MINUTES
REGULAR
MEETING – February 5, 2004
Mary Anne Graham, Vice Mayor
Mark Albright
Phil Bzdyk (8:10 arrival)
John Heyner (8:20 arrival)
Council Absent: Hazen Dean
Public Attendees: Vladimir Gavrilovic, Streetscape Steering Committee/Consultant Lisa Zimmer-Chu Resident, Round Hill VA
Josie and Tony Macais, Resident, Round Hill, VA
Steve and Cathy Harvey Resident, Round Hill VA
Kevin Pecol, Resident, Round Hill VA
John Ghaffari, Resident, Round Hill VA
Scott Ramsay, Resident, Round Hill VA
William Waldmas, Resident, Round Hill VA
Amy Sikora Resident, Round Hill VA
Micole Carey, Resident, Round Hill VA
Ivan Clark, Resident, Round Hill VA
Bill Sha, Resident, Round Hill VA
Jing Zhang, Resident, Round Hill VA
Craig Nagle, Resident, Round Hill VA
Jeff Stewart, Resident, Round Hill VA
Craig Fredericks, Resident, Round Hill VA
John Washington, Resident, Round Hill VA
Lisa Cammarota Resident, Round Hill VA
Meeting Began: At 8:07 p.m., Mayor Frank Etro announced that the Council was awaiting arrival of one more member for quorum to be present. Upon his arrival, Mayor Etro called the meeting to order at 8:10 p.m.
I.
Public
Comment. Mr. Tony Macias
introduced himself and his wife, Josie, as new residents to Round Hill. They have just recently learned of the
Master Plan and are looking forward to getting involved in its
development. Mayor Etro responded that
there would be many opportunities for them to do so.
Ms. Lisa Zimmer-Chu addressed the Council with respect to the Richmond American proposal to rezone the area between the Villages at Round Hill and the Town proper from its by-right development density of one house per acre (yielding approximately 40 homes) to a higher density yielding approximately 118 homes. She stated that this is a rezoning issue, and not a development/no development issue. She has spoken with many of her neighbors, and the consensus is that this is not the reason that they moved to the Round Hill area. She cited that Maximum Density is not an allowable reason for rezoning, and she feels that developer has not made the case for rezoning for any other reason. She appealed to the Council to listen to the voices of the constituency surrounding the proposed development area. While they understand that the by-right development density may proceed, they do not support a rezoning which would permit higher density building on this property.
Mr. Craig Nagle, stated that his concerns were similar to Ms. Zimmer-Chu’s, and asked that the Council consider, if this rezoning is permitted, at what point (due to precedence) would other, similar requests be able to be denied?
Mr. Scott Ramsey echoed the opinions of his neighbors, and noted that Richmond American has brought forth two proposals: one reflecting higher-than-currently zoned density, and the second reflecting an even higher density. Neither proposal reflected the by-right development density.
Mr. John Ghaffari raised the issue of light pollution, and cited the reason his family had moved to Round Hill was the small-town atmosphere, which is in serious jeopardy if this rezoning is to take place.
Ms. Lisa Cammarota stated that many people had moved to this area because of the small-town atmosphere. If this rezoning is approved, at what point can future growth be stopped? What will happen to our school system with the addition of over 200 children?
Ms. Cathy Harvey stated she recently moved here, but would not be able to stay if the development proposed through rezoning were to be approved.
Mr. Chu asked what was the purpose of the builder asking for the rezoning?
Mr. John Washington said that he agreed with all the concerns raised thus far.
Mr. Jeff Stewart said that this situation is symptomatic of the actions being taken by the new Board of Supervisors. He urged Sterling residents to recall Bruce Tullock. In his opinion, if this does not take place, little can be done to slow the growth surge. A second resident agreed that this rezoning request is a symptom of the new Board’s agenda, and stated that unless we fight these relatively small battles now, there will be a continuing spiral.
Ms. Zimmer-Chu stated that rezoning is a public process, and just because indications are that this rezoning will be approved, it does not mean that the public should “go away” or cease to voice their opinions.
Mr. Ivan Clark asked where the Council stands on this issue?
Mayor Etro stated that the Council has not yet received the application from the County. He stated that this is indeed a public process and it is just beginning. The Town will have an opportunity to make comments in the process. The Town has not taken a position as of yet. Mayor Etro urged residents to keep coming to meetings- to keep democracy in action- and reminded the public that rezoning is a 1-year process.
II.
Approval of the
Agenda:
Ms. Graham noted that the presenter for item VI was not present, and thus this item may not be discussed this evening. Mayor Etro requested that, due to the weather, item VII be struck and moved to the next meeting’s agenda.
Vote to approve
agenda: 5-0
Aye: Mary Anne
Graham, Vice Mayor
Mark
Albright
Phil Bzdyk
John Heyner
Meg
Nash
Absent: Hazen
Dean
III. Approval of Minutes: Mr. Heyner moved approval of the December 4, 2003, minutes. Ms. Nash seconded.
Vote to approve
January 15, 2004 minutes: 5-0
Aye: Mary
Anne Graham, Vice Mayor
Mark
Albright
Phil Bzdyk
John Heyner
Meg
Nash
Absent: Hazen
Dean
IV.
