2021.3.11 City Council Work Session & Regular Meeting
right as mayor i call this meeting of stanton city council to order i know that this meeting is being broadcast over the city's cable channel and streamline on the city's website so that members of the public may hear our meeting the meeting is also being recorded i asked the clerk of council to call the role for confirmation of those council members present for today's meeting mayor oaks here vice mayor robertson here mr holmes here miss dole miss me here mr clappy here miss darby here i have confirmed that all council members are present thank you i ask city manager steve rosenberg note the participation of any city officials or colleagues or anyone else during today's meeting by zoom or telephone and mayor during the work session we have uh five participants on the same platform they include council members brendan meade and carol andrew mcroberts and uh at a later point i think in the work session jen serber and cj tyree concerning the middle world trace development thank you please let me mention that notice reasonable under the circumstances of this meeting has been given to the public contemporaneously with the notice provided to members of city council in addition to limited public seating in city hall access to this meeting has been provided to the public by audio feed on the city's cable channel and the city's website during this work session as in the past there will be no opportunity for public comment public comment will be received during council's regular meeting which will begin at 7 30 pm instructions for public comment by telephone can be found on agenda for the regular meeting and on council's website at www.ci.stanson.va.us.gov backslash government backslash city council also let me highlight and have reflected in the meeting minutes that this meeting although being conducted in person is also being conducted by zoom with virtual participation by certain members of city council given the catastrophic nature of the declared emergency in disaster related to the covet-19 outbreak which is part of the total circumstances makes it impractical or unsafe to assemble in a single location the meeting is being held consistent with the city council ordinance 2020-04 regarding continuity of government a copy of which can be found online at w www.stanson.va.us.cogord2020-04 as extended by city council ordinance number 2021-06 all right with that said um i would just like to remind everybody that uh comes into city hall and in the chambers if you can wear your mask at all times we would appreciate it that includes if you have to exit to use the restrooms and as the city council members if you'll recognize the mayor the mayor will recognize you in order to speak all right with that the first item on the agenda is a consideration of work session and regular meeting agendas i'll entertain a motion madam mayor vice mayor robertson i move to approve the work session agenda and the regular meeting agenda as presented all right so we have a motion on the floor is there a second one all right council member holmes is second any further discussion hearing none ms smith please call the roll mayor oaks aye ms mead hi mr holmes vice mayor robertson aye ms dole aye mr clappy aye ms darby motion carries thank you the next item on the agenda is the tourism update mr rosenberg thank you madam mayor cheryl wagner our director of tourism is joining us this evening to provide the council on the public an update concerning the efforts of the tourism department over the course of the last year welcome thank you madam mayor you'll be able to you'll be able to see on the screen here okay can everybody else see okay that's right i forgot about our tvs very fancy here all right matty our members of council thank you so much for having me this evening to talk about a 2020 tourism update uh first of all i want to show you a few articles uh the eight occupations hit hardest by the pandemic are leisure and hospitality that's from aarp this is from forbes 2019 is crushing businesses three sectors with the most casualties and i know you've all seen this in-person events and entertainment tourism and travel restaurants and bars so that's what we've been dealing with over this past year and what our local tourism industry is saying and how they have been dealing with that uh which are wilson presidential library their visitation was down 80 in 2020 but they've had tremendous growth in their virtual programs and they have received grant funds and cares act funding the frontier culture museum their visitation was down 50 i think they did a little bit better than others because it's an outdoor museum but their field trips are down 95 which makes sense since kids were really they aren't born in school um but their virtual field trips have expanded their audience from just virginia they're primarily their their field tricks came from virginia here from north carolina but mostly virginia but now they are servicing the entire us through their virtual programs it's made everyone think about things a little bit different um they told us this morning we had our tourism advisory board which board meeting which um councilman holmes thank you so much um that they will not be having any of their large events or festivals in 2021 they don't feel safe doing that they're going to do their roots music and a few lecture series but not large events the american shakespeare center they completed 60 performances for over for thousands of patrons in summer 2020. hopefully maybe you got to see a few at the blackberry and they are opening back up for live performances on may 13th privates in 2020 they also went virtual but they had 317 performances which typically they had 50 performances so um and their youtube and facebook i've garnered 470 000 views so a lot more people are seeing it and what we're hoping more people seeing it they're going to come when they open that up with their performances uh queen city mr magic and and happy birthday america um they were virtual this year queen city mystic magic they called it the year that shall not be named which i think all of us on tourism have said that our hotels in 2020 lost 11.5 million in revenue our independent restaurants their revenue was down 40 to 50 but dine out in downtown saved many from closing permanently so thanks to all of you so we get this report monthly this is called the smith travel report and so this is hotel occupancy adr means average daily rate and revenue is how much revenue hotels have received so what you can see here when the pandemic hit our occupancy started to go down and then in april it plummeted but then things started to get a little bit better and we got our second wave in july and they got worse and then they started to get better we had our third wave in the end of october and november and again it got worse so our data tracks with the pandemic and i just wanted to point out here that hotel revenue was down almost 43 now if you look at our local meals and logic tax lodging tax ours was 43.5 so that it exactly shows you exactly what happened with the um in the smith travel research report but meals tax was only down 12.9
