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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2011_tcmin0426COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Council Chambers, 25 West Market Street, 7:30 p.m. Mayor Umstattd presiding. Council Members Present: David Butler, Thomas Dunn, II, Katie Sheldon Hammler, Kenneth "Ken" Reid, Kevin Wright and Mayor Umstattd. Council Members Absent: Fernando "Marty" Martinez. Staff Present: Town Manager John Wells, Town Attorney Jeanette Irby, Deputy Town Manager Kaj Dentler, Director of Public Works Tom Mason, Library Director Alexandra Gressitt, Chief of Police Joseph Price, Master Police Officer Christopher Tidmore, Deputy Director of Planning and Zoning Brian Boucher, Zoning Administrator Christopher Murphy, Environmental Planner Irish Grandfield, Director of Finance Norm Butts, Land Acquisition Manager Keith Wilson, and Clerk of Council Lee Ann Green AGENDA 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. INVOCATION: Council Member Dunn 3. SALUTE TO THE FLAG: Mayor Umstattd 4. ROLL CALL: Showing Council Member Martinez absent. ITEMS 5. MINUTES a. Work Session Minutes of April 11, 2011 On a motion by Council Member Hammler, seconded by Council Member Butler, the minutes of the April 11 work session were approved as presented. b. Regular Session Minutes of April 12, 2011 On a motion by Council Member Hammler, seconded by Council Member Butler, the minutes of the April 12 regular session were approved as presented. 6. ADOPTING THE MEETING AGENDA On a motion by vice Mayor Wright, seconded by Council Member Butler, the meeting agenda was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Reid, Wright, and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 6 -0 -1 (Martinez absent) 7. PRESENTATIONS a. Certificates of Recognition Special Olympics On a motion by Council Member Hammler, seconded by Council Member Butler, Certificates of Recognition were presented to the following participants and coaches in the 2011 Special Olympics Basketball Championships 1 I Page COUNCIL MEETING Coaches William D. Brichoux Jeff Erikson Caitlin Marcotte Participants Phillip Coe Joe Downs Cassie Huston Jared Leary Bill Mahood b. Certificates of Appreciation Cyber Security Forum On a motion by Council Member Hammler, seconded by Council Member Butler, Certificates of Appreciation were presented to the following persons/ businesses for their support of the 2011 Cyber Security Forum held at Ida Lee Recreation Center on February 5, 2011: Leesburg Police and Explorers MPO Christopher Tidmore Cadet Sergeant Mark Trent Cadet Ian Hallman Best Buy /Geek Squad Susan Berard, General Manager Kenneth Spann, Jr. Michael Bower Ledo Pizza Emory Dean Technology and Communications Commission J. B. Anderson James Wynn Dan Dillon Audrey Wollett Rebecca Hultin Matt Davis Adam Bell Ashley Lyddane Steven Bagot Cadet Lieutenant Ezekiel Terryberry Cadet Robert Garcia Richard White, Jr. Andrew Kirkendall Saad Karimullah Aaron Wenzel Sandra Smallwood April 26, 2011 c. Tolbert Awards The Environmental Advisory Commission presented 2011 Tolbert Awards to Natalie Pien and the Smart's Mil Middle School Ecology Club d. Proclamation Preservation Week On a motion by Council Member Hammler, seconded by Council Member Butler, the folloing was proclaimed: PROCLAMATION 2 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING PRESERVATION WEEK April 24 -30, 2011 Pass It On: Saving Heritage and Memories April 26, 2011 WHEREAS, Across this country it is important to celebrate the role history has contributed to our lives, shaping each one of us, and connecting us with the diverse and unique heritage of our country's cities and states and instilling community pride; and WHEREAS, In 2005 the first comprehensive national survey of the condition and preservation needs of the nation's collections reported that U.S. institutions hold more than 4.8 billion items. Libraries alone hold 3 billion items (63 percent of the whole). WHEREAS, A treasure trove of uncounted additional items is held by individuals, families, and communities including moving images and sound recordings that capture performing arts, oral history, and other records of our creativity and history; and WHEREAS, Books, manuscripts, photographs, prints and drawings, maps, textiles, paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, furniture, historic landmarks, buildings, parks, and houses enhance quality of life, economic development, education, and tourism; and WHEREAS, Preserving these collection materials promotes democracy, protects and chronicles the past, communicates the present, and helps shape the future; and WHEREAS, Natural disasters of recent years have taught us that personal, family, and community collections are equally at risk and in jeopardy should a disaster strike; and WHEREAS, Preservation Week will begin to address preservation concerns of the valuable collections of individuals, families, and collectors by providing Web resources, success stories, and ideas for programs and projects, focusing on libraries, like Thomas Balch Library, as a place for preserving our rich heritage; and WHEREAS, Individuals at all levels of government and in the private sector must assume responsibility for providing the support that will allow these collections to survive; and NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved that the Mayor and Council of the Town of Leesburg in Virginia proclaim Preservation Week, April 24 -30, 2011 and encourage all residents of Leesburg, Virginia to visit Thomas Balch Library 3 1 f' a g e COUNCIL MEETING 8. PETITIONERS The petitioner's section was opened at 7:59 p.m. There were no speakers. The petitioner's section was closed at 8 p.m. b. Substitute Performance Guarantee for Valley View Subdivision April 26, 2011 this week to take advantage of preservation resources available at your library and to enjoy the success of past preservation efforts. e. Certificate of Appreciation Frank Holtz On a motion by Council Member Hammler, seconded by Council Member Butler, a Certificate of Appreciation was presented to Frank Holtz for his service on the Standing Residential Traffic Committee. 9. APPROVAL OF THE CONSENT AGENDA On a motion by Vice Mayor Wright, seconded by Council Member Reid, the following items were moved for approval as part of the Consent Agenda: a. Performance Guarantee and Water and Sewer Extension Permits for PMW Farms, Section 2 RESOLUTION 2011 046 Authorizing an Agreement and Approving a Performance Guarantee and Water and Sewer Extension Permits for PMW Farms, Section 2 RESOLUTION 2011 047 Approving a Substitute Performance Guarantee for Valley View Subdivision c. Easements for the Route 15 (South King Street) Widening Phase I Project RESOLUTION 2011 048 Declaring that a Public Necessity and Use Exists, and Authorizing an Offer to Acquire Permanent and Temporary Easements for the Route 15 (South King Street) Widening Phase I Project d. Initiating Changes to the Subdivision and Land Development Regulations and Design and Construction Standards Manual RESOLUTION 2011 049 Initiating Amendments to Various Articles and Sections of the Leesburg Subdivision and Land Development Regulations and Design and Construction Standards Manual to Make Changes Necessary to Comply with Annual State Legislative Changes, Address Development Application Types, Inactive Applications, and Sunset Provisions for 4 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Approved Site Plans and Provide Approval Authority for Capital Improvement Plans e. Supplemental Appropriation to the Parks and Recreation Department FY 2011 Budget for Private Tennis Lessions RESOLUTION 2011 -050 Amending the FY 2011 General Fund Operating Budget and Making a Supplemental Appropriation in the Amount of $100,000 to the Parks and Recreation Department for the Tennis Center f. Approval of Town Hall Art Gallery Exhibit by Amir Cizmic RESOLUTION 2011 -051 Town Hall Art Gallery Approval of the Next Art Exhibit by Amir Cizmic The Consent Agenda was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Reid, Wright, and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 6 -0 -1 (Martinez absent) 10. PUBLIC HEARINGS a. Amending Chapter 34 (Utilities), Article II (Water System), Division 2 (User and Service Charges) of the Leesburg Town Code The public hearing was called to order at 8:06 p.m. Norm Butts: This establishes the threshold beyond which a customer can be charged for the high use surcharge if they exceed the winter quarter by 35 then they will be charged at 45% of what happens in the winter quarter. Sometimes we have customers who commonly are referred to as snowbirds. They can be teachers on a sabbatical or employees sent on a temporary work assignment. They use very little water during the winter quarter therefore they are in jeopardy of hitting the high use surcharge very early in the succeeding quarters. What we have done in the past is administratively when a person is going to be absent from the town for an extended period of time during the winter quarter we work with them establishing what the town and customer think is a fair rate to use for the winter quarter and then go forward with the billing based on that. As I say, we have done this administratively. The Utility Rate Advisory Committee has suggested to you in it's recommendation that this administrative procedure be codified in the town code and that is what you have before you this evening. It would essentially put the public on notice that this administrative process is available and that we will work with the public and customers in doing that. The amendment has been publicly noticed and we will have a press release on that and put a notice in our billing to customers and put a notice on the website. I think everyone will know this procedure is available and it is in the town code and we will move forward essentially as we have in the past. 51 age COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Dunn: what would the amount be? Or what would it be based on? Norm: we have a number of situations that we will look at. We will look to try to come up with an agreeable winter quarter usage figure. We will go back and look at past winter quarters if they are available and take an average of those winter quarters. If it's a situation where a customer has been out of town for an extended period during the winter quarter but has been here the preceding winter quarters we will look at that historical data to come up with a usage figure and generally go forward with that. If that doesn't exist, we will perhaps take the usage of the winter quarter in question, prorate it and try to come up with a average as if they had been there the whole winter quarter and that's agreeable go forward with that. If they've been absent for the whole winter quarter and have no history we will go to some professional publications such as the American water Works Association and we will take a commonly recognized figure, generally it's 9000 gallons per person in the household. For a two person household it would be 18,000 gallons. We would use one of those several means in trying to work with the customer to develop a winter quarter figure. Dunn: could we consider a winter quarter that would be based on a minimal amount that is an average of the town? Our minimum usage in the town and set it at that amount? Here's what I'm getting at, when John asked who sets the rates that it is council, in this case council is referring that to you. And it sounds like there could be a lot of flexibility in what that amount would be on a customer by customer basis. That could cause issues with various customers, one customer being charged more than the next. Is there the possibility of making it just a flat minimal amount? What would you recommend it to be? Butts: we have very few of these the year. To date has not been an issue. What we would like to do is work with the customer and have a happy customer going forward. If you set a threshold, you could take the average, say the average is 18,000. If you set that and you're dealing with a one person household and their historical average is 9000 gallons, then you set a higher average that is necessary. I wouldn't see where that is something that the customer would take issue with. If the policy decision and you would certainly make it easier for us administratively. As I say it hasn't been a big problem. We enjoy working with customers on this issue and we have had success. We haven't had any unhappy customers. Dunn: what I would be partial to is people knowing up front I'm going to be gone in six days and this is the flat amount. That's what I'm asking you. I think you wanted decision tonight. If if we were to come up with something tonight, a flat rate what would you want that to be? As a minimal amount? 4000? Butts: I'm not sure I'd be in favor of that. The process has worked well. As I've said we don't have that many customers to deal with. With a flat rate, some 6I I g COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 people are going to be happy with that and some are not. I really don't know how to respond to that off the top of my head. Mayor: Let me ask Jeanette what we advertised in relation to what we can do tonight. Irby: what we advertised is the initiative to work with the customer. If you want to set a flat rate we would need to re- advertise it. Dunn: would the finance worker still be working with the customer? Irby: we would need to find out what that rate is and advertising appropriately. Dunn: I guess what my issue is is it's taking away council directed determination and giving that portion over to the finance department. I like the initiative that were going to be doing this but I'm just a little bit uneasy about the staff setting the rate. Thank you. Reid: tell me Norm, how many people are snowbirds? What is the actual number? Butts: I think they statistically look at who they felt was not present for one or another reason during the winter quarter and determined it was about 150- 200 customers. We haven't had near that many requests from our customers but there could be that many customers out there that would call us and want to take advantage of it particularly if we advertised it more broadly. fund? Reid: what would the fund lose? What is the impact in terms of the utility Butts: I think it's minimal. Reid: even with 150 people asking for a discount? Butts: it's impossible to determine what the impact will be because we don't know what the actual winter quarter would be. We know what they have used during the winter quarter, but we don't know what the winter quarter issue will be with normal activity other than the fact of what the historical record shows us. Reid: and other communities do the same thing, give it to the finance department as opposed to the Council? Are you going to advertise it in the bill that this is available to these people? I would like to have a follow -up on this sometime in March. Would that be too soon? I think it would be good to get an idea of what the usage is. I don't have a problem of it being on a case -by -case basis that's why I am prepared to support it. I think the larger issue is what we 7 I Page COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 were discussing last night in terms of essentially charging people for this one to one ratio, charging people the same for sewer as water. It's not fair to the thousands of people in this town whether they use sprinklers or not. Wright: Norm just one thing, to clarify as the conversation has been going on, we have been talking about setting a rate but what were talking about right now is not so much setting a rate but addressing the impact of establishing a winter quarter. Hopefully you will agree or correct me because I'm wrong, within our billing system, the winter quarter is the basis of what will trip the high use surcharge. So if my winter quarter usage is 0 to 1000 gallons, and I used 2 to 7000 gallons which is what a small household might use I've trip the high use surcharge as soon as I've walked into the house. The way it had been described to me several years ago there is some kind of basis of where we think it should be and he gets calculated and we've agreed that it's 12,000 gallons and that gets plugged in to their winter quarter. So they may still trip the high use, but it did we based on actual high use not the fact of their absence. The only other question I had, the language basically says we will have a process and at least the discretion of how the process will be, but it doesn't necessarily highlight... I don't think it necessarily needs to appear in the code, but is there some sort of written or documented policy? If we go from five people calling to 150 people calling asking for their winter quarter to be calculated, you're probably going to want some sort of documented policy or procedure for how that will be documented. Norm: yes we do we have a draft administrative regulation that under the town code the town manager is given the authority to issue administrative rules and regulations in this particular area. Essentially what we have done is taken our ad hoc procedure and put it in writing and have asked the town manager to be promulgated as an administrator for. And will also have a form to be filled out and on record. Wright: as long as you have a cover sheet it should be fine. I assume that something that once that policy is finalize it could be circulated and posted for those who want to take advantage of it. Hammler: thanks for your report Norm. I think one of the key things you mentioned is the emphasis on customer service. I think that as a council it's important to empower the front line folks to look out for the customer. In keeping with the spirit of what Kevin was saying I think it's important to document the guidelines and the purpose and goal by which we're doing this. To what extent we may need an appeals process for someone who does not agree with the administrative rules think like that, but otherwise I think it straightforward for tonight. Butler: I think everybody's pretty much said everything that needs to be said. I agree with some added discretion for town staff in applying that. Because we can't treat everybody equally, what we need to do is treat everybody fairly. I think staff has done a very good job of that in the past. But as councilmember 8 0 agc COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Hammler mentioned if we suddenly get a rash of these, we may need to put a little more structure into it. I'm hopeful that we can deal with that when it happens. Thanks I think this closes a hole in our current structure. I'm glad that were doing this. Mayor: I would just like to say Norm, John, and Jeanette, I appreciate your moving so quickly on this. It seemed to be perhaps the one thing that seemed least fair to me about their rate structure. I know you guys have been doing a good job without any authorization from council and taking care of things on a case -by -case basis. I'm very happy to support this tonight. There were no members of the public wishing to speak on this subject. The public hearing was closed at 8:24 p.m. On a motion by Vice Mayor Wright, seconded by Councilmember Butler, the following was proposed: ORDINANCE 2011 -0 -009 Amending Town Code Chapter 34 (Utilities), Article II (Water System), Division 2 (User and Service Charges), to Add Section 34 -63.1 (Estimates of Water Consumption when Customer is Absent Dunn: as I said I'm going to support this. I just wish we had more structure. Especially in regards to our utility rates, as we had a lively discussion last night. And it seems like every time we have a discussion on the subject it gets lively. Too often we have rushed into things and let those loose ends dangling. Those loose ends are what is killing us. Again I wish this was more structured so that we could tell people it's a minimal amount and it would be a better benefit. I'm going to support it. Reid: I just wanted to say that I appreciate my colleague's concerns. Again, our sewer and water rates are not fair. They're just not. It is not fair to charge somebody when they're out of town for quarter. They should have every right in the world to request some sort of discount. The finance director can do that then so be it. Folks are going to be told about this and the media is going to report on it, which is a good thing. We have had several requests. I think that's the thing we have to be searching for an Leesburg and we have to impress upon the Board of Supervisors and our delegation, which is going to change with redistricting, that were trying our best to come up with a fair system for everybody. Right now, I'm very concerned that the system is not fair and this is just one way of adding fairness. It would be nice to be able to say that we're doing a flat rate, but here's an area where we can at least do things case -by -case. So it's a good start. 9 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Hammler: glad I had a brisk run earlier otherwise I might not be calm responding to that statement. I wholeheartedly disagree regarding this council not working steadfastly to be set the rates. Butler: yeah I just have to add that there is in the eyes of the holder. If you're a user that uses a sprinkler system you definitely are most likely to have the impression that rates are unfair. If you're a household with a number of young children and are barely making ends meet, I'm sure you think this current system is a lot more fair than giving the sprinkler users a big break so you can pay more. I'm sure we will all discuss what is the broadest and most fair rate structure we can put in place and I think that clearly council has some concerns overall in that regard. We will try our best. The URAC has made it clear its a zero sum game. The motion was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Reid, Wright, and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 6 -0 -1 (Martinez absent) b. Amending Articles 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 18 of the Leesburg Zoning Ordinance (2010 Batch Amendments) The public hearing was opened at 8:28 p.m. Chris Murphy: the batch amendment process is the annual review of the zoning ordinance to correct those glitches or areas that we find in the everyday use of the ordinance. And also to make changes that clarify the language...make regulations easier to understand thereby making regulations easier to understand, codify state regulations, and changes that are directed by town Council. Again these are changes that are short of the major ordinance amendments such as the sign ordinance or form -based code. These are simple things that we want to bring to you on a yearly basis. This one is a little delayed as it is the 2010 batch. The slides are organized in categories, for instance this one is for ease -of -use. They just may be out of sequence, but are arranged by category and the best way to describe what they do. Mr. Murphy summarized the proposed changes. Dunn: I noticed there were a number of places where it said the planning commission did not recommend any changes to the existing ordinance. them. Murphy: they didn't recommend any changes to what I had provided Dunn: I was just wondering why they were opposing so many of the changes. That's reassuring. 10 1 COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Reid: thank you very much Chris. The mayor told me you're not going forward with that home business inspection requirement. Murphy: we are not, no. Reid: I want to thank the planning commission for not doing anything with that. Just a couple of questions. In terms of the traffic impact analysis, all you're doing is basically separating one from another? Murphy: they always have been, it's just right now when you go into the list of required submission items, it's embedded in the statement of justification. We want to make sure it's clearly listed as a separate item to emphasize the importance of that document. It also adds an additional language. What you're doing is submitting your traffic impact analysis as a separate document. It's always been that way, nothing new, but your statement of justification summarizes your traffic impact analysis. Reid: one of the things I noticed, usually when you do these batches, you have a little memo as to why you're doing it and so forth. I did not see that here. I did not see a justification document. I see the regulations and so forth. What is the purpose of this, do you have some issues with applicants? Because you're changing a lot of the language here. Murphy: actually, on page 3, the paragraph that's in italics at the beginning... Reid: it just says that remedies the situation. Are you getting a lot of applicants who have complained? Murphy: no, it's just a clarification. So it's clear this is a traffic impact analysis. So you don't miss it in your list of submission items and you're all set to summarize it and make that part of your statement of justification. Reid: getting to the monopoles, you use the word guy wire. It is guy, not guide wire? Murphy: It is guy wire. Reid: With the six foot fencing, we're not going to have any issues with FCC requirements? So the purpose of this is just to keep people out, is it to add one more hurdle for the cell phone companies to come in here? Because we've had complaints about monopoles? Murphy: It's clear with groundmounted facilities, they want to fence the facilities for limited access purposes. This is what we're doing now. 11 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Reid: so you're also saying with other camouflage techniques, stiffening the requirements. Murphy: we've always had that but by clarifying the language I wanted to make sure that instead of just saying camouflage techniques and someone interpreting that as a 200 foot tall pine tree, there are probably other methods of design they could make it look suitable to the environment that it's in. Again you have parts of town that are more rural and parts that are more urban. In more urban settings, the camouflage or design may be different than in rural situations. Reid: so you want to have that flexibility where the location is? Good idea. Outdoor lighting, that's similar to the County's ordinance? Murphy: I didn't actually write this portion of it. But I do believe what this is is an amalgam of a number of other jurisdiction's lighting regulations. What staff did is went through and analyzed other zoning regulations from jurisdictions in northern Virginia to find out what they're doing. Reid: but this would prohibit Christmas tree lighting? Murphy: no not at all. This is for site lighting for developments. This is your building lighting. This is if you want to put a spotlight on the flag or statue to make sure you can do it, but we want to make sure if someone does that we can ask them to shield it or redirected in a way based on regulations. It gives us more ability get them what they need but not create a problem on adjacent properties. Reid: that's good in residential areas. I don't have a problem with it but I just discovered the other day in Lansdowne there's some office properties that are having difficulties with the County's ordinance because they are trying to improve the lighting for the parking areas. I'm not talking about Lansdowne where there's residences but Deerfield Avenue where there's no residences at all. This is not some dark skies initiative. It's basically to give you stability if someone comes in with a commercial property, like a pharmacy, which I will be getting to later, and it's right next residential development.. Murphy: it's more clear to them and to us. Reid: in terms of the eating establishments without the drive in, you're only doing this for the airport, right? Murphy: we are adding it to the airport. Reid: we are not doing this for the I -1 district. Do you still need a special exception for the standalone restaurant? I think that was the sticking point when I remembered the tables for the Cardinal Park area. 12 I Page COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Brian Boucher: you can have it in the building if it's in the I -1 district, 25% of the building there. Standalone ones I don't believe we allow in the I -1 district. It's more for business type use. Reid: the thing is they have no place eat. They have to get in their cars and drive somewhere. So from the stand point of live, work, play, it puts more cars on the road. I'm surprised with all the businesses that we have back there, and specifically concerned with Cardinal Park as that's our major industrial Park at this point. Miller Drive is the same way. You have that eatery there but you have very few amenities. Is that the way it is with other districts like the county's PD -IP? Murphy: no you mentioned the P districts, you're coming in as part of a rezoning in order to get the P district. As part of that, you show the uses that you want and whether they will be integral to the building. Whether the buildings are standalone... it's never been done purely as an office district. The fact of the matter is that anyone in that district can add a restaurant by right as long as it's in the building. there. Reid: but that's warehouses and flexspace. You can't do a restaurant Murphy: I guess if it's a building that was established as a particular use and then change to another one, that's still 25% of the buildings in that district. Boucher: a standalone, we don't have that in the district yet. What we are doing is looking at the town's land, and and were not sure whether the regional office designation quite does the job. I think that's one of the things we're going to be talking about. And I suspect it's going to lead to a change of some of the land the zoning districts occupy. Reid: the pharmacy...nonresidential districts, was this triggered by Walgreens? Murphy: no it's not. The only reason why it's there is we notice that we had two separate definitions of pharmacy. Your typical Rite -Aid or Walgreens, and the other one was something that was a vestige of the past where you get your pharmaceutical drugs or medical devices, and that's it. So we wanted to get rid of the one you don't see anymore and consolidate them into one. Reid: the one thing I really had a problem with, even though I live on a pipe stem, I'm sure you're grandfathering me. Murphy: yes. Reid: the other thing is that the BAR and /or staff reviewing sidewalks in the historic district. Do we still have that in the regs that public works projects 13 1 Pane COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 have to go to the BAR if they are in the H1? I have a real problem with that, I really do. The brick sidewalk why would that have to be done? It is for a private property owner? Is this part of the proposed downtown improvements? They have to go to the BAR for that? Murphy: yes. Reid: well I don't know how the rest of my colleagues feel about that, but I really think that's an unnecessary hurdle. It does say and /or by staff so we don't have to do it. Murphy: that's to determine whether you can have a 4 foot sidewalk versus and 5 foot. It is some ability for me as the zoning administrator to determine whether you can have a 4 foot. Reid: that's good, I've always supported 4 foot sidewalks. Murphy: one of the things that has to be demonstrated to me is whether you can meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Reid: you have driveways every so often. Murphy: right, you have stoops and whatnot and in some cases I won't have the ability to give you 4 foot. brick. Murphy: that has nothing to do with it. What this does is clarify it and make clear between the regulations that we have in place, which applies where. One is for a 4 foot sidewalk that internal for pedestrian circulation versus the sidewalks that we require along the street. That's all it does. BAR. Reid: we already have an ordinance that says all sidewalks have to be Reid: I'm comfortable with staff reviewing it rather than bringing it to the Murphy: all it does Sir, is when someone goes to the ordinance and it says four foot on one page but 5 foot on the other, which one is it. All it does is make sure that the person who is reading it understands. Wright: a couple questions, on the airport restaurant what was the logic behind having the percentage restriction, I think it was 25 Murphy: it's 25 %....is taking a cue from what we do in the I -1. It's a district that is very similar to the I -1 relative to the adding it to the hangar spaces and office spaces out there. It's just using something we have in place right now. 141 Page COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Wright: do you have any feel, I know that the airport commission continues to have great hope that hangar space may get built that would have a level above it that would be dedicated to restaurant. Any more becomes a portion of the building. Some of what I've heard described are envisioned would be more than 25 Do you have a feel for, if you think of the Pro -Jet hangar with 25 of that would be? Murphy: I don't have the hard numbers we're anticipating for those. It's just that the discussions that we had at the time, the 25% number was a comfortable number for the people we were talking to. As I have said, we were just borrowing it from the I -1. If something different comes in, then we can either do a text amendment to that percentage or later on, as Brian mentioned, if we are doing an update to the town plan as part of that discussion. If we want to examine something different we can. Wright: I think what you're really doing is answering the question. I think you had conversations with the airport staff and the commission and they were comfortable with that, right? Murphy: yes. Wright: I know you defined it, but what fundamentally makes a brew pub, like Vintage 50? What makes him different from a restaurant, and therefore require greater regulation? Murphy: it's the brewing process. Your bringing in hops, barley, wheat and other materials for the process. It's the storage of this materials and the disposal of the byproduct of the brewing process. They take the hops, and barley and boil it down as part of the brewing process to create a mash. It has a solid byproduct. How do you dispose of it? The use regulations that we are suggesting be added to the district describes how to handle these storage and disposal issues. Wright: on the pad site discussion, if you can help me envision 300 feet from the primary building, and what I'm thinking of, is if we think of the Target or Kohl's center, there are several pad sites that are out there. Would those pads be in conformance or not with the code change you are making? Murphy: more than likely they would be out of conformance. What the town plan was trying to achieve with that guidance, is instead of having sprawling shopping centers where you have pad sites and a quarter mile of parking in between is trying to make a more walkable shopping center where one could park in one location and customers would be more apt to walk to the pad site versus get in a car and drive back and forth. Boucher: if you look at the shopping centers around town, there are some where pad sites could be more than 300 feet from major buildings. For example, the Target and Kohl's, actually have a grandfathered special exception. They can 15 I P ag e COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 be out there, they can build pad sites in the near future legally. Fort Evans Plaza is another one where you can be more than 300 feet, but again a grandfathered special exception allows them. Other areas where you don't necessarily have a special exception had already approved, they almost all come within 300 feet. Wright: I was trying to picture at Fort Evans Plaza, obviously there is the one big huge mile -long primary building, but then you also have the office buildings and pads that are around those and you have the pads that are scattered around the overall site. Would the office buildings considered pads as a child to the big shopping center, or if you think of Middleburg Bank or for lack of a better word, the strip pad near the three office buildings, is that a child of the office buildings or are all of them a child of the bigger building? Murphy: I think all of them are a child of the main center. We would consider the banks and the restaurants that are out there as patents so, in the future something that comes in we would apply that and try to get... Looking at that same center you have the office buildings that are surrounded by the banks on the corner by the office building trying to consolidate that and make it smaller, more walkable. That's what we're trying to achieve with this. Wright: okay, so nothing would impact the existing pads that have already been... This would be more platted site plan. Like the shopping center where Kohl's is and the pads have already been sold... they're not going to get dinged because someone's going to say they can't use these pad sites. Murphy: it would not be retroactive. Hammler: Chris and Brian, thank you so much for all the hard work and the report. Just a couple of questions because Kevin already highlighted some of the things I had flagged. Some of the things struck me as point zoning or reactionary. What are we trying to accomplish, John, from economic development stand point? For instance, the idea of a restaurant at the airport arbitrarily coming up with say a 25% when in fact, perhaps, we should be encouraging much more diverse uses given that the terminal is a significant overhead and cost to taxpayers, as an example. I don't want to get into details tonight, but I think how we approach these changes is important. Obviously, Brian and Chris and staff approach it with the zoning hat on but I think we, as council, from a policy perspective need to be wearing the pro active hat. Same sort of thing when I was looking at the brewpub, it seems like a point correction. Is that more of a marketing definition or a use? I understand you're calling it a manufacturing process but I'm glad we have allowed it, because to the extent we can encourage different types of restaurants and have a diversity of restaurant uses, that's a major council goal given the meals tax benefit. I was curious why you specifically stipulated when a use is added to bed and breakfast, like for instance why did you need to stipulate business meetings? What's special about weddings that really triggered this need to add the language? 16 I P age COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Murphy: what we thought was, again, it would add a more diverse use for the commercial district, the bed and breakfast, in addition to lodging they would be able to offer weddings. It seems more akin to the bed and breakfast use to be able to allow the people who are staying there the ability to rent the facility for their wedding, they there versus the office or business meeting that's more akin to the Birkby house, you can rent it out for a wedding. It would not be appropriate to have the business meeting at the bed and breakfast. A bed and breakfast typically smaller and more geared towards lodging more than it is for.. The Birkby house has rooms for.. Hammler: honestly, I think that's totally irrelevant. What we're trying to achieve from a tourism perspective, were trying to achieve all sorts of businesses and business travelers. So to that extent that it seems rather narrow and limiting. I think what you're talking about is the broader conference meeting capability. For example, think of the bed and breakfast outside Middleburg, Goodstone, all their marketing is really targeting those with an expense account and a lot of money to spend and bringing it to the local economy. That's my point on that verbiage. You put this under that title of creating better standards and I just didn't understand quite where you felt what is now better about a 4 foot internal width for sidewalks. Why is it now better? Murphy: I'm not making any change to the regulation itself, I'm only making it clear what applies where. So the 4 foot standard is already in the regulations for internal use, for circulation internally. We established the internal circulation systems because we wanted developments to be walkable. We wanted pedestrian walkways. The reason why it's 4 feet instead of five, we are trying to consolidate and make smaller footprint for developments. Were trying to limit impervious surfaces on properties. That's the reason why four there. The reason why five on the street is we want to be able to have passable walkways along our streets. That's the reason why we have five feet versus four. The only thing that this patch does is make it clear what standard applies where. Hammler: okay, I guess what I'm trying to say is as long as we have consistent documentation of what we're trying to achieve is promoting pedestrian access and the zoning ordinance aligns with that. With the brewpub and listing all the materials and storage, you have listed, for example, fried foods and listed how the cooking staff needs to dispose of the grease. Is that listed in detail? Murphy: no, but our utilities department has their standards. They require grease traps and whatnot for that. Hammler: I just wanted to know how detailed you have to get for how people are running their business. Murphy: brewpubs can produce a lot of beer under this regulation and what qualifies as a brewpub. Whenever you brew beer you bring in a lot of 17 1 `r' a COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 ingredients, hops, barley and whatever you use to make your product. You need a place to store that. We want to make sure were not creating a problem. Hammler: Chris, honestly you don't need to get into details with me. Is it a manufacturing process, because that's the basic tenants of your manufacturing something. It just seems so very detailed on one sort of restaurant use, it seem more like a point issue instead of a broader zoning guideline. Boucher• this was originally a zoning call way back when when we had the first brewpub. We looked around and in a lot of places at that time made them go through a special exception because they were afraid of the manufacturing process, the smell, how do you store stuff? My call was to make them go through a special exception so you can protect things. We have found out more about how this is, and is now, the things you can do, to basically take care of the smell today. What we're trying to do is make this a by right use with the one manufacturing thing as a side use to this. They can also become very large businesses and become more manufacturing than sales but a brewpub is a smaller entity. What you're really going to be doing is a restaurant and selling stuff and manufacturing. The funny thing about zoning is you learn a lot as you go through it. We are probably taking baby steps from your standpoint but we are moving in that direction. Butler: I guess you might fall into that same category as you had a restaurant that specialized in chickens and live chickens came in the back door and chicken patties came out the front. You might end up having the same kinds of concerns as you have with a brewpub. Fortunately that's a rare thing. It all looks fine to me but I did want to clarify one thing about a brewpub. Brewpub silos are by right. My confusion is are silos internal or external to the building? Murphy: internal. Butler: because it also says that all the brewing ingredients must be stored indoors but that's only if you wanted by right. If you have to store ingredients outdoors it's a special exception. I think that's very reasonable. Mayor: Ken had asked about being grandfathered since he's on on a pipe stem lot and you guys know I am as well. On a pipe stem or an irregular lot it mentions grandfathering anything after April 26, 2011, that these rules will apply. But when you go down to item number 12 section 18.1.2.4 defining front yard which also deals with pipe stem lot's in the second paragraph there is no grandfathering. I don't know if I'm being concerned over nothing but the way I read this what this does is redefines my neighbors side yard as her front yard because when you say that the front yard is the one that is parallel to the main street when you're on a pipe stem that is what you think of as your side yard about 50% of the time. The reason I'm concerned about this is at various times we have allowed or disallowed certain structures or utilities to be in front yards or backyards and I'm afraid were going to pass this tonight and nobody is really 18 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 going to connect the other regulations that we have about what you can do in her front yard our side yard, etc. I don't know if it's our responsibility to worry about covenants and homeowners associations and how they're enforced. But to the extent that how these covenants were initially drafted to comply with the town's interpretation of what is her front yard or side yard, we are now putting people in a potential Catch -22. I went over this before, at the planning commission, and I think obviously I was not making myself clear. Here is a sketch of what my pipe stem looks like. Some people side yards are being converted into front yards. Now, if we didn't have any special regulations concerning what they could do in a front yard or a side yard, that might be okay if we treated all yards the same for the purposes of where the utilities are allowed to be placed, where the big ugly green boxes can be, or where fences can go. If didn't matter under the town code, if there were no distinctions elsewhere in our zoning ordinance, I would say it doesn't matter but unfortunately we have built into our zoning ordinance distinctions between fronttyards and side yards and this is kind of turning all of that on its head. So for example, if we allow utilities to be placed in peoples front yards, but not their side yards we've just converted a side yard into a front yard. I'm really nervous about this and especially because there's no grandfathering date in this particular paragraph. So all of my neighbors are going to have their side yards become their front yards. They never would've imagined that... they don't think of their yards that way. They think okay my front yard is the yard that's right in front of my front door and that's what most people tend to think. We are now telling them no, no that's where your side yard is and your front yard is the one parallel to Fox Ridge Drive or Deerpath Avenue or in Ken's case, Talmadge Court. We are really messing around with how we are allowing people to define their properties if they're on an existing pipe stem lot. That's why I would be a lot more comfortable if we had limiting language in this paragraph. Without the defining date of April 26, 2011, this paragraph appears to be retroactive. Murphy: Mdm. Mayor, with all due respect, what were trying to achieve with this one is really just codify what has been the practice of the zoning administrator in making determinations for lots that already existed. Let me ask you this, on your property, does it have a recorded building restriction line? If it does, that's going to indicate what your front yard is and what your side yard is based on that. If you have recorded building restriction lines, they typically establish what the front yard is. This will not impact that. The only thing it is meant to do is assist us in the case of a lot that has been around since the 1950s and because of this that or the other it doesn't have frontage on a road. One lot that I am thinking of in particular is a remnant piece of ground that was left out there near Lawson Road. It does not connect to Lawson Road because it used to connect with Route 15 on the other side of the bypass. When the bypass came through, it cut that road off. Now you had this remnant piece of property forever that has no frontage. What is the frontage, you have the