters and they

decided against including those in the ordinance. (See attachment E for more information).

Council followed up with discussions on how the Police would monitor and enforce

which Chief Nye said regular patrols would help to eliminate some of the issues.

Lafayette Corridor and Area Planning Priorities. Planning Services

Director Johnston recommended not moving forward with the rezoning of Lafayette Boulevard

and suggested the top priority should be the area planning process. Mr. Johnston explained

that he would need a vote from Council to move forward with the area planning and they

would need to determine which two areas they would like to start with.

Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this

time, Mayor Greenlaw declared the work session officially adjourned at 7:09 p.m.

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Tonya B. Lacey Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg