City Council Meeting   6/1/2009

It's one of the closest schools in the house.

It's just going to be helpful.

I'd like to call this meeting to order.

Ms. Kochis, can you call the roll please?

I will note the absence of our colleague Mr. Huja.

We'll look forward to having him back at our next meeting.

We'll start with announcements.

I just have a couple announcements.

There will be a free financial workshop tomorrow from six to eight at the Jefferson and Addison Regional Library.

That's the downtown branch in the Knack Entire Room.

It is sponsored by the Charlottesville Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

Dr. Brown?

I'll just remind everyone that for the third year, the Festival of the Photograph is coming up and it's a great event.

Everyone's probably noticed when you walk up the mall today that the big photographs, nature photographs are in the trees.

These are Tom Mangelson's photographs.

There's some really famous works of his.

He, for example, is going to have a talk on

June 10th at the Paramount.

There's a lot of great events to go to.

Thank you, Dr. Brown.

Any other announcements?

I have one item I'd like to add to the end of our agenda under other business would be an initiating process for amending the master plan for the west side of McIntire Park regarding preservation of softball fields at McIntire Park.

And now we'll move on to awards and recognitions.

We do have one proclamation that I'm delighted to read tonight.

We have a very special guest with us tonight.

This proclamation reads,

Whereas Vincent Tornello has devotedly taught band for 37 years, first at Lane, then Charlottesville High School.

And whereas under Mr. Tornello's tutelage, the Charlottesville High School band has been recognized as the Virginia Honor Band for 27 out of the last 28 years.

and whereas the Charlottesville High School Marching Band has captured superior ratings at the state band festival for 28 consecutive years and whereas under his skillful direction, Charlottesville High School bands have performed in the Cotton Bowl Parade in Dallas and the Fiesta Bowl Parade in Phoenix and whereas Mr. Tornello has been enshrined in the Virginia Band Hall of Fame and whereas Mr. Tornello has won the Legion of Honor award from the John Philip Sousa Foundation

and whereas the band room at Charlottesville High School has been appropriately named the Vincent J. Tornello Band Room and whereas those he has touched over the years have proceeded to change thousands of other lives for the betterment of all and whereas our city dearly notes the great contributions of Vincent Tornello to our community and the admirable example he has set for everyone he has met, now therefore we, the Charlottesville City Council, do hereby declare June 1, 2009

Well, thank you so very much.

Thank you very much, Mr. Caron.

We are now going to move on to matters by the public, and as is our custom, please keep your comments to three minutes, and when you come forward, give your name and address.

Good evening Mr. Mayor and Councillors, Callout Hall 101, Robertson Lane.

I was at the City Manager's meeting for neighborhood reps in October 2008.

Mr. O'Connell told us that the 2010 budget would be able to maintain present services and probably there would be no need for a real estate tax rate increase.

However, he said the 2011 budget will be a different matter, which will most likely cause the city to significantly tighten its belt and possibly see cutbacks.

And please understand this is a paraphrase, not a direct quote.

At the PAC, the Planning and Coordination Council of the City, the County, and UVA meeting on May 21, 2009, I heard Mr. Frederick, Director of the Vanna Solid Waste Authority, give a report on solid waste disposal for the City and County, and he gave two scenarios.

One, was exit the solid waste recycling business.

And two, build a new multi-million dollar transfer station at the current Ivy Transfer Center.

This is located at the site of what was once the dump.

Please note, I say transfer center.

That is a place to transfer trash and garbage to trucks to be transferred to a landfill outside of the county area.

It is time for the city and county to get out of the solid waste business.

Repeatedly, it is reality that private business and free enterprise accomplishes business and industry better and cheaper than government agencies at all levels.

Now is the time to start to plan for the 2011 budget.

Yes to private enterprise and no to government duplication of services that may lead to tax and fee increases.

Thank you, Ms. Hart.

The same person I signed up to speak is one of those who would like to speak.

We will close on matters by the public.

Harvey, do you have anything to say?

Alright, we'll close on matters by the public.

Sure, I will.

The other comment I have, I think the city may decide that being part of a regional group may or may not be in our interest, but there is a way in which having the city government involved in garbage

Thank you very much.

We will now move on to our consent agenda.

On the consent agenda tonight, item A, approving units of May 4th.

I am indeed appropriation of $1,416 Police Department Foundation contribution, second of two readings.

I am seizing appropriation of $34,045 Court Clerk Redaction Services Grant, second of two readings.

I am indeed appropriation of $8,000 contribution by ACAC for Drainage Works, second of two readings.

I am seizing appropriation of $13,520.14 People Transportation Revenue, second of two readings.

Item F is an appropriation of $7,600 reimbursement for job fair expenses, first to two readings.

Item G is an appropriation of $144,637 CDBG recovery funds, first to two readings.

Item H is an appropriation of $23,155 people transportation special events revenue, first to two readings.

Item I is a resolution granting a special use permit for a fraternity at 135 Madison Lane, first of two readings.

And finally, item J, ordinance, homeowner tax relief program, first of two readings.

Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda or any discussion or items to be removed?

Second?

It's been moved and seconded.

Further discussion?

If not, please indicate your vote.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

We have just a few items in our regular business tonight.

First of which is a continuing, we have a continuing series of presentations by city departments so we can let the taxpayers and citizens of Charlottesville know how your tax dollars are being used.

and what's going on in local government here in Charlottesville.

This latest presentation tonight is from our Department of Public Works and I understand you had a multimedia presentation for us tonight.

Who's Miss Mueller?

Oh, she's just now arriving.

Miss Mueller, you're up!

This is Judy Mueller.

I'll give Judy a chance to breathe.

Judy is director of public works for the city of Charlottesville.

Thank you.

You're it?

Okay.

Well, I'd like to ask you to come down and take some seats because we're going to show a video.

It's my pleasure to talk about the Department of Public Works.

Many people aren't aware of the diverse activities of the Department of Public Works.

Unfortunately, many of the services that we provide to our citizens and people don't realize until they either don't work or go wrong.

And that's when they realize that they're missing something.

So this is a short cameo that tries to cover all the activities that public works provides to our citizens.

And I have a handout.

It gave me a lot.

I didn't think I'd need them all, but I probably will.

Hello and welcome aboard the Public Works Express.

I'm Judy Mueller, Director of Public Works for the City of Charlottesville, and today we're going to take you on an exciting tour of your Public Works department.

Along the way, we'll visit with the seven Public Works divisions that help make Charlottesville's facilities and infrastructures safe and efficient for businesses, residents, and visitors to appreciate and enjoy.

Over 300 dedicated staff members work together on jobs ranging from changing light bulbs to managing multi-million dollar construction projects.

So what are we waiting for?

Hi, I'm Crystal Rittervold, the Environmental Sustainability Manager.

City Council's 2025 vision statement includes the key goal of being a green city.

The Environmental Sustainability Division works towards that reality through a variety of initiatives.

We're implementing and encouraging green building practices.

Some examples include the energy efficiency programs and retrofits in municipal buildings and schools.

We're greening the city fleet with the use of alternative fuels such as biodiesel and compressed natural gas as well as the purchase of hybrid vehicles.

We've established an environmental management system with a target of reducing environmental impacts from all city facilities and operations and increasing our operational efficiency.

We've established a greenhouse gas emissions baseline and we're engaging in a local climate action planning process with our partners in Albemarle County and at the University of Virginia.

We are working on a storm water management program aiming to reduce pollutants entering local waterways and to protect aquatic systems.

We're also putting efforts into the restoration of eroded creeks and streams and the establishment of healthy vegetated riparian buffers.

We serve as an in-house resource for environmental regulations and compliance as well as environmental and sustainability issues promoted by our colleagues and our community.

We look forward to continued collaboration with the community

Hello, my name is Jim McClung.

I am the fleet manager for the City of Charlottesville.

The fleet division employs 12 individuals responsible for the care, maintenance and cleaning of all of the city's vehicles and rolling equipment, including 47th City of Charlottesville school buses.

We're responsible for managing two fueling sites that dispense an average of 560,000 gallons of fuel per year, as well as operating a full-service paint and body shot.

In recent years, we have worked closely with our customers in the Environmental Sustainability Division to become a leader in green municipal fleet operations.

Our first effort toward this goal was right-sizing the fleet.

By doing this we were able to reduce our fleet inventory by 35 units and increase our efficiency by sharing vehicles whenever possible.

For every vehicle that needs to be replaced, we perform a critical analysis of the vehicle's maintenance cost history.

For sure we're providing the safest and most cost efficient operation Currently we have 6 natural gas vehicles, 4 E85 equipped vehicles, 21 hybrid electric vehicles, and 75 diesel units using B20 biodiesel fuel One of our recent successes is receipt of the E82 status with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

Hi, I'm Lance Stewart, Facilities Maintenance Manager.

Facilities Maintenance is responsible for the maintenance, repair, and operations of the city's 43 public buildings and 10 city school campuses.

We view these buildings as our homes away from home and care for them the way you would.

For 15 of our public buildings, we provide custodial services.

We sweep, vacuum, or mop 370,000 square feet of flooring every week.

We remove trash and recycling from hundreds of offices, clean a lot of restrooms, and we do windows too.

For all of our buildings, facilities maintenance staff members caulk windows, patch roofs, and paint rooms.

We take care of many thousands of light fixtures, all things electrical like elevators, fire alarms, and sprinkler systems.

We maintain 1,700 pieces of heating, air conditioning, and ventilation equipment.

such as boilers, cooling towers, air handlers and heat pumps.

All of these things consume precious electricity, natural gas and water.

We carefully manage our natural resource consumption to save money and help the environment.

Whenever we replace equipment, we invest in the most energy-efficient option available.

Last year, we completed a $1.9 million energy performance contract, making improvements in municipal and school buildings that will reduce our consumption of electricity, natural gas and water.

We expect to realize first year cost savings of $250,000 and a reduction of more than 2.7 million pounds of carbon dioxide.

That's equivalent to the CO2 emissions of 200 cars.

Hi, I'm Steve Lawson, Public Service Manager.

In all seasons, city residents can thank the employees in public service for well-maintained sidewalks and streets, functioning traffic equipment, and timely waste and recycling collection.

In warmer months, we repair utility cuts and street edges, and perform street milling and asphalt overlay for all city streets.

Last year, we completed 200 utility cuts and hazard repairs on city sidewalks,

and 481 utility covered pairs on city streets.

As weather turns cold, we collect and compost over 2,000 tons of leaves annually.

During weather emergencies, 240 member snow teams work 12-hour shifts until streets are clear and safe.

and schools and businesses can reopen.

Year-round jobs include waste and recycling collection.

Free recycling at the curb diverted 500 additional tons of material from the landfill in 2008.

Maintaining the integrity of their aging stormwater infrastructure is a high priority.

Stormwater maintenance flushes and repairs our 53 miles of stormwater pipe and 4200 associated structures.

