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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2010_tcwsmin1129Council Work Session November 29, 2010 Council Chambers, 25 West Market Street, 7:30 p.m. Mayor Kristen Umstattd presiding. Council Members Present: David S. Butler, Thomas S. Dunn, II, Katie Sheldon Hammier, Marty Martinez, Ken Reid, Kevin Wright and Mayor Kristen Umstattd. Council Members Absent: None. Staff Present: Town Manager John Wells, Town Attorney Jeanette Irby, Deputy Town Manager Kaj Dentler, Finance Director Norm Butts, Director of Public Works Tom Mason, Director of Planning and Zoning Susan Berry Hill, Director of Plan Review William Adman, Zoning Administrator Chris Murphy, Senior Planner David Fuller, and Clerk of Council Lee Ann Green AGENDA ITEMS 1. Work Session Items for Discussion a. Budget Update Mr. Wells stated current figures show a gap between projected revenues and expenditures at the current tax rate of between $2.5 million to $3.0 million. He stated this does not necessarily represent the budget that will be proposed as the revenue numbers are still in flux. He stated staff is working on a variety of different issues dealing with tax collections and noted some cut backs in service levels may be necessary. Council Members asked for several clarifications of numbers and rationale behind some estimates. Mr. Wells noted these are very rough estimates and no departments have submitted budget information yet. He stated he will be focusing on decreases in expenditures and revenue enhancements. Council Member Reid questioned whether there should be a re- evaluation of the BPOL and other taxes. Mr. Wells stated staff is looking at the cigarette tax but he is less inclined to raise BPOL taxes due to the economy. Council Member Butler confirmed that the estimated equalized tax rate is 19.6 cents and the current tax rate is 19.5. Mr. Butts stated the initial indications from the County Assessor's office is that residential assessments are up slightly, but commercial assessments are down slightly. 1 Page Council Work Session November 29, 2010 Council Member Hammler stated she would be interested in monthly updates. Further, she stated the SRO program money is close to half of a million dollars. Vice Mayor Wright questioned possible revenue enhancements. Mr. Wells stated staff is looking at cigarette taxes but he is reluctant to deal with the meals tax, although Council could consider it. He stated the town is under legal limits in some areas such as BPOL, meals taxes and cigarettes taxes. He stated a number of development fees are scheduled for discussion at tomorrow night's meeting. Vice Mayor Wright noted that the town has to be competitive with the county with respect to BPOL and meals taxes. He questioned whether the current budget will remain balanced with the revenues trending down. Mr. Wells stated the year will end balanced because any time staff sees reductions in revenues, they are also very mindful of expenditures. Council Member Martinez questioned whether the state will be cutting any other funding to the town. Mr. Wells stated the highway maintenance fund, the law enforcement fund and BPOL are three items that are at some risk at the state level. Further, he noted there are items on the Legislative Agenda addressing these. Mayor Umstattd questioned whether the opening of LA Fitness will negatively affect Ida Lee Recreation Center revenue. Further, she questioned whether the town could lure businesses to open in Leesburg with lower BPOL taxes. Mr. Wells stated, in this economy, this will probably not be enough to make a business move. He stated he has never read any research that puts taxes in the top 5 reasons to locate a business in a specific locality. Council Member Hammler questioned whether there is anything the town can do to make the town's share of state sales tax money higher. Mr. Wells stated seeking changes to the state allocation process would be a long term goal. Mayor Umstattd questioned whether business travel will ever rebound. Vice Mayor Wright stated he believes that businesses are learning how to do without travel by utilizing higher technology to video conference, etc. 2'Page Council Work Session November 29, 2010 b. Form Based Code Susan Berry Hill stated this is a complex issue because it is not addressing Greenfield development or strictly addressing an area with existing infrastructure. She stated it is addressing an expansion of the historic district into the crescent district with new infrastructure. She stated this is a type of zoning code that addresses form, rather than use with the emphasis on the built environment both from a site planning as well as architecturally rather than an emphasis on uses. Further, she summarized the form based code process to date. She discussed some of the differences between the Form Based Code Steering Committee and the Planning Commission's discussions. Ms. Berry Hill stated there are a number of next -step options that can be considered by Council. She stated they can continue discussing the FBC as it has been proposed by the Steering Committee and the Planning Commission or pursuing Form Based Code "Lite Vice Mayor Wright, as Chairman of the Form Based Code Steering Committee, welcomed Milt Herd to the meeting, who worked as a member of the Committee from the very beginning. He stated the Steering Committee struggled with the size of the district. He discussed some of the issues on infrastructure including stormwater and road network. Council Member Martinez questioned whether there is time to study this or is time a factor. Vice Mayor Wright stated it is more important to get this right than to get it fast. Council Member Dunn suggested implementing a zone based form based code modeled after Peoria. He stated this process has been going on too long without any action. Council Member Reid pointed out another reason for truncating the district was there were property owners that did not want to be included. He questioned what funds have been spent thus far. He questioned whether there was any discussion of special tax incentives with the property owners to get them to participate. Ms. Berry Hill stated the contract was for $165,000 and coupled with money spent with Arnett Muldrow and Kimley Horn add up to about $250,000 not including staff time. She stated that incentives were not discussed. 