where most of our independent restaurants are down 40 to 50 we are we think the reason for this is everybody felt comfortable going fast food so our fast food businesses did prosper so i wanted to talk a little about the marketing that we've done and some of this is redundant i know i was here last march and you'll you'll recognize a lot of it so we started out in march in the spring with a buy local get local remember local campaign and we didn't have uh our funds were frozen but we were able to do some um local advertising on social media so this was one of our ads about you know spend your money at one of our local businesses this was about give to your arts organizations we wrote blog posts about how to show your local love and remember local was about our historic sites and our museums and if you're not signed up for a statement our weekly e-newsletter then you should but um but we repeated all of our same messaging with buy local and get local so that was for the spring and then come may we did this video in-house i hope you've seen it but i wanted to show it so so so yeah that was we were telling folks we're not ready for you yet but we're waiting for you we have to keep our name out there so what we realized and this was in april may um that there was a financial strain on all of our small businesses so our city manager created a business recovery outreach team the executive orders eased on restrictions on outdoor buying and our stakeholders we had stakeholders meetings after stakeholders meetings and they said we don't want to do another survey we want you to be bold we want you to be creative and we want you to close beverly so that's what we did and we did guide out downtown we had 12 food and beverage businesses and several retailers and it launched on june 5th we provided logistics for them of where curbside pickup would be what streets would be closed where free parking was and we also showed them where their space could be on beverly street and then we had a new public works director come on board in september and he made the bold decision of why don't we get bollards and that has made a huge difference and so i want to thank jeff johnson so in this uh in the fall we created so what we discovered was you know after all the kids are at are doing school on soon but they could come to the frontier culture museum they could go to woodrow wilson presidential library there's so much education here so we started a family campaign that said less screen time more play time and visit stan and this was our most successful campaign of the entire year so that was our advertising this is our landing page um and what we did was we just kind of spelled out hit the road at this time what we found is if we give people an itinerary and tell them exactly what to do then they like that so explore downtown and then it was have a great breakfast and go hiking and visit our attractions and then we received this was our second most popular campaign we received a grant from virginia tourism corporation to produce a video and it was called wonderlove and what it's all about is road trips in virginia so um and what we're trying to do is just provide inspiration um we also use some cares act funding to produce our visitor's guide given you each one we had a few printed but it was really important for us to have a digital guide which i think mr rosenberg sent to you by email earlier but these came out last week are printed we have ten thousand of them which is not our normal currently but it's beautiful i think it really showcases the town we also reopened our visitor center um so we have all of the brochures are behind the desk so our staff um helps folks without them without them touching everything um and then of course the the shield there we offer gas and hand sanitizer we also used caresight funding for an outdoor kiosk for those folks that aren't comfortable going into the visitor center so you'll find this on the outside of the visitor center and it just has a place for a bunch of other stores so looking forward to spring and summer we have preliminary plans for shopping by mountain downtown and beyond we're looking at weekends april through october um we're going to include we're going we're working on new messaging so um to make sure we include shop not just downtown um and we want to engage more businesses that are not on our registry and include those because there's so many people that have outdoor areas that aren't just on beverly and also this spring we're going to do another campaign about the family campaign less springtime more playtime and we received a grant to do that and it's so strange um you know i've been doing this for 25 years and that well a sam is a familiarization tour and that's where you invite people from that own group tour companies or they're from the media and you invite them to come into your account well they're not leaving their house right now so we're doing virtual fans so we've been working on those um for the past several weeks and we're doing a media fan that's going to be a canada uk germany and france so although borders aren't i don't know but they are interested in the shenandoah valley so that's what we have coming up right now any questions for me right any questions or comments mayoral says brady b council member mead yes cheryl can you tell me um the smith's report i think you called it uh with hotel occupancy uh information how does how to stand compared to other localities that are along major interstates in terms of our hotel numbers we're on par with the other um areas around we're actually doing a little bit better i think people feel more comfortable coming to a small town we're doing better than harrisonburg or winchester um but you know our occupancy for the year was still down 35 um but i'll tell you what you know we have monthly meetings our tourism advisory board meetings are amazing with the collaboration that goes on now a lot of folks are really interested in airbnb right now they feel very comfortable in an airbnb rather than a hotel we're hoping that will change we're hoping that you know business travel will come back as well um i think it was bill gates that said um business travel will now be 50 of what it was because of what we've been going through for the past year well we want people to come here to meet than to come read i think it's going to be more of a we're going to have to engage social organizations fraternal organizations reunions to build up our our two conference centers that we have you know just to follow up with you on that on that question that i had are the um are is the smith report just a traditional hotel occupancy or does it include any of our b we do get revenue from bb and t for b and b excuse me um occupancy don't we yes and are you seeing an increase in that um so we do get uh some hotel occupancy for um election tax from some of our airbnbs but you have to have more than i think it's three rooms so someone like gibson's warehouse uh that jeffrey nc owns on middlebrook they pay occupancy tax but if you just have one airbnb you don't have to pay an occupancy tax got it thank you very much um councilmember holmes uh sure what are you talking about uh having like running musicians like on the weekends was that something that came up in one of our meetings yeah that is actually something that's done through sdda um and it's it's busting um musicians and there are certain areas like at um the statler brothers you know monument there that's an area there's several places on beverly street it's all on um swa's website where those locations are made of america vice mayor robertson i keep my interest on one of the things you said can you do you have any insight or have you just got some other things too but you said you wanted to involve other areas like going up augusta up central you know what kind of how would you bring or have any ideas about bringing those businesses into the dine out shop out downtown we have talked about that and if you think about a restaurant um it's going to be difficult for them to set up on beverly street you know i don't think it's going to be that much of an advantage for them what i was talking about is to make sure that we are very conscientious about promoting all of