bypass, you have Lawson Road? What this does, is it makes it clear to the person that owns the property that the line that is closest to and that is parallel to the road they get access from, in other words Lawson Road, is their front. In the case of your 19 1 E'ag COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 property, your subdivision, those lots have established yards. Those are set. As long as no one comes in and tries to redevelop the lots, to turn the lots around, it won't affect those. We are more than happy to put in a "from this day forward but I think that will impact me if it comes to a lot that is been platted since the 1920s. Mayor: as the vice mayor just suggested, can you put in language about undeveloped lots? I know you think it doesn't apply, and you are not trying to impact Fox Ridge or Talmadge Court, but the way this is drafted it could be easily applied to that. Because you are saying your front yard is now the yard that is parallel to the street. Butler: Mdm. Mayor, the way that I read it, since you're getting access through the pipestem then it would be the side of your yard that is most parallel to the pipestem. The way pipe stem regulations are written, you would measure from the end of the pipe stem in. So the pipestem comes in and you got your front yard set back from where the pipes comes in. Unless, of course, in the case of your development the building restriction line was placed elsewhere. We would base everything on where that building restriction line is placed. But if it says that it's your front yard and it has been recorded that way, we have established your front yard is this way. There is a lot of interpretation in this, but what it is meant to do is to help guide with the interpretation. What we don't want is set in stone the front yard, the side yard, we don't want to do that. The last thing we want to do is try to turn people's properties around and make everyone nonconforming. Wright: the one question I had is will this apply to only undeveloped lots or are there lots that are developed that still need a definition? If I had a house on it, is there the opportunity that you are going to have to define front yard? Murphy: no you have already established where your front and side yards are. In the case of the example that I gave you, it's a lot that has been out there since who knows when. But it was affected by the development of the bypass. Its original frontage is no longer there. It's going to get access from another street so you had to determine where the front is. This gives guidance in those cases. Wright: this language is intended to address undeveloped lots that are coming in for site plan. Murphy: this codifies what has been the consistent call of the zoning administrator since before Brian was the zoning administrator. Wright: is there language elsewhere, if you put this section in context, that makes this require a new site plan if we get the grandfathering language in there based on the section it is in, would that satisfy the Mayor's concern? I can think of several pipe stems that are just shy of developed roads and they would getting messed with as a result of this regulation. 20 1 P age COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Boucher: I understand the concern and I think that there is a way to get around this. Hopefully satisfy it. When it comes to pipe stems when you get your zoning permit we designate what's the front and what's the side, and rear. It is grandfathered. Here what we are trying to do is get some consistency. Your house does not have to face the front yard. In a lot of places in Leesburg they don't. I will give you one example, Dodona Manor. It faces the side yard. That can happen where we have the actual definition of yard, front, they could say created after April 26, 2011, that might do it. point. Mayor: yes that would satisfy me. Boucher: It's in one place and not the other and it could cause a lot of confusion before somebody figures out they are supposed to read it this way. I think it was an oversight on our part when we were doing this. Mayor: That would satisfy me. Dunn: there was an issue that came up about a year or so ago with the BAR in determining issues that could be viewed from the street. When you're dealing with a grid network like downtown, that didn't mean it was the main street. Items could be seen from different streets. If you recall that, maybe there is some language in that determination that you could use. Reid: with regards to the bed and breakfast, Katie made a very good Hammier: I was going to propose a friendly amendment on the language. Reid: oh that's great, because I was very surprised to see that renting for business meetings is not allowed, because it's done. I'm sure that's what your friendly amendment will be dealing with. I will be looking to support something in that regard. Dunn: going to the 25% restaurant issue, I know that we've had that before. To me it would seem like generally we want restaurant uses. It's probably one of our bigger uses in town, why would we want to limit that to 25 If that's the known use and we're willing to take that almost anywhere, why not say hey if somebody wants to... For example you have a large industrial building, and they want to create a use such as a sci -fi cinema, and bring in fake automobiles and have a cinema like at Disney, why wouldn't we be willing to accept that at 100 Boucher: we did want industrial uses in the industrial districts. The thought was in the past if you allow regular restaurants to locate there, you won't get the offices, you'll get another commercial district. That was the theory why freestanding restaurants were not allowed. What you do is say if you do office buildings, we will allow you to have a restaurant there it just has to be inside one 211 e COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 of the building, so that people can use the restaurant but the industrial area will not turn into restaurant pad sites. That was the thinking in the past, and what were hearing from council is some of these things may need to be reconsidered and changed. I keep thinking regional office in the town plan that covers industrial. Dunn: I think that the idea is we want to have industrial in this area but we don't necessarily care if other business uses are elsewhere. In other words let's keep industrial uses here, but if other uses want to come in we are going to allow that. It's almost like industrial was a limiting factor and we don't want to limit other uses. Boucher: what we have done in the past is we have added a lot of uses to industrial district to utilize the buildings, we haven't done a lot to go outside of the uses. If you have an existing building there are certain uses that we allow but if you go to a new building, we won't let you build a recreational facility in the I -1 district. That was to try to get those buildings utilized. What I am getting from the Council is you guys are looking to be more generous in the uses in some of these districts even if that means is something that we have not already done but I can see where the Council's thoughts are going it would be a lot more broad. Dunn: if a furniture store wants to come in, or a larger restaurant, or a Dave and Buster's wants to come to town, they are going to use 50% of the building. You tell me how long it's going to take them to go through the process to get that changed. Boucher: on specific things we can do it easily in three months, sometimes we've done it shorter than that. Dunn: clock is ticking, money is going out the window. Butler: just for the record I would not agree, so don't paint all of council with the same brush. Dunn: that's fine. The other thing is going back to the wedding uses, that to me.. Why not just limit the usage... To me a wedding is going to generally be larger than a business meeting unless it's a very small wedding, or a very large business meeting. But the deciding factor is the venue, they can only hold so many people. So why limit the use, the venue is going to limit the use. Why do we care whether it's a business meeting or a wedding are some other dinner? Boucher: I think, as Chris had said, we were looking to do something a little proactive here. One of the things people were looking to do here was weddings. I think you all have taken a little more expansive view, which is your right. On some of these, why not a business meeting? In commercial districts, I don't think we have a strong objection. If you look at it, we are talking in commercial districts anyway, so the fact that someone might have a business 22 Page COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 meeting in a building, we would all agree that's not very shocking. We're taking baby steps. Dunn: maybe we need to take a bigger steps. Going back to the brewpub, which Chris has an unreasonably large wealth of knowledge on the brewing process. Going back to that, what Dave brought up, what constitutes something indoors? Generally it means it needs to be surrounded by walls and a roof, correct? Murphy: inside the building is indoors. Dunn: my point is this, there is nothing in this that would say a silo is considered to be outdoors. In other words, you're saying you have to store materials indoors, but a silo is indoors. It has a roof and walls. It's a building. In other words, you're trying to keep materials from being stored outside in the open air. Murphy: what were trying to do is make sure that is stored inside the building where the brewpub is. Dunn: it doesn't really say this though. Someone could, if you're saying it has to be stored inside where the dinners are being served, if there's a silo and being stored indoors. It's not out in the open. Boucher: the way the ordinances written a silo is a specific structure in the brewing world. So that's why it's called out specifically. It's not like a farm silo, if a specific structure, so if we call that out we are excepting that structure. That type of indoor storage needs a special exception. Reid: on the issue of the eateries, can you at least get a special exception over 25% in the I -1 district? Murphy: no. Reid: that might be the way out of this, is to basically allow 25% by right and if you go up to 50% or something you will need a special exception. Can we add that here on the dais? Murphy: the only caution I would say in the I -1 is the town plan. You, as the town council, have the authority to do as you see fit. Reid: Then I will propose an amendment at the appropriate time for a special expection for over 25 Butler: I have objections to all those items that we just proposed and I want to let you know why. First, with the wedding, I think the big difference between weddings and office meetings are weddings are done on the weekends. 