Over 4,000 curb miles are mechanically swept annually to keep debris from entering the stormwater system.

We maintain 71 traffic signals, 14 school flashers, signs, street markings and parking meters.

The Intelligent Transportation System controls and coordinates five major traffic corridors in the city.

The Adopt-A-Street program recognizes local organizations, businesses, and individuals who keep streets litter-free.

Hello, I'm Mike Malaca.

I head up the Facilities Management Division of Public Works.

We are directly responsible for ensuring that all of the city's government, school and park facilities are efficiently and sustainably planned, constructed and maintained.

We are one of the smallest public works divisions with only five full-time employees.

Despite our size at any given time, we are actively managing dozens of projects.

Project management responsibility spans from A to Z and includes budgeting, cost estimation,

Planning and Design, as well as Construction and Project Closeout.

Here's a quick snapshot of some of our current and recent projects.

Mead Park Outdoor Aquatic Center, $4.2 million.

Smith Aquatic Center, $11.5 million.

Juvenile and Domestic Relations Courts Renovation and Expansion,

19.9 million, CTS Operations Center at Avon Street 15.5 million, Greenbrier and Walker Upper Elementary School roof replacements 1.6 million, the CHS fine arts improvements 450,000, CHS gymnasium improvements 375,000, ADA improvements at all of our city schools 1.2 million,

and our first green roof completed this past summer right here at City Hall, $275,000.

And let's not forget the downtown transit station's LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Hi, I'm Lauren Hildebrand, the Director of Utilities.

Our division is responsible to provide water, waste water, and natural gas for our community.

Our water operations are responsible for the installation and maintenance of 185 miles of water main lines as well as 2800 water valves and 900 fire hydrants.

We promote water and energy conservation in our community.

Our efforts include the distribution of water conservation kits, rain barrel workshops, rebates, and simple tips designed to help our citizens save money and water on their utility bills.

Wastewater operations maintain the 163 miles of city sanitary sewer lines.

The system collects the wastewater from residential areas and businesses, transporting it to Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority's Morris Creek treatment plant.

An extensive rehabilitation project to upgrade and replace our aged water and wastewater system is underway.

This initiative will guarantee reliable service for many years to come.

Gas operations supply natural gas to over 19,000 customers in the city and the urban Albemarle County area.

Charlottesville Gas has been providing affordable and efficient energy to our community for over 150 years.

Safety is the division's top priority.

Using state-of-the-art technology to prevent leaks and assisted by an award-winning public awareness program, the gas group safety record is their best ever.

When emergency strikes, our crews are ready to roll, rain or shine, day or night.

Hello, I'm Bill Watterson.

I'm the manager of the Transit Division of Public Works and I'm here to show you how Charlottesville Transit Service and Pupil Transportation are really going places.

Charlottesville Transit Service provides more than 5,000 rides each day.

Pupil transportation takes over 4,000 students to and from school safely, an average of 38,000 miles per month.

The downtown transit station is where people make connections between buses, and it is also a high-performance green building.

On the front line, drivers are knowledgeable about all 18 CTS bus routes and ready to assist with schedules, transfers, transporting passengers with mobility challenges, and everything in between.

Our 75-cent fare is made more affordable for those with need.

through Deuce Fairs for Seniors in the Disabled and Fair Ferry Paratransit service for those with qualifying disabilities.

Behind the scenes, the whole workforce is engaged in improving transportation services, making sure transit is safe, reliable, clean and comfortable.

Recent CTS initiatives include Sunday service for the Pre-Trolley and Route 7, and grant-funded purchase of 11 buses for service expansion.

Combine that with an environmentally-minded public and you get record ridership.

More than 1.7 million passenger boardings in 2008.

New technology allows the public to access real-time bus schedules through the CTS page at charlottesville.org, on schedule screens at the downtown station, or at one of the 30 bus finders at CTS bus stops.

Well, that's our tour.

Hopefully we've brought you some insights into your public works department and how we strive to serve the community well.

We thrive on input from citizens like you, so please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions or suggestions you may have.

You can find more information about our services along with contact information on the Public Works Writer's Guide available through our website, www.charlottesville.org slash public works.

Thank you for this opportunity to talk about public works and I would be remiss if I didn't have sincere thanks to Joe Rice from our communications department.

Joe worked very closely with us and I want you to know he's such a perfectionist.

He was still tweaking this this afternoon.

Just trying to, every time we see it, we see another thing we want to do.

But it shows you the talent that we have here.

Well, you set a new standard for departmental reports.

I hope so.

You made it difficult for all the rest of your department heads to live up to your example.

Anybody who wants to call me, I'll come.

I'm happy to come to any of the neighborhood associations that would like to show this at one of their board meetings or one of their annual meetings and I'd be glad to come personally and then take any questions or comments or feedback.

I'm very serious about it at the very end.

We do want to hear from our

from our customers.

We want their ideas.

We want their input.

I hope you saw the emphasis that we had on the environment, on energy.

This is an ongoing thing.

As you know, we're, you know, waiting to hear about our SEER grant.

Thank you, Dr. Goodhart.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Judy.

Mr. Mayor, Members of Council,

Two weeks ago, I gave you a briefing on the increases in water and sewer rates and also the decrease in the gas rates.

I'm going to remind you on the books that was passed out earlier for a customer using five, probably 150 gallons in the city of Charlottesville, we were proposing an increase of 1.25%.

And for wastewater, we were proposing an increase of 3.93%.

During our discussions, I was instructed to actually reduce the budget by $60,000 total.

So no, the water increase is projected to be 37 cents or 1.12%.

The sewer increase is projected to be $1.16 per month increase or 3.79%.

And gas is projected to be a $1.39 decrease as opposed to a $1.21 decrease that we proposed two weeks ago.

Any questions for Mr. Ray or comments?

That's correct.

Is there a motion to amend the ordinance to reflect the lowered rates?

So moved.

Second.

Second.

Any further discussion?

If not, please indicate your vote.

The ordinance that has been amended is now before us on second readings.

There is a motion to approve the ordinance as amended.

Any further discussion?

If not, please indicate your vote.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Wray.

Next item on our agenda, an ordinance resigning 814 Hinton Avenue to some island to neighborhood commercial corridor, first of two readings,

Who's presenting tonight?

I know.

If somebody could retrieve Brian Holuska.

Well, let's

Let's just jump forward to the next item and we'll come back to that one.

Basically, the last item on our agenda is selection committee for the dredging study, RFP, and we have before us a number of names of individuals that have been recommended.

This is basically the group that will be reviewing the proposals that come in from different firms to conduct a dredging study of the South Fork-Rivanna Reservoir.

And the city council, because the city also is paying a significant portion of the cost of this study, the city council asked that we have the authority to approve

the Composition of the Selection Committee.

There are a number of names that were broad-floored as participants on this committee.

Gary Fern is a Professional Engineer and current Executive Director of ACSA, Albemarle County Service Authority.

Mark Graham, Professional Engineer, current County Director of Community Development, Albemarle County Director of Community Development.

Tom Frederick, Professional Engineer, current RWSA Executive Director.

Chuck Kent, professional engineer for RWSA.

He's knowledgeable of dredging practices through considerable research.

Judy Mueller, who as you just heard is our director of public works and an experienced public works professional.

Lauren Hildebrandt, professional engineer, current head of city utilities.

And Marty Quinn, professional engineer with city utilities.

And I am recommending that we add to that list two individuals.

One is Russ Perry who's a local architect with extensive experience in RFPs and project management and also Rebecca Quinn who is a water resources consultant and formerly worked as water resources engineer for the state of Maryland.

Both of them are willing to serve as well.

Mr. Mayor, I'll move that City Council recommend to the Executive Director of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority that Russ Perry and Rebecca Quimby be added, be asked to serve on the selection committee in addition to those individuals already identified by the Executive Director.

Is there a second?

Any further discussion?

Please indicate your vote.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Mayor and members of the Council, this is an application for rezoning of 814 Hinton Avenue from R1S to NCC.

This application was taken up by the Planning Commission at their main meeting.

The proffers had not changed since that time, so the proffers you have in front of you are the same proffers that were presented at that meeting.

The Planning Commission debated this, primarily focused on the impact to the neighborhood.

in regards to parking and traffic, and ultimately voted 4 to 2 to recommend denial of this application.

And I believe a representative of the applicant is present and would like to speak with you if they have the chance.

Thank you very much.

My name is Andrew Sneaver and I want to thank you all for letting me speak briefly.

I sort of brought the Mayor into allowing me to do that.

I represent the applicants for the change in the zoning ordinance at 814 Clinton Street.

And basically what we want to produce is, if you don't mind, an understanding of

exactly how the zoning is currently in place and exactly how that impacts that community.

I realize this is a very important thing for the community and if we could, could anybody stand up who's in support of this change so that the cancer can see how important this is for that community.

When NCC was created, it was created with an intent to create

a zone inside the city which was a commercial hub for people to attend, to go to.

One of the reasons for that was to create a walking place for people to go to which we've heard something about everything being in environmental context and I think that in this case that is an environmentally sound thing to do is to have a place where people walk.

If you look at 814 Hinton

I hope everyone can see this.

This is the property which we're talking about.

Currently, the Belmont Barbecue is adjacent to that.

Everybody knows that property.

There is literally four to five feet distance from the edge of that home to where people sit outside.

There is actually zero buffer.

So it is unclear to me that even within the language of the law,

As it stands, that it was zoned in accordance with the city's own ordinances.

In other words, by not having any buffer at all.

It may be violative, and this may be something you need to ask your own council, but it may be violative of the ordinances as they are supposed to be imposed now.

And so what the clients are proposing through this change would be to increase, not spot zone, but increase slightly the length of the commercial zone.

And in so doing, they've offered this profit that they believe addresses each and every concern of the community

And primarily those concerns were noise, parking, and just the additional added neighborhood commerce.

And so basically what, I don't envy you in that you have this balance that is very difficult to make.

We think on the whole

that any increase in commerce or any increase in negative impacts to the community is far outweighed by the benefit of increasing this zone one property over.

What I brought was some photographs so you all could see that there really is no buffer currently in between those two properties.

In this proffer, my clients have offered to create a buffer that is the most stringent within the ordinances and they will create a buffer that addresses both the sound issue and they have offered not to have a restaurant over a certain size of 40 million people so that it's not a tremendous impact

It's interesting because if you look at, and this is very well addressed by Graham in his analysis, on the parking issue, one of the objectives of the neighborhood corridor, commercial corridor, is to have a place where people will walk.

Not to increase parking, but rather to reduce the necessity to have people get in their car and drive to a destination.

But to provide something for those people that are in that local community where they can walk.

The bottom line is I think that what is being created, if the council sees fit to allow the community to extend the zoning, is a property which fits in both with the broad ideals of the NCC but also within the water of the NCC.

I don't think that as things currently stand,

One of the concerns that was raised in the public hearing and also in a rather sharply worded email that we received had to do with fears about new traffic and activity in the alleyway behind this building.

Absolutely.

Not clearly.

It has no intention to have deliveries.

parking or use the alleyway for anything including trash disposal.

This property under the virtue of going through the rezoning process has offered some proffers that legally bind this particular property.

Every property that's already zoned neighborhood commercial corridor is not subject to any of those regulations.

They're subject to

the zoning that's currently in place and the restrictions under that zone.

This property is also subject to those restrictions along with the restrictions that they've proffered.

One of the issues in terms of buffering and how you establish that is when you have an area like the downtown Belmont area that was previously developed has been rezoned

was there before zoning was initiated in the city and has been rezoned in 2003.

It's going to take many years for that zone to eventually come into compliance.

We create these zones with a vision of what they're going to be and the restrictions we want people to adhere to, but it really takes

demolishing properties and rebuilding those under a site plan process under the current restrictions as existing buildings are just reused they're allowed to continue as they were as they were built prior to zoning in some cases or prior to the implementation of new restrictions so it's a

It's a very slow process.

We've seen this I think with the southern part of the city where it was rezoned to R1S from March 2 in 1991.

Correct.

One of the concerns that's been raised that if we allow this one parcel to be rezoned, then it's going to happen somewhere else in this district and somewhere else it'll sort of open the door, create a precedent for other properties to be brought in.

Is that a legitimate concern?

The rezoning here is based on this property.

This particular property with this particular set of proffered conditions and the property situated as it is.

If the next property on the block were to come in it would go through the same process but it is a unique property, it has its own set of standards.

This is the way I would have, that's exactly what I would have answered.

If you can see, this is just for perspective's sake, this is Fitzgerald's tire company, this is where La Caza and those restaurants are.

This is the property which we're talking about and the size of the lot, the frontage on the road is substantially larger than the property adjacent to it.

Just to clarify, I don't think the concern was so much for the property next door, but it was for other properties in this district that may ask for similar rezoning.

Each one stands on its own, some fall on hit and some don't.

I think to a certain extent this property has sort of been held up as a whipping boy of sorts for other issues that are going on in the neighborhood that are pre-existing and are still going to be there regardless of what happens tonight to this particular property.

So again a question for either of you is, regardless of what council decides to do with this particular property, what more

In regards to the noise, the city does have a noise ordinance.

I think there's a feeling that that is not going far enough that we can certainly look at reviewing that and possibly making changes to it within the bounds of whatever enabling legislation we have to do that.

In terms of traffic, the Traffic Engineering Office can look at that and I think we've

I think I've said publicly that the traffic engineer mentioned that they've done a study several years ago that it may be time to revisit that to look at some of the issues that are out there that we're hearing from the neighborhood.

So those processes, also I think the Belmont Neighborhood Association is beginning to look at this particular section.

has had at least one meeting on this topic and is having another one soon regarding getting all the stakeholders in that area together and dealing with some of these larger issues, not necessarily going property by property, but looking at some of those larger issues.

Yeah.

Just the public hearing at the Planning Commission meeting was particularly painful for the applicant and I'd be surprised if anybody would want to apply for anything else after watching that.

So I'm concerned as to how well they were prepared by staff for the whole process and how they were given the opportunity to understand the importance of community engagement because it was clear that they were blindsided by some of the comments and also just

I've been stalking the neighborhood ever since watching it at different hours to see what the traffic is like.

And I have to admit, it was really interesting seeing some of the same people that were at the Planning Commission concerned about it eating outside at some of those same gay restaurants.

I saw you.

And I must admit I was really impressed at the diversity in the crowd that's there.

But my question is, why was not a special use permit an option as opposed to a change in the zoning and to have that permit

for the use as it's designated for the applicant instead of changing the zoning in.

The special use permit, the R1S zone as it is, which this property is currently zoned R1S, does not permit businesses of any kind by special use or by right.

It's single family zoning, a few other uses that are permitted, but that's really it.

It does not allow any commercial activity of any kind, so a rezoning has, there's no special use permit available.

We have to actually list in the code when a special use permit is available.

is allowed for that

Permit it by right.

So that's why they had to do the rezoning.

In terms of spot zoning, and I would certainly defer to Mr. Brown's opinions on these, but my understanding is spot zoning is

An area that's really, where there's no surrounding use that is similar to it.

Where you have a district like this where you're expanding it by one parcel, I don't think that can be interpreted as spot zoning because there's like uses nearby, you've gone through a public process to determine that that, and you've come to a conclusion as a council that this property belongs in this zone, not in the other zone.

An example of spot zoning that I can think of would be if you had a

I'll take an example from my hometown.

A very large residential area, there was a person who wanted to open an office in the middle of that residential area and the council in my hometown rezoned that parcel in the 1980s to commercial.

Well that was pretty much, I think everyone 20 years later had pretty much solved it.

That was a blatant example of spot zoning.

There was nothing in the comprehensive plan that suggested that at the time.

No commercial uses in that area.

It was just done.

Anything you want to add?

I think that's kind of a classic example from a land use planning perspective.

Legally, spot zoning has a very narrow definition.

Whenever you classify a property into a certain zone, of course the standard is

that it should be consistent with public health, safety and welfare and consistent with good zoning and land use practice.

If you look at a particular zoning and can say the only justification for this zoning change is to benefit the property owner, then legally that's known as spot zoning.

You may have a situation, again this is from a purely legal perspective, you may have a situation where the zoning on a particular piece of property is inconsistent with all the surrounding properties.

That does not necessarily make it spot zoning if there is some justification for that zoning classification.

Again, legally it is a very narrow definition.

It is only if you look at the proposed zoning and you can say

Thank you all again.

Thank you.

So the process for tonight is tonight we're actually not voting on this tonight.

This is the first of two meetings and so we will have a brief discussion and then I'll entertain a motion to either approve or deny and if we have a second on that then we'll move, take it to our next City Council meeting for an actual vote.

Well, I won't be shy.

I thought the public hearing at the Planning Commission, I think the Planning Commissioners were very divided about what to do.

There's a lot of discussion on this being a particularly hard choice to make.

And I left that meeting agreeing with the chairman of the Planning Commission.

that this property just naturally seemed to belong being done commercial rather than being zoned residential.

It would create a genuine buffer instead of what's there now.

And that it was bringing to our attention issues in the community of traffic and noise and music and patrons being unruly.

that really don't have that much to do with this individual property.

It has to do with how that part of Belmont is developing and those are issues that I'm pleased to say it sounds like the community is kind of getting together to try to help address and I hope city council may have a role if we decide that some of the tools the city has aren't quite appropriate.

So I basically support this rezoning, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Dr. Kim.

I struggle with this because of all the comments at the Planning Commission public hearing because this is a good example of environmental justice versus economic justice.

In the community, it's already thriving.

It's already in

a vibrant, almost alternative to downtown and I just appreciate the diversity that's there.

So when I left the public hearing, I wasn't, I just wasn't feeling the applicant.

I just wasn't feeling it.

but after I got a chance to go to the neighborhood and walk around at different times and to see the traffic and to sit on the porch and to see how the traffic was different during the day than it is on the weekend and to understand that there were a lot of emails coming in during that time too supporting it and a lot of people saying that they were almost, they were apologetic

in the tone and wanted to support it.

But I do still have concerns about the traffic on Monticello because when you're coming off of Hinton, you have the restaurants, but then on the other end where Bainbridge, you do have the sign to look out for our blind pedestrians.

So to support this, it's also going to have to be a commitment with the whole community to be responsive to the traffic needs and the noise and the parking.

And I'm glad you brought up the

the Allie and the concerns I was voiced about then.

This is a pretty difficult decision because of the competing interests and I don't mean to rehash everything that's already been said, but I'm certainly inclined to support the applicants and their dream to open up their own restaurant.

This property to me clearly does have a much better fit with the commercial area than with the residential area.

But there are other issues that we have to address.

We cannot neglect them.

And I think my support for this will be contingent upon

some clear actions taken by city staff, by the neighborhood association and others to get our arms around, as Dr. Brown used some of the tools that we had to get our arms around some of these other issues regarding noise and traffic and parking, but I don't feel it's appropriate to hold this particular applicant hostage to some of those broader concerns, so I will be supporting the rezoning.

and I will entertain a motion to approve the resuming.

Is there a second?

Okay, so it's been moved and seconded and carries forward to our next meeting.

Thank you all very much.

We have one final item on our agenda tonight.

I wanted to briefly have a discussion about

Softball Fields at McIntire Park.

We recently adopted a formal master planning process for parks planning.

And part of that process had to do with how to amend a park plan that was already in existence.

And I would like to see us

initiate an amendment to the master plan for the western side of McIntyre Park.

As many of you know, the initial, what's in the plan today is to switch out the two softball fields in the western side of McIntyre Park and replace them with a rectangular field.

And that was driven by a sense that we have a lot more city interest, interest among city residents

particularly young people in rectangular sports and that we were going to try to block our arrangement with Darden Tow Park to increase lighting there so that we could have more softball availability there.

Part of the deal has fallen through or at least is on permanent hold regarding Garden Tow Park and I for one would like to see us make a commitment to the softball community that we're going to keep the softball fields at McIntire Park and we're going to work

with the recreational leagues as a whole to come up to inventory our recreational field space, what we have now, where we might be able to pull into our recreational field space and come up with a better system of allocating field space so that we can meet the needs of the rectangular sports and others as well.

So process-wise, I'm told by the city manager that we just need to give direction to staff to initiate a master plan amendment.

We're not voting on the amendment tonight.

All we're doing is

tasking the staff with coming up with draft language that can then be taken to a public meeting and then be taken to the Parks and Rec Advisory Board and then be brought back to City Council.

And this would focus only on the issue of softball fields, preserving softball fields in that entire park.

Mr. Mayor, I guess I thought maybe during your campaign that the idea was that we would study field needs and then based on the needs we would decide what to do.

So there's a part of me feels like we're putting the cart before the horse for city council to make a decision tonight to change that plan

and then study our field needs.

It seems to me we should study our field needs and then create the plan.

You know, it may well be that McIntyre Park is just such a great place for softball and a lot of people enjoy playing softball there.

But the reality certainly is that 80% of the people who enjoy playing softball there don't live in the city.

And, you know, I kind of agree with the idea that if the choice is between, you know,

Children and adolescents in the city needing to be taken by their parents or their coach to Darden Town to practice soccer or other sports versus adults being able to drive there.

It seems to me that it's easier for the adults to get in the car.

I'm not sure whether to save it for softball or save it to get rid of the Y or to save it from the parkway, but the signs are there.

But I sort of feel like if we're going to study field needs, why don't we study the field needs, see what the choices are,

and then give direction to the parks and rec staff.

And just to clarify, that actually wasn't my proposal.

My proposal was to commit to preserving the fields but make that contingent upon doing this recreational field study.

And I have talked to representatives from virtually all the local recreational leagues who agree with that approach.