stanton and not just beverly street and making sure that we talk about everyone that has outdoor buying in all of our promotions any additional questions or comments well hopefully 2021 will be a much brighter year fingers crossed but thank you for everything that you're doing for all of stan thank you very much videos great thank you all right that takes us to our next item which is item three on the work session in item a on the regular meeting agenda it's a discussion of an ordinance to authorize a public right-of-way encroachment by the american frontier cultural foundation for placement of a sign into the public right-of-way of the city of stanton located along george m cochran parkway mr rosenberg thank you madam mayor jeff johnston the city's director of public works will present this item welcome thank you very much members of council uh it's great to be here it's my first day of quarantine so it's great to be the american frontier culture foundation on behalf of the american french culture museum has asked permission to place a large lit sign in the roundabout in the george cochran parkway between mcdonald's and chick-fil-a in order to help direct traffic off of richmond to the museum as a rule as public works director i am very public right away belongs to me me alone and it's for the public and i'm and i'm not normally going to stand up here and recommend that we allow encroachment however in this case uh the foundation and museum have been very forthcoming with their design they've made all the concessions that we've asked in the sighting in the design the lighting will be solar so there'll be no trenching of power through the road to get there the location has been moved off the center of the roundabout to avoid utilities but they're underground obviously the presence of the sign makes that a more difficult piece of grass to maintain for our streets crew so the foundation has agreed that they will maintain the grass in the entire round about everything we've asked for they have agreed but ultimately this comes down to it is is it in the public interest in this particular case staff feels that it is in the public interest to allow the sun and it is that lens through that lens that we will look at all future requests for any encroachment in the public right away so uh as much as they may grow me to the american public works association for saying it i along with the rest of the staff do endorse this ordinance and allow to allow the sun to be replaced so if you have any questions are there any questions about council members or any comments mr johnston does the sign otherwise meet our entrance corridor uh sign ordinances it meets most engines quarter sign ordinances it is not in because it is offset off on the cocknum parkway it's actually not in the richmond uh corridor but it is it is low so it doesn't impede any visibility across the roundabout to impede traffic the lights are external and shielded downward so there should be no no issues with a straight light they really everything that we every comment we provided to the design throughout the process they incorporate thank you nice mayor robertson i just i did didn't they used to own that piece of property to begin with and then i started doing so yeah and then maybe my question was how far does the corridor overlay controlled sign off the main road i believe that again that's the given zoning question that's a little bit out of my lane but uh funny i believe yeah i want to jump in here thank you mr reyes bye um as it was noted this is within the right of way and the quarter overlay guidelines do not pertain to city-owned property however getting to the question of how far back does it go basically it's one parcel so however deep the parcel is from the road that is designated as a quarter in this case richmond road so it's one one parcel back when it was adopted many years ago and obviously this property has since been subdivided um in front of it so that's why it's it's more than one parcel behind it thank you for the clarification all right any additional comments or questions yes i'm sorry i think you were going to go exactly where i i was just going to remind council that there's a public hearing exactly all right thank you though all right so um we will be looking at that at our regular meeting it's item a the next item is item four b c and d on your regular agenda but it's item four for the work session this is a discussion of proposed development of property owned by middlebrook trace ba llc and located at 914 middlebrook avenue in the city of stanton virginia and related actions requested of council mr rosenbergs will handle all of these items welcome back thank you madam mayor oak city council members as i'm sure council will recall at your work session just two weeks ago there was a presentation regarding this proposed development which is a multi-family development at 914 middlebrook road avenue it consists of 24 acres their proposal is for two buildings three stories tall each for 82 units the uh projected investment into this property is around 11.5 million dollars but as you will also recall that this is a federal tax credit project and that's why these three requests are coming to you tonight it's ordered to gain points in their application to virginia housing and those specific requests of counsel tonight during a regular meeting is one is to conduct after conducting a public hearing um to consider an ordinance to partially exempt the property or the development from real estate taxation uh two consideration of a resolution to designate the property as a revitalization area once again this is specifically to gain additional points in the application process and number three which is something that was not brought to your attention at your last meeting is for council to consider and to authorize the city manager to write a letter in support of their application for tech for federal tax credits um this is a form letter they're requesting that the city include that they can include in their application i'd be glad to answer any questions you have now obviously there is a public hearing during the regular meeting to receive public comments regarding um the tax abatements um i i'm not sure do we have the representative from the developer on zoom at this time that may answer any questions you have also at this time yeah this is cj i'm here from the development team what do you all like to make any comments council member homes i'm curious how would this affect traffic through that area it's already kind of tied up too councilman ever homes this property i would probably go into this during your regulating his own r4 high density residential this type of development multi-family 82 units on 24 acres is well within the density requirements of that district so it's allowed by rights obviously they would need to go to the site plan review process which is administrative process in various departments and divisions and staff would review those requests to look at any issues with development of the size at that location any additional questions or comments all right uh councilman excuse me vice mayor marvin um rodney i'm just assuming that with that as far as the water electrical that area is set can handle all of these units as far as water supply everything is there um that is something else that would be looked at at the site plan stage staff has taken a preliminary look at it and we don't see any significant impediments to developing that property from public infrastructure standpoints council member clappi and as far as the support letter goes is this routine and is the city manager uh used to doing this supplying this letter mr razerman we have not really a request for this sort of a project uh during my time period here mr clathby i think that it is typical in projects such as this for the city to be asked to submit such a letter and that's why it has a form that is prescribed by virginia housing for use in these circumstances that you don't have any reservations i believe the staff recommendation is in favor of the project and every element that's being requested all right this is caroline gold council never know i just wanted to um say that it's duly noted the banjo has been replaced by a guitar it has they do that sometimes i can see that now yeah all right thank you thank you again that'll be items b c and d on the regular work regular session agenda all right the next item is item number five a discussion of resolution regarding events at the u.s capitol on january 6 2021. mr rosenberg mayor