23 1 P a g e COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Office meetings, if you're going to turn a bed and breakfast into an office building, where their office meetings, I might suggest that we need traffic studies because it will be adding traffic to the existing. If staff does not think that is meaningful, then that's fine. But the times of the week and the times of the day that these things are operating makes a big difference. If you're in an office park and you have a bed and breakfast, the weddings are on the weekend. The 25% with restaurants is important to limit for a couple of reasons. One is that you have restaurants that service the office park primarily because of the restaurant is large enough that if its serving the general public, you have traffic patterns and now that are not planned for in the original development so they would be concerned about the impacts that the restaurant would have especially in the evenings which is not normally a plan for an office park. We need to be careful about that. Most restaurants that are in office parks are specifically designed to serve the patrons that work in the office park. When you go beyond that you go into a whole another category of business. I would be extremely careful about extending beyond staffs recommendation in that case. Irby: if you are going to exceed the 25 that probably should be readvertised in fairness to those who were going to locate there. There were no members of the public wishing to speak on this subject. The public hearing was closed at 9:34 p.m. On the motion of Vice Mayor Wright, seconded Council Member Reid, the following was proposed: ORDINANCE 2011 0 010 Amending Article 3 Review and Approval Procedures, Article 5 Residential Zoning Districts, Article 6 Nonresidential Districts, Article 7 Overlay and Special Purpose Districts, Article 9 Use Regulations, Article 10 Density /Intensity and Dimensional Standards, Article 11 Parking, Loading, and Pedestrian Access, and Article 18 Definitions Wright: Just to clarify that the motion includes the language that staff had discussed regarding the pipestem lots...that amendment is included. Based on the discussion on the dais, I would recommend unless its really, really clear that any of the amendments we do, we just do as voted amendments since there seemed to be some objections. Mayor: Ken, are you comfortable with making the pipestem language part of it? Reid: Yes, I am. Hammler: I would like to make a formal amendment, not friendly, given the direction of Vice Mayor Wright, to edit on page 22, 18.1.16 regarding bed 24 I Pa ge. COUNCIL MEETING and breakfasts. Bed and Breakfasts located in the commercial zoning district may have weddings, receptions, and business meetings as ancillary uses. Reid: Second. I would just like to say, as a downtown business owner and I see the bed and breakfasts...I think one is already having meetings. I see nothing wrong with this. It is not going to trip a lot of traffic problems. It is a good, pro business, business friendly amendment. I want to applaud Katie for attaching this and bringing it forward. I am very proud to support it. Wright: Question to staff. Not on the merits, but based on the amendment that is there, do we need to do something to the following sentence...commercial use or rental...because the one seems that it will conflict with the other. Mayor: Katie, what was your proposal for that clause that starts "commercial use..." Hammler: I will throw that comment back in Kevin's general direction...good catch. We will strike that one. Boucher: That would have given the zoning administrator very interesting interpretations. Wright: I heard her say that, it just wasn't loud enough. Hammler: That's why we are a T.E.A.M. April 26, 2011 Dunn: So, if we are going that far, there are a couple of other events in there, then why not have them. For example, you are not putting seminars in. What really makes the difference between a seminar... as I was saying, the venue will try.... Hammler: I think business meeting is a broad enough term, but that certainly is the intent and the spirit behind the motion. Dunn: Are you striking that bottom sentence starting with commercial and ending with permitted? That being struck? Hammler: That's right. We will just say ancillary uses period and then strike everything to the end of that paragraph, so we will not restrict any of the things that are listed, business meetings, seminars, or receptions or other similar things. Mayor: I hate to drag this conversation out any longer, but in support of Katie's position, I need a read from staff. If we are striking everything after ancillary use, is there some other provision that is prohibiting business meetings, seminars, receptions, even though we have striken it as a prohibition, should we 25 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 be....so you have in there with weddings, you have got business meetings, seminars, receptions and similar events or activities or not? Hammler: I simply added the addition of business meetings. Kevin made the important point that we strike the next sentence that ironically would have prohibited them. Mayor: You are comfortable that business meetings covers seminars, receptions and similar events. Hammler: In my mind, but I guess we should ask. Murphy: The sentence right now seems to be including, but not limited to by stating that it says business meetings, seminars, receptions and similar events. That tells me this is not an all- inclusive listing of uses that fall under the category of business meeting. I feel pretty certain that I can say that if someone comes in and wants to have seminar...could I say it's a business meeting. Yes, I could say that. Hammler: I think it would be outrageous if a business had to come in to stipulate that someone was going to be giving a seminar briefing versus sitting around a board table and having a discussion, but I'm not the zoning administrator. Dunn: If I could...there is one listing there that is prohibited currently that would not fall underneath the category of business meeting and that's a reception. A reception is different than a meeting or a business meeting or a seminar. Hammler: I added the motion...I actually said weddings comma, receptions comma, and business meetings. I purposefully did not put slash, I put comma. Dunn: In essence, we are really not limiting anything by this. Hammler: We are actually trying to encourage it, I think. Dunn: That's fine. That's where I want to go. Is there anything that you would see limited by this, by what we are proposing? Murphy: Limiting what? Dunn: Is there something in your mind, in planning, that there is a use that would be limited or not allowed? Murphy: So, if someone wants to rent the Norris House, for example, to have a car show? I would say no. But if you want to rent the Norris House to 26 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 have, like the planning department, if we want to go over there and have a retreat, yes, we can do that or any other business wants to go there and have a business meeting, then yes. If they want to invite a speaker to talk to them about sales techniques, yes you can do that. There are going to be some...we aren't thinking of everything, but I think this catches everything that I think the Council has in mind. I think councilmember Hammler's weddings, receptions, and business meetings is a pretty good catchall. Dunn: Using your example, could someone have held you over a barrel saying, even under the current proposal, saying your ordinance does not restrict car show. does. Murphy: I think it does. I would be able to write a determination that it Mayor: We have a motion to amend by Katie, seconded by Ken. Butler: I have a question. This definition of bed and breakfast in Section 18 of the ordinance. Where does it say that this definition is only allowed in a commercial district? Certainly there are bed and breakfasts in residential districts. Murphy: It says bed and breakfasts located in a commercial zoning district may have.... The motion to amend was approved by the following vote: Aye: Dunn, Hammler, Reid, Wright, and Mayor Umstattd Nay: Butler Vote: 5 -1 -1 (Martinez absent) Reid: I want to make a motion to readvertise the I -1 restaurant thing over 25% for special exception. I still want to approve the ordinance tonight, but as a separate item. Irby: I think, finish what you have and make a separate motion. Mayor: Any other proposed amendments? Dunn: I have a question on that. Just a clarification. Are you saying, Jeanette, that we are going to be voting, in essence approving this in whole and then go back and go through the process. Irby: Just initiate because it would have to go to the planning commission anyway. You will just be initiating an increase of no limit in the industrial zone. Dunn: We couldn't take that portion out of this and redo it? Irby: You can, but it is my understanding that the motion on the floor, they want to leave that in. 27 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Reid: I would rather just get the 25% and then worry about it later. Dunn: I'm not sure how you are planning to do 25 or 50% or whatever, but I would like it to be a little more broad than just saying restaurants... Hammler: That is the point I was going to make later and reiterate what I said earlier that I think we need to look at this strategically and proactively and not just have one number go up. Look at what we are trying to achieve in that district as it relates to diversity of uses. Dunn: And percentages. Mayor: Ken should make his motion after this passes or fails to advertise to initiate another change to the ordinance to change the percentage. That is one problem. That is a fairly easily handled problem. Hammler: This would be new business at a future meeting and I would argue we would probably want to do that in lieu of issuing an arbitrary, single amount. Reid: Well, we have had discussions of that, Madam Mayor, when we had the issue of the entertainment center, there was resistence on Council to do anything else with the I -1 district. We will just adopt this ordinance and then will discuss it afterwards. I'm not convinced we need to go to a work session. Dunn: The only reason I was bringing it up here is because per our procedures, this is all that is on the table. We don't have anything else on the table after this other than, unless you want to bring this up under new business, but it is a little out of order. Mayor: All right, we have the main motion as it has been amended. Kevin gets the final word. Wright: Just since I have the final word, the one thing I would encourage us to keep in mind is the addition of the restaurants is to the municipal airport district, not a big district. It currently has the airport in it and the hangars in it. It is not the office park around it. Just to give the context of what we are talking about, it allows for a restaurant to exist at the airport. We are not talking about the office park. We are talking about the airport property. As we talk about where that exists, to get the context that this is different from the I -1 or the office park around it, it is the zoning district that is solely around the airport. Other than that, I think we have beat this pretty well. The ordinance as amended was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Reid, Wright, and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None 28 Pang° COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Vote: 6 -0 -1 (Martinez absent) Reid: I would just like to make a motion to have staff and the planning commission to examine the feasibility of special exception requirements for using more tha 25% of office or flex space in the I -1 district. Wright: Madam Mayor, is that germaine? I thought we were talking about the municipal airport district. That is a pure run from what we were talking about. The I -1 percentage was not in the ordinance. Butler: If it is anything else, we should advertise and it should be on our regular agenda. Reid: Then I can add the airport, certainly, and the I -1. Hammier: My thought is we were dealing with the airport, for the record. Mayor: I think if you are going to go beyond the municipal airport restaurant idea, we probably need to bring it up at a future work session. Reid: That's fine. Let's do that. We can look at broader issues. 11. ORDINANCES a. None 12. RESOLUTIONS AND MOTIONS a. Setting the FY 2012 Council Meeting Calendar Wright: Just the one thing I wanted to throw out. Looking at the schools, they went and fixed their calendar. So, in looking at it, the break...the August break...I had some question if we wanted to flip it. It may make sense, it would have us meeting the week of the 8th and 9th and there is technically a two week break before school starts because August 1 is on a Monday so the meeting schedule is 8 and 9t so the week of the 15t and 22 would be available. My concern is we weren't actually going to have a break based on when school is... Hammier: That's a fair and legitimate concern. I can honestly say I would probably not be able to make it that week because its going to be the only week that entire summer the Hammlers would be able to take a break. So, if we could amend that, I would appreciate that. Mayor: So, basically the proposal is we would not meet on August 8 and 9, we would meet instead on August 20 whatever... Wright: I was toying with the idea of meeting on August 30 as a meeting only just to meet the charter requirements and do any mop ups and give us the actual August break. I wanted to throw it out there for discussion. 