The softball, I'm sorry, the soccer league,

doesn't want to be in a position where they're responsible for displacing softball from McIntire Park.

They would just as soon leave softball at McIntire as long as we'll commit to them and to the other recreation leagues that we're going to do the study, do a better inventory, figure out how to expand the inventory, and figure out a better system and allocate them to it.

Does this study involve Albemarle County or just involve the city?

Yes, and the university.

And they're all agreed in concept on the staff level to do it, so that's sort of, I think...

Well, I'd love to beat a dead horse.

I just think we should do the study and then on the basis of that study decide what the best policy is.

Yeah, and again, we're not, I'm not suggesting we decide tonight to make this move.

For recreational field studies, yes.

In fact, our Parks and Rec interim director has done, I believe he said he's done these elsewhere.

He has talked to his colleague in Albemarle County.

They are ready to go with a recreational field study.

Everybody agrees that that's what needs to happen.

Well, he's done some research already.

I want to know what Brian Bailey knows already.

That's my point.

You are asking me if he's done it elsewhere.

Right.

Or if we have examples from elsewhere.

Okay.

Well, the real issue that's different is us getting the county and possibly the university involved, because that's not how it's been related.

And they've been permitted to... Because, I mean, the reality is no fields

are more than likely going to have to come in a larger area than just what's in the city because there's just not any fields left.

There might be one or two locations which will really address the expanding youth sports needs and all kinds of other sports that are putting demands on fields.

Actually, the commitment that my colleague, Mr. Swetsky, he said the county, he's closer and the county will support this if this is a staff driven study, but not bringing in outside consultants that we have to pay.

I'm okay with that.

I missed the date for the meeting.

I was hoping we could just change the fields over there, but then the situation with Darden Powell didn't work out with the lighting issues, so I guess I really can't stand right now.

is losing softball to you.

But I think we probably do need to do a study of the field, as has already been mentioned.

And not to be redundant, I certainly think that we need to get the county on board.

No, sir.

I think when you're trying to get a sense of what council is on the issue, do you want us to initiate something?

I think part of the issue is going to be, can we do something fairly quickly before the summer ends?

One of the month of August is not a good time to be having those discussions.

I'm not fully aware of all the discussions that have occurred to many staffs.

I know there's been some discussion about it makes sense to look at all the fields together, look at how they're scheduled.

Does that create any opportunities for current field space?

I don't think that is a lengthy study because most of that has been done by the individual staff, so it's more putting those together.

I've been involved in some discussions with the university.

Are there opportunities in their off-seasons to maybe take advantage of some of their fields?

So they're probably questions.

We'll just have to take your guidance and come back with a schedule of how quickly we could do things.

I would think by the end of the summer we could have had a community discussion, gotten all the staffs together, take some recommendations to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board to bring back to council in the fall.

So can we do this, I mean are we making a contingent, I mean I think the team say fine, we'll keep softball here and then never really get, and I certainly think that it would be nice to have something rolling in terms of looking at studies, you know if we look at

Well, I had no problem doing them concurrently.

That was the spirit of this proposal that I had made.

And I think the actual text amendment would, you know, there's sort of two processes that would happen.

Maybe include in your motion that they come back together so they happen concurrently.

That one doesn't lead the other or vice versa.

And I'll suggest you consider including in that a commitment from Almore County to participate just to kind of seal that too.

That will help the staff in terms of some emphasis on it too.

Particularly given people's economic situations.

It also, as we're studying the fields, I'd like to give some thought to why more of our city kids aren't participating.

in softball or some of the other field shorts that there's a way to increase our numbers is something that parking rack can look at the outreach.

Is there something that you did when you were coaching soccer that the children remain engaged the whole season?

I would be happy to entertain a motion in the effect of City Council directing staff to initiate a text amendment to the master plan for the western side of McIntire Park to the

For the purpose of preserving softball fields, continue upon a concurrent study of recreational field use with both of these efforts and that the master plan would not come back to city council for final approval until the study results and the text and then both come before the Parks and Rec advisory board simultaneously and they would then make an informed decision to city council on the best way to move forward.

Okay, I'll so move.

Any further discussion?

Please indicate your move.

That concludes our, actually I'm not sure if this is, I had sort of sent out an email about mosquito control, sort of been following up on an article in the paper and contact from

to us about issues such as do homeowners have recourse if their neighbors have standing water or dense overgrowth?

I mean, are there things that Virginia law allows that we don't take advantage of?

Are there things in our existing ordinances that residents don't know about?

Are there things that other states that people do that Virginia law may not allow that we would need to be enabled that would, because I think there are parts of town where the mosquitoes are,

The discussions that we've had so far I think will address the issues you've raised plus give you some sense for the things which I thought it would be helpful for you to see a few situations where we enforce things or what some of the issues are as to what we believe are breeding mosquitoes and then what we're legally able to do, what the health department's able to do and then some other possibilities that exist.

Yeah, thank you.

We'll now open it up to matters by the public.

Anyone from the public like to speak?

Good evening, Council.

My name is Peter Kleeman.

I live at 407 Head Street in the city.

I attended the rededication of the mall on

and there was some discussion about the project being 99.9% complete, etc.

and I have been a strong advocate over the last several years for the fountains on the mall.

It was my understanding that the fountains on the mall were part of the project that was the renovation of the mall including the bricking as well as bringing up to contemporary standards the pump and equipment and the viability of those

those fountains for the next 25, 30, whatever the time horizon is.

And I saw in the public press that the comment was made that the fountains should be working in the next week.