3 'Page Council Work Session November 29, 2010 Council Member Reid stated this has been a long exercise and the genesis of this was at a time when the economy was better. He stated he has no interest in spending any more money on this. Further, he expressed his concerned that the district will be stigmatized with regulations. Council Member Butler questioned what happens if one of the roads cannot be built. Ms. Berry Hill stated it is fairly rigid because if some property owners build what is shown on the plan and some do not, there is a disjointed network. Council Member Butler suggested not putting the completion of the road network on FBC. He also expressed a preference for a larger area. Council Member Hammler stated this is a step, in a leadership oriented way, to expand what is unique about Leesburg and make the town more attractive for generations to come. She suggested sitting down with key property owners to figure out how to make this happen. She questioned whether the town could create incentives for development that uses FBC. She stated her support for moving forward. Council Member Dunn stated the largest property owners are the salvage yard, Barber and Ross and the trailer park. He stated this project will not be able to move forward until the town is ready to make the investment in the road network through these properties. Further, he stated one of the key issues is the town has very little say in architectural design and FBC will give the community the opportunity to say what they want the town to look like. He encouraged flexibility to find a way to start this process sooner, rather than later. Vice Mayor Wright stated at some point the Council will have to take a leap of faith because there will be no surety. He stated there has been a lot of positive feedback from those that have looked at the plan but the issue that cannot get lost is the town will not be the one to redevelop the parcels. Council Member Reid stated this infrastructure could be millions of dollars out of the town coffers and unless the property owners really want to develop this way, it is not worthwhile to do it. He recommended meeting with the large property owners to see what they want to build. He stated adoption of this code as it is may stigmatize the district causing a disincentive to development. Mr. Wells stated there are opportunities to offer some incentives to some of the property owners during the development process. 4IPage Council Work Session November 29, 2010 Council Member Hammler stated there has been a long history of municipalities taking ownership of parcels and developing it as to the vision of the governing body and then re- selling it. She stated she would support an analysis of this. Mayor Umstattd stated the real hang up is the need for additional transportation infrastructure to handle the traffic generated by the additional density. She stated the additional density will probably be the prime incentive to anyone who wants to build according to a FBC. She stated when this idea first came up, the town was approached by developers who liked what Arlington had done in certain sections. But, Arlington's FBC was far more limited, not in size, but in scope. She stated she does not support going forward. She stated she is reluctant to use taxpayer dollars to buy private property for the kind of development envisioned. Vice Mayor Wright stated the focus needs to be on what level of plan to implement. He stated he heard enough support to move forward with discussion of the plan; however, he also heard some that want to pull back. He stated it would be irresponsible to spend money to analyze a road network when the size of the road network is still in question. Mr. Wells summarized that there is some support for moving forward, but the question would be does the Council want to continue the discussions or do they want to have joint meetings with the Planning Commission or Steering Committee? Council Member Reid suggested making FBC a guideline for the Crescent District. Council Member Hammler questioned what the lighter version of FBC would look like. She stated the next step has to include looking at the Vice Mayor Wright stated that the Barber and Ross property will be developed under the proffered rezoning because the property owner has to voluntarily come in and rezone the property regardless of whether the town moves forward with FBC. He also highlighted the property owner outreach that was performed both at the Steering Committee and Planning Commission level. He stated a certified letter was sent to each and every property owner each time the subject was discussed by the Planning Commission. Council Member Dunn stated he would rather see the direction that FBC replaces the current zoning and planning guidelines which would give the town the ability to determine the design of the buildings in town and the ability for the property owner to have reduced regulation and process time and eliminates the guess work involved in the development process. He stated this would be beneficial for a larger area, but for a lighter version. 5IPage Council Work Session November 29, 2010 economics and incentives. She recommended a subcommittee of Council look at how the code would work and decide how incentives would work. Vice Mayor Wright state if this would just be a guideline, do not do it. He stated there are varying questions of what the next level is and how broad it is. Mr. Wells stated based on what staff has heard this evening, they will return with some options for Council. He assured Council that no consultant money would be spent without further direction, but there are some fairly clear options on how to move forward. c. Crosstrail Referral Ms. Berry Hill apologized for not having included a map in the materials sent to Council for this item. She stated the preliminary subdivision submission to the county for the Crosstrail property has occurred with a concept plan, which is only an idea of how the property could be developed and the developers are in no way committing to the concept plan. She stated they are proposing to divide the property into 20 lots in 7 sections, two of which are in the town's jurisdiction. Those two lots would be subject to the town's review, but are being shown in context with the overall development. Council Member Hammler questioned what