29 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 On a motion by Vice Mayor Hammier, seconded by Council Member Dunn, the following was proposed: RESOLUTION 2011 -052 Setting the FY 2012 Council Meeting Calendar Dunn: I had a couple of suggestions also. It has always been kind of a rub with me when we have the meeting around Columbus day holiday...I would rather instead of moving it to have a work session and then a meeting and go Tuesday, Wednesday, I think it is more consistent and consistent for the public that we would change the last paragraph in the resolution, Section II to read October 10, 2011 is cancelled and the formal session on Tuesday, October 11, 2011 shall continue as scheduled and that be the end. In essence, we just have our regular meeting. We don't have a work session that week. Because it happens every year. It gets confusing for folks and just go with a regular meeting on that week instead of having both a work session and a regular meeting. Mayor: You are just talking October? Wright: Meet on the 11t only. Omit the work session. Dunn: Right. And on our calendar... Hammler: Is that applicable to any other dates that were moved? Dunn: Well, no, if you look on the calendar, page 2 of your package, it has an asterisk on that. It says meetings moved due to holiday conflict. That is the only one. So, again, I just think its more consistent for the public that we keep our regular meeting. If we have situations where holidays fall on a Monday when we would have a work session, we just forego the work session. I think its just a little more consistency. I always get confused every year when that comes up. I'm like, oh that's right I gotta be there for Tuesday and Wednesday. So, just a little more consistency. So, forgo the work session, have the regular session on Tuesday. Wright: I accept that. Let me do the easy one first, then let me go back to August because I wasn't really sure what folks wanted to do with August. I just wanted to highlight it. The other one I wanted to highlight, spring break actually includes Monday, April 9. April 9 is actually a school holiday in Loudoun. Spring break includes that Monday so I didn't know if we wanted to have a work session that night or not. It would be the Monday after Easter. And it's the Monday after the week of spring break but that Monday is a school holiday. Hammler: So next year, the kids get the Monday after Easter off. I think the general guideline that I would support would be ensuring that our meetings do not meet when there is a holiday. I think citizens are going to be out of town. There are a lot of important reasons... 30 Page COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Dunn: The only thing is by that evening, generally the holiday is over by the time we meet. I would rather forego that work session, have our regular meeting on Tuesday and move forward. But I would lean more towards wanting to have both meetings, but I can be flexible. Wright: So, I will just do a motion to amend to omit the work session on the 9t and see if... Hammier: Second. Mayor: So that's our only motion to amend at the moment. Wright: Yep, because we friendly accepted to eliminate the work session on October 10 and have a regular meeting on the l lt My motion is to eliminate the work session on April 9, which is the last day of spring break. Mayor: And Katie has seconded that. We have a motion and second to eliminate the April 9 work session, 2012. Butler: I object to all the removals of the work sessions for a couple of reasons. One, I think that we are here to do a job for the public and by cutting out meetings and cutting out work sessions and cutting out all kinds of other effort, we are doing a disservice to the residents of the town. And the second reason is we often spend more time in the work sessions than we do in the meetings, so by removing the work sessions, it sounds great now, but we have had pairs of meetings that both days go past midnight so what will end up happening here is we will have a meeting that will go to 3 a.m. I object to any of the reductions of the meetings. We can always eliminate them at the time but to eliminate them now is just extending issues further in the future because we won't have time to deal with them, so I won't be supporting this amendment. Mayor: So this proposed amendment is to eliminate the April 9 work session. The motion to amend was approved by the following vote: Aye: Dunn, Hammier, Reid, Wright, and Mayor Umstattd Nay: Butler Vote: 5 -1 -1 (Martinez absent) Hammier: Madam Mayor, did we already vote on October or was that already passed by friendly? And I believe there was discussion about August, but I don't know what happened with that. Wright: We haven't done anything with August, so the question is do want to leave the break where it is, or move the meeting date. We have to meet 31 Pagc COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 in Augusts. The question is what makes the most sense based on school now starting in August. Hammler: If we could do it when the kids are in school, I would appreciate that. Mayor: I would agree. Hammler: When they are back in school. Dunn: Do we know that date? Mayor: it is before Labor Day. Wright: August 29 and 30, the date would be out of our normal cycle because the meeting usually falls...if there were two meetings in August the meetings would have been the 8 and 9 and the 22n and 23r so if we moved it to after school starting to the 29t and 30 it would be a change in pattern. It would not be our normal pattern, but there would be a two week break between that meeting and the first meeting in September. Dunn: I would rather keep it at our normal pattern for one. Are you then saying, that you want to keep it as our normal pattern and meet the second meeting of the month and not the first week? Wright: I was throwing it out for discussion. I could go either way, to be honest. Reid: I don't know if Dave knows this or not, but isn't there a possibility that a certain primary is going to be held in August? Butler: August 23 is primary day, which would not conflict with Kevin's proposal. Reid: I'm comfortable with the 29t and 30t It sounds odd, but school's in session and we might as well do it that week. It's going to tough for some folks and odd, but we might as well do it to meet the requirement. Dunn: Would that be our normal meeting dates? Wright: You would be one week late for the normal date. Dunn: I don't want to do that. Reid: We don't want to interfere with vacations that people may have in August but they are starting school earlier. So, what Kevin wants to do is have this meeting the 29t and 30 instead of August 8 and 9t That's all. 32 1 Page COUNCIL MEETING Dunn: So, you are talking about not meeting 8th and 9th and only meeting the last Monday and Tuesday in August? Mayor: Right. Hammier: Same with the public and we are giving plenty of notice which is why we set the calendar so it is important that we establish basic principles. Wright: I'll make that as the motion. Hammier: Second. Mayor: so, we have a motion from Kevin to eliminate the August 8 and 9 meetings and replace them with the August 29 and 30 meetings. It has been seconded by Katie. Any discussion other than that we have had already? The amendment was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Hammier, Reid, Wright, and Mayor Umstattd Nay: Dunn Vote: 5 -1 -1 (Martinez absent) Butler: I would like to make a motion to amend our two November meetings to push them both to the third and fifth weeks of the mont instead of the second and fourth. The reason is two -fold. November 8 is election day, which is the highest number of elections in the four year cycle. November 21 -22 is the week before Thanksgiving and last year we moved that to the week after Thanksgiving and I thought that was more effective. This way, it would still be at least two weeks between every meeting. Mayor: So, first and third which would put it back to... Wright: 14- 15 28 -29t Mayor: First and third would be before that... Butler: Third and fifth week. Reid: Second that. The amendment was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Hammier, Reid, Wright, and Mayor Umstattd Nay: Dunn Vote: 5 -1 -1 (Martinez absent) April 26, 2011 Dunn: I am going to oppose it under the same...I would rather have consistency with our dates. 33 1 P a g COUNCIL MEETING Dunn: We need to make sure that the dates that we switched aren't going to conflict with other committee meetings that might be using this room too. That might be something...somebody has got to move over. Butler: We take precedence. April 26, 2011 Wright: The November change actually solves the problem because of where the Tuesday falls, it creates conflicts. Reid: I would say, John, you might want to make this a permanent thing in November, because it really has worked out well. Butler: Except that, Ken, most years the week after Thanksgiving is the first week of December. So, that would be a problem. In those cases, you could have one meeting in November and the first and third weeks in December, but it still would be a ways before Christmas. The Council meeting calendar as amended, was approved by the following vote: Aye: Butler, Dunn, Hammler, Reid, Wright and Mayor Umstattd Nay: None Vote: 6 -0 -1 (Martinez absent) 13. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 14. NEW BUSINESS 15. COUNCIL COMMENTS Council Member Dunn: I'm going to be real brief and then I have to leave, so on that last one, I forgot to mention something humorous. On the second whereas, it has the word Christmas in there, and I was thinking we could change that to the holiday formerly known as Holiday. I hope everyone had a good religious holiday season and we definitely need to count our blessings. I have to run because I have to work with my boss tomorrow and hopefully he is not watching. Council Member Reid: Thank you very much, Madam Mayor. First, I want to offer my condolences on the very tragic death of Bruce Jamerson, who was the 20 year veteran clerk of the House of Delegates. It looks like it was a suicide over the weekend and my son who worked with him as a page was like that. All the pages have been communicating and there is going to be a memorial for him in Richmond. It is a very tragic death. I hate to be tragic about this, but I would like to focus now on the very sad death, but also the great life of my former Environmental Advisory Commissioner. She was an editor for me and a friend, Virginia McGuire. As many of you know, Virginia served on the Environmental Advisory Commission from July 2006 until the fall of 2009 when she had to resign due to her battle against Lymphoma. She fought it every step of the way. She went through a lot of high risk treatments at Johns Hopkins and the 34 Page COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 National Institutes of Health and finally at the Mayo Clinic. After I was elected in 2006, my goal was to appoint someone to the EAC who had been involved with fighting the Dominion Power transmission lines. If you recall, that was still before the State Corporation Commission and Council, so I wanted to get someone one there and Virginia volunteered. She was involved with the Kincaid Forest two mile action committee. I did not know her, but I was happy to appoint her because of her involvement. At that time, the Environmental Commission which I had served on was actually very weak, so weak that actually at the suggestion of Ms. Hammler and our former Vice Mayor, Susan Horne, made a very controversial motion to try to combine it with the Tree Commission, which failed. But it was weak and