and members of council this item is on the work session agenda at the request of council member brenda mead and i invite her to address the issue of counsel councilmember mead can you hear me now yes all right we've been asked multiple times by stan citizens to express our condemnation of the insurrection that occurred on january 6 in washington and on february 11th we were presented with a petition that was signed by over 300 people i believe that number has since grown since february 11th who would like to believe that as a governing body we can agree on a statement would express three things uh one that the election was free and fair that joe biden is our lawfully elected president two that we've announced the insurrection that was spurred by donald trump's stop the steel campaign and three that we commit to protect our citizens against the kind of violent extremism that led to the january 6 attack and to to unite the right mile to charlottesville in 2017. so it seems to me that what stanton citizens are asking is do we share their values will we send a message that we won't tolerate far-right extremism and conspiracy theories we have a new full-time communications manager and i suggest that it would be a good use of her time to help us develop a statement over the next few days without a lot of delay or fuss that reflects what our citizens need to hear to continue to have confidence in us as their elected representatives so i put that forward as a motion as a motion to be voted on at this time yes okay there's a motion on the floor is there a second this is caroline all right council member dole has seconded any further discussion council member holmes right or left you know as far as you know people that are uh causing a lot of trouble would it be best to be both sides well i that's possibility what i'm suggesting is that we have our communications manager draft what she feels would reflect what citizens are asking for and also uh be something that we can as a body agree on all right any further discussion ms smith please call the roll mr clappy no miss doll i miss darby no mayor oaks no vice mayor robertson no miss mead yes mr holmes yes motion fails all right that now takes us to the next item which is the break we will be back for the regular meeting at 7 30. the work session is now adjourned what's up all right yes i'll be i'll be glad where's the second part oh as mayor i call this meeting of stanton city council to order i know that this meeting is being broadcast over the city's cable channel and stream live on the city's website so that members of the public may hear our meeting the meeting is also being recorded i asked the clerk of council to call the rule for confirmation of those council members present for today's meeting mayor oaks here miss darby here mr holmes here mr claffey vice mayor robertson here mr miss mead here i have confirmed that all council members are present thank you i ask that city manager steve rosenberg note the participation of any city officials or colleagues or anyone else during today's meeting by zoom or telephone madam mayor participating on this um platform during the regular meeting we have andrew mcroberts the interim city attorney council members paul and jen serber and cj tyree representatives of the developer of middleburg trace thank you thank you please let me mention that notice reasonable under the circumstances of this meeting has been given to the public contemporaneously with the notice provided to members of city council in addition to limited public seating in city hall access to these meetings has been provided to the public by audio feed on the city's cable channel in the city's website during public hearings towards the beginning of the meeting and matters from the public on council's agenda towards the end of the meeting public comments will be taken in person and by telephone members of the public who wish to participate in such matters by telephone at the appropriate time may call 844-854-2222 and when prompted enter the access code 619358 hashtag callers will be recognized in order the public is reminded that public hearings and matters from the public is a time for council simply to listen to your comments each speaker will be limited to five minutes detailed instructions for public participation by telephone have been publicized over the course of the past week on the city's website and facebook page and can be found now on the agenda for this meeting and on council's website at www dot ci dot stanson dot va dot us backslash government backslash city council also let me highlight and have reflected in the meeting minutes that this meeting although being conducted in person is also being conducted by zoom with virtual participation of certain members of city council given the catastrophic nature of the declared emergency in disaster related to the covet 19 outbreak which is part of the total circumstances makes it impractical or unsafe to assemble in a single location the meeting is being held consistent with the city council ordinance 2020-04 regarding continuity of government a copy of which can be found online at www.stanton.va.us.cogord 2020-04 as extended by city council ordinance number 2021 all right with that said i would also like to remind everyone that comes into the city council chambers or into city hall at all please keep your mask on remember to social distance and we offer sanitizer the entrance of the chambers and there's also sanitizing wipes at the podium if you would care to use them uh city council members if you would like to be recognized please recognize the mayor and i will recognize you all right the next item on the agenda is the pledge of allegiance if you would care to do so please join me in the to the pledge for which stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all right the next item on the agenda is the invocation moment of silence and tonight it is council member steve clappy's turn and a happy st patrick stayed all the luck of the irish must be in play to allow me to provide the invocation tonight for those listening tonight be assured i am wearing of the green as is the mayor and i hope everyone will be wearing of the green next wednesday on march 17th for the official celebration of st patrick's day i'm very proud of my irish heritage i am only a second generation american my 24 year old grandfather daniel immigrated in 1911 to new york city and his ellis island paperwork list his occupation as assistant to the pawn broker maybe that's where i got my retail background but at any rate he arrived penniless in new york married my grandmother with a great name of molly curly my father was born during the spanish influenza and a terrible pandemic they went through america 100 years ago and my grandmother always said it was it was the worst time to ever be in new york city ireland is a very interesting