And I was right there today and I looked at them and I would be surprised if those fountains are working in the next week.

I haven't seen anybody working on them and in fact there is no base to the main fountain at Central

Central Place and others and I would just like to encourage council and those who are overseeing this project to not lose sight of the fact that the fountains are one of the main features in the minds of many including me about the wonderful nature of the downtown mall and we are getting into summer and I know I've had friends who've mentioned they've come with their

children or their relatives children and the first thing they do is they run to the fountain and they are just totally disappointed when they get there and it's a construction site and so the idea of being 99% complete is that real one tenth of one percent the amount of work that's going to be invested in bringing those fountains up to standard or are we going to actually have those fountains working in the very near future and hopefully for the next 20, 30, 50 years whatever it is and I hope that you'll give some attention to that.

Thank you, Mr. Kleeman.

Please do, yes.

We're in the midst of rebuilding all of the fountains, most of the electrical work that we've done, pump works have been done.

My understanding was there was a part order or two that we're still awaiting.

The big issue in terms of the central place fountain is we discovered as we were getting into it that the bricks that line that fountain, which nobody knew,

I remember when Central Place was burned and rather than working them all out very quickly we had to remove them brick by brick by brick.

If you've been by there you might have noticed the stacks of the brick.

which was to preserve them to then put them back and there's some kind of mechanical issue that they've got to work on too but they intend to get it done pretty quickly.

I don't know the exact date.

And I should just say there's still a lot of really small things that need to be done and the other major issue is to be a reminder, our goal was to get

the main part of the mall done as quickly as possible by May 1 and that was the commitment that we made.

We still have major work to do on several of the side streets.

Second Street's the most obvious one but there are three side street projects that will be happening and so there's still going to be major construction downtown but the main part of the mall we think is mostly finished.

You'll also notice in front of City Hall the concrete bands that were installed as part of the extension of the mall have deteriorated to the point that

We had savings in the budget that we're in that's right now replacing those with granite just like is in the rest of them all.

So that the granite, which we think is more durable, long lasting and also fits the architecture that's on the main part of the mall.

They're out there today cutting and doing work and that's what's going on with that as well.

So I'm not sure 99.9% is really perfectly accurate to be honest.

but we're going to see people working in the mall for a couple weeks in terms of finishing up a lot of smaller things.

Thank you Mr. Cohen.

My name is Chad Herrick.

I'm a property owner at 501 East Water Street.

I'm also owner of the Melting Pot Restaurant.

Good evening city council members.

First of all, stop me at any point if this is something that should have been brought up at the last meeting or it's going to be brought up at the next meeting because I'd be happy to come back.

This might be the 0.1% of the things that still need to be done.

I was told that the signage at the downtown mall for the side street

business owners was going to be changed.

Well, as you can see the sign we had up that this is what used to be code and everybody used to use was just taken down during a project.

Fortunately for us, my business partner Derek Bond happened to just be walking by the day it got taken down or else we would have never got it back.

So that was a good thing, but apparently we're not going to have the opportunity to put it back up.

I wanted to come tonight to, please forgive me because I thought somebody was going to be presenting tonight on this topic and I was just going to reply to it but I was hoping more so at this point then to get advice from the council on how we can address this issue because as you may know walking up and down the mall there's a lot of vacant spaces especially on the side streets and also on the market and water and

My thing is being here almost three years and as you know we have been talking about signage for a long time and I can't believe I'm back here talking about it again but it is a big form of letting people know where you are.

Advertising is very expensive.

Our business solely relies on the mouth for advertising at this point so that we can keep our doors open and do a good job of that.

So at this point, after three years, I would love to see somehow where the mall is going to keep incorporating the signage for the side street and Water Street and Market Street people so that

You know, we're considered, when we had our sign package done, we were considered part of the downtown law, and now we're being told that we're not being considered part of the downtown law.

So that's an interesting shift in, I guess, opinion.

I don't know if anywhere, if it's stated where, you know, water to market is the downtown law or not, but I know during the sign package that was definitely part of the issue.

and the preservation of that.

And again, as a business owner and as a property owner of the mall, I think the work that's been done is phenomenal.

Thank you very much.

Do you want to reply?

I know that Mr. Tolbert was going to be bringing together a meeting with some of the key stakeholders to talk about this further.

I just know there's a permanent scene package that's in the process of being designed and made.

There was a discussion about temporary scenes, but in terms of his business, I don't...

The one thing you're told, excuse me, is that there's going to be like a directory, kind of like if you're at the mall, like a big mall kind of thing, there'd just be directories.

But that's tough because, you know, people

And I think you need to make sure you participate with Mr. Tolbert.

Last week a bunch of business owners came with the same concern.

The problem is, having taken these signs down, apparently putting them back up is an issue with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as I understand it.

So anyway, I think we need to make sure you know, the plan is to make sure we address the needs of the side street business owners.

We actually want to work with you all to make it, make it happen.

We'll have Mr. Culver follow up.

Yeah, do I?

Well, thank you for your time.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Matt Martin, I'm at 405 Valley Road, extended.

Didn't actually come to speak tonight, but Councilman Brown, I mentioned the mosquito issue in it, reminding me as I walk around the neighborhood, as you go over the bridge, the old bridge near the old fried chicken and dirty Nellie's.

As I look down on the railroad,

towards railroad tracks below.

There's a large amount of standing water down there.

And I don't know if that's railroad property or what that is, but it has to be breeding a lot of mosquitoes.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good to know.

Anybody else?

The meeting is adjourned.