is the breakdown of Class A office space versus other uses. Ms. Berry Hill stated there is no residential in this submission. She stated there is flex industrial, restaurant, retail, conference /training uses, fitness /recreation, and hotel uses. She stated the subdivision plat does not commit to this development scheme, but is only submitted to show how it might develop and the square footages under the existing county zoning. She stated the subdivision plat is currently in staff review at the county. She stated town staff has not endorsed the project; however, recommended that comments raised in the referral letter be addressed. Council Member Martinez stated the Airport Commission will want to weigh in on the application. It was noted the Airport Commission has already reviewed this submission. Vice Mayor Wright stated the draft letter appears to be behind the discussions he has heard at the airport addressing all of the land the airport envisions acquiring. He stated that Petersen is very aware of the area that is intended for future expansion. He stated the airport director needs to get more information on the property where the fence is that needs to be moved to address the Instrument Landing System (ILS) so that Petersen is not left with 6JPage Council Work Session November 29, 2010 an undevelopable parcel based on what needs to be acquired. He stated this memo does not seem to clearly define this discussion. Further, he stated he thought there was a fairly clear idea of the utilities issues, so the comments may need to be revised to reflect that information. Council Member Hammler commented that she does not have enough information to react to the referral letter comments. She questioned how long the town has had this application. Council Member Butler questioned the Planning Commission's reaction to this referral as they have the most practice with this type of application. Ms. Berry Hill stated the Planning Commission has not seen this application. She stated this is not in the town's jurisdiction and it was received at the end of October with comments due by the middle of November. She stated she received an extension to the end of the month so that the referral could be brought to Council. She stated because this is a subdivision plat the zoning ordinance of the county applies to the property and is only being referred to the town because it is in the Joint Land Management Area, which is an area that could be expected to be annexed at some point in the future. She stated the town does not have a say in how the county applies their zoning ordinance to this particular development other than what the impacts to the town would be in terms of infrastructure, roads and utilities. She stated this is not a development plan, but a subdivision plan showing how the lots will be divided and the location of the roads. Mr. Wells noted that this project is by -right so the type of review that goes into a by -right development and the standards of review are very different than if it were a legislative function. d. Boards and Commissions Meeting Schedule Kaj Dentler stated one of the Council's Goals and Objectives was meeting with the various boards and commissions. He stated staff is recommending scheduling each group for a very brief meeting with Council during work sessions. Vice Mayor Wright stated he thought the opening step was seeing how the Council's strategic plan joins up with the boards and commissions with a joint meeting with all the chairs /vice chairs of the boards and commissions. Mr. Wells stated this was what was talked about during the strategic planning session, but staff has been unsuccessful in scheduling a large group meeting outside the work session. He stated if Council would like a large group meeting pursued, staff will continue to pursue an acceptable date and time. 7IPage Council Work Session November 29, 2010 Vice Mayor Wright stated in order to free up time on the Council's work session agendas, deleting the "Additions to Future Council Meetings" would help. Council Member Butler agreed and added that perhaps any additions to future Council Meetings would need at least five votes in order to free up some time. There was discussion on how to schedule this meeting. Mr. Wells summarized that it should be held during a work session or hold it during an afternoon, but all boards and commissions would be invited to attend at one time. e. Transportation Summit /Scope of Meeting Follow -up Vice Mayor Wright requested the federal senators be invited. Council Member Hammler requested a delegation from West Virginia be invited. Council Member Butler requested a delegation from Maryland also be invited. Council Member Reid requested that Senator Herring's task force be included. Council Member Martinez stated other Loudoun towns should be included to help understand the long term plans for this reason. Council Member Dunn requested a representative from the Greenway. Mayor Umstattd requested VRTA be included. Mr. Wells questioned when Council would like to hold the Transportation Summit. It was Council consensus to hold it sometime in May. 2. Items for Future Council Meetings Council Member Dunn requested a response from Supervisor Kurtz to the letter regarding Raspberry Falls. Council Member Reid requested a report on the county's redistricting. He expressed concern regarding the Deed Release scheduled for tomorrow's agenda. 811'ag Council Work Session November 29, 2010 Ms. Irby stated this is a request by Randy Minchew to clear the title for the property. She stated the dedicated land was not used by the required date. Vice Mayor Wright stated because of the way this was deeded and proffered, there may be legal issues with deferral. Council Member Reid stated there should be a tracking system for deeds and proffers. He stated for a proffer to expire without giving Council the time to use it, is a shame. He requested it be taken off the Consent Agenda. Council Member Butler requested Items 12a and 12b be put on the Consent Agenda. Council Member Reid requested Item 12e be put on the Consent Agenda. Council Member Hammler asked for a follow -up on a possible zoning ordinance amendment dealing with antennas. 3. Adjournment On the motion of Vice Mayor Wright, seconded by Council Member M. 'nez, the meeting was adjourned at 10:40 p.m. Clerk of C. cil 2010_tcwsminl 9IP age