country of only about four and a half million citizens which is approximately one half of what virginia's population is yet 35 to 37 million americans claim ireland as their native where they're descended from so that would be about ten percent of america's population list irish as the where the native country but on to the invocation if you would like to participate please bag your head for the traditional irish bus may the road rise up to meet you may the wind be always at your back may the sun shine warmly on your face may the rain fall gently upon your fields in may and until we meet again may god hold you in the palm of his hand amen thank you and the next item is the mayor's report um i would just like to say that um last week i had the honor of speaking to a group of fourth graders at ar where elementary school they wanted to know what it was like to serve on city council and to be the mayor and i can tell you fourth graders can ask some really difficult questions mr rosenberg and myself we attended an sbba meeting earlier this week and the sdda they're still plugging along to keep the downtown as vibrant as possible despite the pandemic i also participated in a trash pickup in the west end i made my son come along to help and we um we enjoyed being able to help out the west end the folks in that area they were just very appreciative of the effort and my last item i have on my list i would like to take a moment to thank our interim city attorney because tonight will be his last meeting with the stanton city council this is andrea mcroberts mr meg roberts we appreciate all of the guidance that you have given us and you have done so with such great knowledge professionalism and you have shown each and every one of us a tremendous amount of respect so thank you for being willing to help stanton out in our time of need and frankly i would like to applaud mr lim roberts we're going to keep you on until sunday at midnight because john blair will begin uh his duties excuse me his duties as the new city attorney on monday all right so the next item is additional items by members of council this is caroline councilmember dole it seems that we have a newfound interest in following uh the council memorandum and so i wanted to point out that we are not going to be able to do anything with the nominations committee tonight because councilman uh procedure memorandum number two item four says a report from the nominations committee will be sent to council with the agenda materials prior to the council meeting that wasn't done so we need to wait until those of us who are not on the committee receive that report along with the agenda materials all right um mr rosenberg or mr mcroberts any guidance concerning this matter i know that neither one of you probably have that particular procedure memorandum before you right now the council procedures and mr mcroberts may wish to weigh in were adopted by council at its organizational meeting and if it's they generally govern the conduct of the body in a particular instance i think that it's um within council's authority to dispense with the application of a procedure in a particular instance if it so desires madam mayor my vice mayor i'm sorry mr mcroberts were you going to say yeah madam mayor i i i concur i mean those are policies that are adopted by the by the council for the council's you know for the for the convenience of the council if the council wishes to take a motion to supersede it then they can certainly do that if they don't do that then i recommend that you follow them all right vice mayor robertson madam mayor i would i would make a motion that we at this time vote to go ahead and proceed with the nominations report so that we can take a vote and get the people that we have voted on working on the committees these committees need people to work on the committees not sit around and wait until such time as we can send another you know wait another two weeks we've got we've got committees that need to perform their jobs and and do the business of the city of stanford so as i make my motion that we go ahead and dispense at this time so we can go ahead and vote on that so there's a motion on the floor is there a second madam mayor councilmember darby second vice mayor robertson's motion all right so we have a second is there any further discussion council member no uh i'm amazed that we're going to ignore our account memorandum but i think that's good because if we want to ignore this one then i suggest that we ignore that we have to wait two years to name something after someone who has passed and so i'll just make a note of that that we are willing as a council in that way to entertain the notion to ignore the procedures that we voted on in july all right councilmember mead i think carolyn has expressed my sentiments uh well thank you any further comments madam mayor i i understand i understand miss meads and miss dole's uh where they're trying to go with this but i think also that that is something uh what i'm talking about is something to uh to actually help the city govern what you're trying to do and i understand that we can talk more about it you know in emails between ourselves but you know this is what we're trying to do is have committees perform the jobs that we uh need to have them do not in this circumstance which but you're trying to get past i understand what ms dole's trying to do i understand and i appreciate that but i think this is what trying to actually get the work of the city done is more important tonight at this time and then yeah that's all i'm gonna say about that councilman is the reason why the nominations committee didn't provide its report they've had uh well over a week to do so well i've never noticed circumstances that i'm not aware of well as long as i've been on council i know that we have always proceeded with the vote from the nominations committee right after they've had their meeting and in some cases the nominating committee would have meetings right before the work session meeting of the city council from years gone back um anyone on the nominating committee would like to make any comments they're comment i'm just i believe we're just doing following standard routine policy so how is that standard routine policy if it's not uh adhering to our council memorandum we're doing the same thing we did last year yeah i'm sorry we're following the same procedure we used last year and and i guess i i guess that means that we didn't follow procedures before so we're not going to follow procedures in the future either that or you just missed it i miss what you missed the point where you didn't follow up on it i've been your pardon but i'm not uh on the nominations committee i understand that but i mean any change you never well as members of council we could uh bring this point up at any time uh and it has been the tradition of the council to go ahead and move forward with the vote now maybe this is something that um we need to take a look at so this might be a very good thing that it's being addressed tonight because maybe we need to take a look at it and either reconsider it or revise it in any way shape or form or just in the future let's just follow the procedure or or take a look at it to see whether or not if the past procedure has been doable or if we do need to go ahead and keep it as is and move forward um hearing no other discussion council member no the reason that the council procedure memorandum says what it says is so that those council members who are not on the nominations committee will have an opportunity to see who is being nominated and what their qualifications are and i think it's important and that's why it's in there so i can't imagine why we