Virginia took over as chairman in March of 2007 and I watched the video of her. I got that from Lee Ann, making a great presentation to Council and along with Neely Law and several others, she set forth a very active agenda involving stream preservation, recycling, energy savings and of course, keeping power lines off the W &OD trail. Through Virginia's efforts on the Environmental Commission, the Loudoun County Public Schools backed off on their plans when they built Tuscarora High School and they came up with a mitigation plan for a trout stream. She was instrumental, very instrumental in opposing developments such as Creekside and Crosstrail. She was very much involved in planting the trees at the bowling alley that Ms. Law talked about and also in Kincaid Forest. She accompanied me on a tour of devastation of trees with a Washington Post reporter in 2008 and as her husband, Terry, told me you wouldn't call her a tree hugger, she was a tree saver. She didn't even like her kids climbing trees because of what it could do. She would save wildlife if it were damaged...if it was hurt. I would ask Virginia periodically if she would put political signs in her lawn... she had a good location at her house. Her husband was on the covenants committee, so she refused. She did say she wanted a McCain button, so I gave her a McCain button in 2008. I remember her putting it on as her kids and the other neighbors played. I always remember that day because it was such an interesting evening. Kincaid Forest and her street in particular, was such a friendly neighborhood. All the kids were out. Virginia was a pragmatic environmentalist. She was not an extremist. She was pragmatic and kept the commission focused on science, not ideology. At one time, when Mr. Dunn came to Council, I wanted her to be my Planning Commissioner, but she declined because she wanted to continue her work on the EAC. That year, I also hired her to proof my newsletters. She had a strong PR and communications background. She wanted just part time work because of what she was going through. She was amazing at details and my editors loved her, even when she found out a lot of crap in their writing. None of them ever complained about her and having to redo their work. She stopped working for me about a year ago, but she never stopped working for the community. I last saw her at a meeting about the Juvenile Detention Center on March 22. She sent the Mayor and I an email about the JDC and I would like to read parts of it. She wrote: "as you know, I have been struggling with cancer since March of 2009. I am still doing so. My current regime is the hardest yet, but we are still moving ahead. Early on, I tried to continue to keep up with community issues and at least make myself heard on those that were closest to my heart, but in the past few months even that has become very hard. Even now, it is just a few minutes before the meeting, but I felt I had to weigh in on the resolution the Council is considering regarding the detention center, Miller Drive, and Kincaid Forest She made several suggestions, one of which was to deal with Crosstrail 35 I E' age COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 Boulevard, which I tried very hard with the county to get it realigned. That was her idea, the realignment, but they were not able to do it. She closed "With respect and appreciation, Virginia McGuire Every Friday night in Synagogue up until the week of death, I would say a prayer of healing for her and it is customary for us to call out the names to ask God for which means healing for those in need. Her name became very well known at Congregation Shar'Shalom. After that email, I called to talk to her but she did not call back. I am very saddened that I did not have a chance to talk to my friend before she died. I am hopeful she is with the Lord and that the Lord will comfort her family. I want to remind my colleagues to come to her home this Saturday between 12 and 6 to celebrate her great life. She was a wonderful woman. We are all going to miss her. Vice Mayor Wright: Very nice, Ken. I would like to pass my condolences along to her family. A little bit more up beat note, we very much enjoyed the Flower and Garden Festival. We went on the swimming day because we were getting on a plane at 6 a.m. Sunday morning, which if you are going to the airport for a six a.m. flight on spring break week, get there two hours before the flight, but it was a very envirgorating run to the plane. Of course, after we sprinted to the plane, we found out the flight crew was stuck in the same line. I did make an interesting observation while we were on our cruise. We were in Belize on a bus ride and, speaking of the environment and all that, their water source, even within the city, is rain barrels. So, every home has huge barrels that capture the rain. Of course, I am thinking how do they purify it, but that is their water source. We went by a sewer treatment plant, but the primary water source for the residences...we went by one home that looked like an apartment and the downspouts were all going to a big barrel that was almost the height of the house. I thought that was an interesting observation with all the fun we have with water. Relay for Life is coming up the first weekend in June and to kick it off, the first Friday in June, we will be doing Pie in the Face. So far, I know for sure I am in. JB Anderson has volunteered again. If you all sent the emails, they may have gotten lost in the spring break, so you want to go ahead and get those volunteer emails in. Reid: I have never done this before, I'll volunteer. What day is it again? Wright: It would be the first Friday in June, so is that June P Reid: Is it before sundown? Wright: Usually. Let me know what time it needs to be. We will make it work. I am sure there will be somebody willing to get you. Council Member Hammler: I'll volunteer my husband for the pie event this year. I should have done that three years ago...I'll be glad to take the pie in my face this time. I have a quick disclosure. I did speak to Mike Banzhaf regarding Crosstrails on April 21st. I have a couple of quick things I wanted to mention, but Ken what you said about Virginia was so absolutely beautiful and to me that really needs to be the hallmark of our comments tonight, so I'm not going to say anything other than thank you for taking the 36 I Page COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 time and reflecting on how important Virginia was for our community. I will be there Saturday and look forward to expressing my condolences in person. Council Member Butler: I feel a lot like Katie does. At first, I was thinking I was going to say I echo all of Ken's comments about Virginia, but then I thought that his comments were so wonderful that it would disrespect his comments by trying to jump in like that, so I won't say that. Ken, I agree. It was an excellent comments. I did know Virginia on the EAC and she did a great job and it is a terrible loss. Condolences again to all of her family. As Kevin said, on a lighter note, I have a rain barrel that I...I installed a rain barrel a couple of weeks ago and it was just before one of those first rains and the rain barrel took about six minutes to fill up. So, you can use multiple rain barrels and it does not take a lot of rain to fill them up and use them. Now, I am just waiting for the grass to need water. They have been getting plenty of water by themselves, but I am tempted to go and get another one. The Flower and Garden show was excellent. I had an opportunity to work at the EAC booth on Saturday and they had sides on their tent, which was a wonderful thing, and at the Tree Commission on Sunday. I just want to applaud all the commissioners from both commissions that worked those two days because it was long and on Saturday especially it was hard. It was wrapping trees and things like that, but we did give away 500 trees. A lot of people come there and are looking for the trees and they give us stories about how well their trees are doing that they got at the Tree Commission booth like three to four years before that, so its good stuff. Also, as I like to tell everybody, I gave blood this past Saturday and I encourage everybody to do that. It's a little effort that can potentially save a life. So, if you are eligible, by all means go and do it. Last thing is, it is now a quarter after ten and this Council does outstanding work in being able to take short meetings and turn them into long ones. Katie was hoping for 8:30 tonight and I was estimating 9. We exceeded our goal. Reid: It was all for a good cause because it was making Leesburg more business friendly. I just wanted to say about Belize, I was there also and the other thing, I don't know if you knew this, Kevin, they have no planning and zoning. They didn't tell you that? Wright: They didn't but I could see that. Reid: You have a lot and you build it and they have much higher prosperity than the rest of central America. They were a British Colony. I was very impressed that they are this island of stability in an area that has had a lot of poverty and turmoil. Private schools, I don't think they have much public education, all the schools are religious based. The Brits did a good job. 16. MAYOR'S COMMENTS I also wanted to just echo my admiration for Virginia McGuire. She was incredibly dedicated and an extraordinarily impressive woman. Ken, I think you were very fortunate to have known her as well as you did and it is very sad that she has passed. It seems like quite a few very good people have passed recently. Virginia Trevoranus who worked very hard in the arts community passed not long ago. I would 37 1 t>a COUNCIL MEETING April 26, 2011 just like to say a few words about Charles Beardsley, who passed in the last week or so. You all will remember, I think, of course, Hurricane Katrina. Charles went down and ran the volunteer medical clinic down in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Bay St. Louis had been totally wiped out by the hurricane. They had a population of 9,000 people. They lost nearly every home. They lost their entire downtown. We got to meet the mayor who was living at the firehall because his home had been destroyed. It was just devastating, but Charles' main concern were the teenagers who were stuck in FEMA trailers with nothing to do. So, he contacted the town and Kathleen Leidich worked on this asked us to get him the plans for a skatepark because he was determined...they love to skateboard down there...so he was determined to build a skatepark for them so they would have something to do. He just was a very giving individual. His wife, Dr. Martha Calihan, remains part of the Leesburg community and his son, Conor, does as well. That was a sad passing. He was a very, very generous person and we are sorry and will miss him. On a slightly different topic, the Vice Mayor was very kind to allow me to attend the meeting in his stead today at the airport. John Wells and Kaj Dentler, Dennis Boykin, and Shye from ProJet and Landmark Aviation were all there with Congressman Wolf to try to get Customs and Border Protection to have a facility back at the Leesburg Airport to enable us to attract more corporate traffic. Manassas has such a facility. Leesburg used to, but staff reductions at Customs meant the closing of our facility and we are trying to win them back and actually because of Dennis Boykin's efforts and Shye's efforts, and Landmark's efforts, and Kaj and John, it looks like we have a real shot of getting them back and the Congressman is very supportive of that. Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor, for allowing me to attend in your stead. It was a worthwhile meeting. That's all I've got. 17. MANAGER'S COMMENTS Mr. Wells had no comments. 18. ADJOURNMENT On a motion by Vice Mayor Wright, seconded by Council Member Butler, the meeting was adjourned at 10:20 p.m. A1'TE Clerk of C 2011 tcmin0426 Kris e Town of Leesburg mstattd, Mayor 38 I Pa g