would not want to follow it it's not it's not a huge task because you can i mean it's an email is a report and attached materials to it so i'm surprised that that people don't seem to care about following procedures but whatever councilmember doe i do not believe it's a matter of not caring about following the procedures it's a matter of following what the cancels and previous councils from years gone by have done and this is exactly how previous councils have they have conducted the business when it comes to the nominating committee and also councilwoman dole we cannot see you um i don't know if your camera well we need to see your face can you push your camera down it's it's we can only see that your hair and oh thank you i am visible no we need to verify that it's you and we cannot verify that with just the top of your your hair we cannot verify that it's you okay see some hands if you could if you could just push your camera down okay but i would go back to uh saying we've voted on these procedures july so it doesn't matter what former council's dip we voted to do this and i've been waiting and waiting to get a report not once has anybody sent a report and the associated materials okay let's wait till the next meeting so that a report can be sent with the attached materials and and that those of us who are not on the nominations committee have an opportunity to see council member dole you've had many opportunities to raise this as an issue because this is not the first report that the nominating committee has brought before the council this has been done in years past and it's been handled in this manner by previous mayors along with myself now miss smith please call the roll mr holmes mr claffey hi miss dole no miss darby hi mayor oaks hi vice mayor robertson aye ms mead no motion carries all right so the next item well is additional items from members of council and so we have council member clathy with the nominating committee mayor oaks i'm sorry the floor has recognized council member clapping madam mayor the nominating committee has met on march the 2nd of this year we have the following proposals for boards and authorities for the redevelopment and housing authority to appoint allison profeta to replace the expired term of vicky painter for a four-year term beginning march 1 2021 and ending february 28 2025 to appoint david rismeyer to fill the unexpired term of shannon carrington beginning march 1st 2021 and expiring january 2022 for the tourism advisory board to appoint pamela mason wagner to fill the unexpired term of sheri tucker beginning march 1st 2021 expiring december 31st 2022 for the economic development authority to appoint nelson ashby to fill the unexpired term of bruce elder beginning march 1st 2021 and expiring january 31st 2023 and a reappointment for the youth commission to reappoint taylor flavin rose to a three-year term beginning february 1 2021 and expiring january 31st 2024 all right so we have the nominating committee's recommendation since this is coming from a committee we do not need a second is there any further discussion yes this is carol i would like for each of those boards to be in a separate motion so that we can vote individually on the applicants okay it is my recommendation that we not handle it in that manner we are not here to embarrass any citizen that is willing to volunteer to serve on a board or a commission it is my recommendation we handle it as a slate and it has been presented as such and we do not need a second because it's coming from the nominating committee ms smith please call the roll vice mayor robertson aye ms mead miss mead hi mr holmes mr clappy hi miss doll well i vote eye on almost everyone miss darby i mayor oaks aye motion carries all right any additional items from other council members madam mayor heroes sister brendan b vice mayor robertson i was just going to say uh i'm talking about covet 19 and participating in the kobe clinic but with the mayor's permission i'm going to basically move my report on that to item e on the updated progress of the copa 19 vaccine discharge does anyone else on council have an issue with vice mayor robertson given that report under item e after dr carnegie has presented right hearing none that is acceptable councilmember mead yes i just want to report that shenandoah green is planting trees this weekend and if anyone is interested in volunteering uh and shenandoah senator green is also looking for private homes uh who would like to have trees planted on their property so if you want to reach out to the mayor or excuse me to carolyn doll or to myself or if you know someone at the organization they would be happy to get to have you out with them planting trees this weekend and helping them to find homes that might be interested in having trees planted they're also looking for churches who typically have a lot of unused space and a lot of grass that that needs to be cut that might appreciate having trees instead of grass all right anyone else hearing none i'll entertain a motion for the approval of the minutes council member holmes i move to approve the work session i mean the regular meeting has president on the work session your regular meeting minutes of february 25th 2021. all right all right so we have a motion on the floor is there a second adam here vice mayor robertson i've said that we have a second any further discussion fair oaks council number 922 of the minutes uh the the expression uh it says he wanted virginians it should be it should say correctly he saw virginians does everyone see the line that council member mead is referring to yes because he didn't want virginians to revoke the privileges that had been afforded african-american people he saw them do that and was disappointed so it's a very very important distinction okay councilmember holmes do you want to amend you thank you do you want to amend your motion uh what was the lie line 122. sorry guys no that's all right take your time uh if we could just change run 122 to solve virginia he saw virginians not he wanted virginia okay so we have a um an amended motion on the floor to amend the work session and regular meeting minutes of line 122 from he wanted to he saw correct all right um and councilman holmes has made that motion and we have a second by vice mayor robertson if those changes i say okay any further discussion hearing none ms smith please call the roll mayor oaks aye ms mead hi mr clappy all right vice mayor robertson hi mr holmes miss darby i miss dole i motion carries all right thank you the next item is under the regular meeting it's item a a public hearing and consideration of an ordinance to authorize a public right-of-way encroachment by the city of stanton for placement of a sun by american frontier cultural foundation located along george m cochran parkway mr rosenberg i had a mayor jeff johnson the city's public works director representative messiah welcome members of council the american frontier cultural foundation on behalf of the american frontier culture museum has asked permission to approach upon the public right-of-way uh detailed to put a sign up in the roundabout on the georgia car current parkway between mcdonald's and chick-fil-a off of richmond staff has reviewed their design and they have been very accommodating in meeting all of our requirements and while i would normally be very anti-encroachment in this particular case i concur with staff that you allow this encroachment because it is in the public interest uh and to be clear that is the lens by which all future encroachments uh requests will be so if you have any questions all right are there any questions thank you okay we um need to have a public hearing on this matter so when i hit the gavel if you are for or against this particular issue please come to the podium and speak you need to give your name your address and please speak no more than five minutes i will entertain our guests that are here in person first and then we will go to our zoom callers and with that the public hearing is now open hi welcome my name is peggy sheets my dress is 1087 hermitage road stanton virginia i'm here representing the uh board of trustees i have the chair of the board of trustees for the frontier culture museum and on behalf of the board of trustees and the directors of the american frontier culture foundation uh we would really be appreciative of council's consideration for the ordinance um we have been a partner with the city of stanton uh in the surrounding area for 31 years and promoting tourism right now because of the development in front of the entrance to the museum our guests often can't find us so this side would encourage the tourists and guests to find the frontier culture museum and in return we would encourage those guests to to enjoy everything the area has to offer in stanton and surrounding areas thank you and thank you would anyone else care to speak concerning this matter mr rosenberg do we have any callers uh we have several callers and we can check and see whether they're calling to discuss this item out of there okay go ahead the caller who's on the line are you calling about the sign encroachment ordinance or another matter another matter we'll come back to you thank you the caller on the line are you calling about the sign encroachment ordinance or another matter another matter we'll come back to you thank you is the caller on the line calling about the sign encroachment ordinance or another matter let's skip to the next column are you calling about the sign encroachment ordinance or another matter we'll come back you thank you those are all the college matters right thank you all right public hearing is now closed i'll entertain a motion council member clappy i'm sorry i'm looking at council member darby thinking of clapping my apologies council member darby thank you i knew that the city council adopted an ordinance to authorize public right-of-way and crown yes encroachment by the american frontier culture foundation of assigned to the public right-of-way of the city of stanton along george m cochran parkway as presented all right there's a motion on the floor is there a second madame mayor councilmember clappy on the other end all right so we have a motion on the floor and we have a second is there any further discussion hearing none miss smith please call the role vice mayor robertson aye ms hi mr holmes aye mr clappy hi miss dole i'm miss darby i'm mayor oaks aye motion carries thank you all right the next item is item b a public hearing and consideration of an ordinance to partially exempt from real estate taxation by classification or designation property located at 914 middlebrook avenue in the city of stanton virginia and proposed to be developed by middlebrook trace v-a-l-l-c as middle brook trace mr roosevelt madame may i also suggest that you go ahead and announce the next two items as all three of those will be presented at the same time i will be happy to the next item is item c consideration of a resolution to designate property located at 914 meadowbrook avenue as a revitalization area and item d consideration of authorization of city manager to execute and deliver to virginia housing development authority a letter in support of allocation of tax credits to middlebrook trace v-a-l-l-c all right mr rosenberg thank you madam mayor rodney rhodes the city's senior planner will present items b c and d welcome back mr woods thank you madam mayor oaks city council members middlebury middlebrook trace virginia llc proposes to develop an 82 unit apartment complex at 914 middlebrook avenue that will serve low and moderate income families the proposal is for two three-story buildings consisting of two-bedroom and three-bedroom units the site contains a little over 24 acres it is zoned r4 high density residential our highest density district for residents i would note that multi-family apartments are permitted in the r4 district by rights with administrative approval of a site plan no further land use approvals are required and i'll also once again note that the proposed density is well within the limits of the r4 districts as council is aware this is a federal tax credit project and that's why it's coming before you this evening the developer is requesting three things from council tonight a tax abatement ordinance a revitalization area resolution and to authorize the city manager to submit a letter to virginia housing supporting the projects for the allocation of federal tax credits start off with the tax abatement board ordinance the request is for a tax abatement of two thousand dollars a year for a period of three years the developer estimates that they will um place put in about eleven and a half million dollars worth of improvements to this property and based on that figure the city assessor and this current city's tax rate the city assessor estimates that the annual tax revenue would be 109 000 starting in 2024 when the project is completed regarding the revitalization area resolution um the developer notes that this will increase the application score by 15 points and this is a very competitive application process they're going through um there are several criteria under virginia housing which allows you to gain these points and although this property is not in a qualified census tract and it's not already established as a redevelopment area or conservation area and it's not in the housing rehabilitation zone already um counseled uh through an adoption of a solution tonight uh establishing the defined resolution area revitalization area the project may qualify for these application points i would note that the developer just over a year ago prepared a need and demand analysis for a seller project in augusta county that the name of that project is mountain laurel banner three and in the executive summary they note that the total need for tax credit units such as the proposed in the stanton augusta county area by 2025 is calculated to be over 2 000 units the conference plan for the city of stanton supports lower modern income housing it cites it several times in the documents in one place it states that we must assure the state's housing stock is an adequate mix we need to address housing issues such as affordable housing and affordable quality housing is necessary for maintaining a labor force for employers to access regarding the entitlement community designation back in february of 2019 the department of housing and urban development designated the city as entitlement community and just about five months later city council approved the five-year consolidated plan and the 2019 annual action plan and the consolidated plan guides federal funding decisions for the next five years and it has various goals one of those goals is to provide decent housing by preserving the affordable housing stock and another one is to provide a simple living environment through safer more livable neighborhoods and increase housing opportunities a housing needs assessment was undertaken as part of this plan and the housing needs assessment indicates the following lower income households in the city have been greatly impacted by high housing costs that actually between 2000 and 2015 the median income for city residents declined however the median rent increased by 28 over that same time period um income decreasing while median home values and rents continue to rise contributes to a diminished ability for households to reside in the city and finally there is a request for a support letter and the purpose of this letter is to communicate the city support for the allocation of federal housing tax credits requested by the developer for proposed development staff recommends city council approve all three of these items there is a need for low and minor income housing which has been well established in various city plans the proposed tax abatement is significant compared to the expected investment in this property and the projected tax revenue and any although the proposed development is not located in an opportunity zone or qualified census tract any quality affordable housing development on opportunity on appropriately some property benefits the city therefore his staff recommends support of all three items i'd be glad to take any questions you have at this time i believe the developers are also on on the zoom to answering questions or we could answer any questions after you conduct the public hearing on the tax abatement right are there any questions at this time okay hearing none i will go ahead and bang the gavel just like before anyone wishing to speak in favor or against this item please come to the podium or you may call in again state your name your address and you have five minutes to speak with that the public hearing is now open would anyone like to speak mr rosenberg we we have the same caller so the same columns we'll run through those again very quickly i think we have four callers okay uh is the caller calling about the tax exemption proposed or another item no another item i will come back again thank you is the caller calling about the proposed tax exemption or another item yeah you're calling about the tax exemption yes please state your name and address your comp your name and address and address your comments to counsel my name is carter hunter hopkins and i live at 632 west frederick street and i have two questions about middlebrook trails is there a sidewalk on bridge street and do we really think that people making 7.25 an hour could be expected to
pay half of their income unrest right thank you do we have any other callers yes we do let's move on to the next column is the caller calling to adjust the proposed tax exemption or another item but we'll come back to you then are you calling to address the proposed tax exemption or another item another item we'll come back again thank you that's it all right did we um did we receive the name and address of the one caller that wanted some additional information okay i was going to say if we did um mr rosenberg if you could reach out to that caller at a later date this is council member need council member me the the entire feed just dropped out so i heard nothing after the caller's question we did not have any other callers to call in concerning this matter and and what was the response to the caller there was no response because during the public hearing and letters from the public we do not engage in conversation we're happy to follow up after the meeting or at another designated time right would anyone else like to address this issue hearing none the public hearing is now closed i will entertain a motion madam mayor vice mayor robertson do we want to i can do all three at one time it's just one um yeah we need to do each motion one at a time madam mayor i move the city council pursuant to virginia code 58.1-3219.4 adopt the proposed ordinance partially exempting from real estate taxation property located at 914 middlebrook avenue in the city of staten virginia and proposed to be developed by middlebrook trace virginia llc as middle book trace as presented all right we have a motion on the floor is there a second councilmember holmes we have a second any further discussion this is brandon e councilwoman mead thank you i uh i heard mr rhodes say reading from our comprehensive plan i believe that it's our goal to have both affordable housing and adequate stock of affordable housing but also to provide safer and more liberal livable neighborhoods and so i think the caller's question about livability and and um and sidewalks connecting residents to public transportation are things that we should address and not not necessarily for this situation but i think in the future that we need to make sure that if we're going to provide quote unquote affordable housing for our citizens so we're also thinking about how those citizens are going to be able to access public transportation and and i don't think that walking along the road with a wide median or a wide gutter on the side or whatever you want to call it is a way to promote a safe neighborhood for those who need to walk to public transportation to get groceries to go to the drugstore to get to work so i think in the future that we need to consider that uh when we're considering these projects all right thank you any further comments or questions i'm hearing none mr smith please call the roll mr hi miss darby aye mr claffey aye vice mayor robertson aye mr holmes aye ms mead hi mayor oaks aye motion carries all right thank you that takes us to item c i'll entertain a motion adam mayor vice mayor robertson i moved in city council pursuant to virginia code 36 excuse me dot 2 a adopt the proposed resolution designating property located at 914 middlebrook avenue as a revitalization area as presented all right we have a motion on the floor is there a second madam mayor council member clapping all right we have a second any further discussion hearing none miss smith please call the roll miss darby aye mr clappy aye vice mayor robertson hi miss dahl i mr holmes aye miss mead i mayor oaks aye motion carries all right thank you that takes us to item d i'll entertain a motion council member holmes be authorized and directed to prepare and sent to virginia housing a letter substantially informed attached as attachment aid supporting the allocation of federal housing tax credits requested by the developer for the purpose development as presented all right we have a motion on the floors there a second matter mayor council member clapping we have a second any further discussion hearing none miss smith please call the role vice mayor robertson aye ms mead aye mr holmes aye mr claffey aye ms dell aye ms darby aye mayor oaks aye motion carries thank you that takes us to item e an update on progress of covet 19 vaccine distribution mr rosenberg madam mayor and members of council due to unforeseen circumstances dr carnegie the health director for the central shenandoah health district who is scheduled to be with us this evening is unable to join us and the public information officer for the health district whom i contacted this morning has a prior engagement so she too is unable to be with us but ms laura lee white the public information officer for the district has prepared a summary for me that i propose to share with you now and i'll email it to you subsequently and we can make it available to the public as well thank you and then my understanding is that vice mayor robertson has some remarks that he'd like to share with council and the public after i provide this information that's correct um so the this statement is uh titled central senator health district code 19 update for standard city council tomorrow march 12th marks the year anniversary since the first documented case of program 19 in the central shenandoah health district over the last 12 months cshd has reported twenty five thousand six hundred and fifty five coveted 19 cases 875 hospitalizations due to coca-19 and 471 deaths due to program 19. in the city of stanton specifically there have been 2 488 program 19 cases 77 hospitalizations through the p
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