Action Items: there were none.
V.
Presentation of
Streetscape Master Plan, by Mr. Vladimir Gavrilovic. Mr. Gavrilovic is employed by Paradigm Design, of Reston,
Virginia. Under the direction of the
Round Hill Streetscape Master Plan Steering Committee, they have prepared a
Draft Round Hill Streetscape Master Plan, Attachment
A, which is the topic of Mr.
Gavrilovic’s presentation this evening.
During his presentation, Mr. Gavrilovic defined the Master Plan in this context and reviewed the rationale for preparing such a plan. He then summarized the process that was undergone to develop this Draft plan, and highlighted the recommendations made, including the top five proposed projects. All of this information is contained within Attachment A.
Mr.
Gavrilovic stated that this Draft is the result of a very active and engaged
Steering Committee over the past four months, and noted that four months is a
very short timeframe within which to turn around such a plan.
Questions were solicited, but there were none. Mayor Etro stated that he would like the Council to start the public process of making this a Town Plan by sending this document to the Planning Commission. Mr. Heyner moved that the Draft Plan be forwarded to the Planning Commission to start the public process of reviewing this document for the purposes of making it the Town Plan. Ms. Nash seconded. Mayor Etro stated that he would like to give the Planning commission a timeframe—it was decided that a reasonable timeframe would be 30 days to public hearing and to make a recommendation to the Council by the end of April.
Vote to send Draft
Master plan to the Planning Commission: 5-1
Aye: Mary
Anne Graham, Vice Mayor
Mark
Albright
Phil Bzdyk
John Heyner
Meg
Nash
Absent: Hazen
Dean
VI.
Presentation by Bob
Gay of the BA Rural Water Association. This
item was stricken, as the presenter was not in attendance.
VII.
Treasurer’s
report. Will be addressed at next
meeting.
VIII.
Mayor’s
report.
A.
Snowplowing at the
Art Center. The Art Center had
asked the Town to plow their parking lot as they were not able to do it, had an
imminent event, and needed help. They subsequently hired a local plow service.
As part of the work that has taken place in developing the Draft Master plan, the issue of private/public cooperative efforts with respect to parking has been raised. The mayor would like for the Planning Commission, in concert with reviewing the draft plan, to consider possible solutions for the Town parking issues. For example, could arrangements be made with the churches in town to use their parking lots during the week? Perhaps plowing services, or something similar could be traded for public parking access. The Mayor asked the Council if they would like the Planning Commission explore this area. Council members felt that the Council should look at this area first; Mayor Etro will take the lead in exploring possible cooperative options.
B. Website Maintenance. Regarding the current status of Website Maintenance, the mayor asked for volunteers to work on Maintenance and or Design. There was a proposal that had been submitted which proposed an $30 hourly rate, which would be available on demand. Ms. Nash moved that the Council accept the proposal from the independent contractor to supply Website Maintenance on demand for a fixed hourly rate. Mr. Heyner seconded. Mayor Etro asked if there was any cap on the services—Ms. Nash responded that a cap could be defined when a job was sent to the company for processing (i.e., if this is going to take more than ˝ an hour, they would notify the Council before proceeding). Mr. Yost asked which line item would accommodate this. It was agreed that this topic would be researched and included at the next Council meeting as an Action Item.
The Mayor established a committee to develop criteria for a new website. Though the Mayor expressed his current satisfaction with the existing web site the Council generally agreed that the existing website is outdated. A new website could be set up that is much easier to maintain. Mayor Etro asked if Mr. Heyner and Ms. Nash would work on this committee, with a completion by May. Mr. Heyner and Ms. Nash agreed.
With respect to inviting the School Board Representative to a Council meeting, Mayor Etro reported that he is in the process of getting that scheduled. The Council would like the School Board to explain how they do their planning, how they arrive at their projected population numbers, and how they arrive at planned sites.
Mr. Albright asked if there was any update on the barn? Mayor Etro stated that this would be discussed in executive session. Ms. Graham asked if there was any update on the Don Darling property developement? Mayor Etro responded there was not.
IX. Council Reports
A.
Mary Anne
Graham: Ms. Graham reported she had
drafted a letter of appreciation to Mrs. Towe, and asked for comments. She also asked Mr. Yost to provide the
verbiage provided on the Purcellville plaque.
Mr. Bzdyk stated that he really liked the letter Ms. Graham
drafted. Ms. Graham stated she would
have the staff prepare it for presentation and would schedule the presentation
for a future meeting.
B.
Mark Albright: no report.
C.
Phil Bzdyk: regarding the Public comments this
evening, Mr. Bzdyk was reminded of a similar instance about 14 years ago with
respect to the Villages. He remembers
being very discouraged, during that time, that the Council moved in a direction
opposite the public comment, as did the County. Mr. Bzdyk pledged that he will not ignore Public comment, and
though the Council is very limited jurisdictionally, the Council will be asked
for comment at some future date, and the Public comment received this evening
will not be ignored.
There is some progress on the remodel of the back office. There are plans available that have gone out for bid, and there have been three interested builders to date. Deadline for bids is March 1st. Ms. Graham asked who would be reviewing the bids. Mr. Bzdyk stated he planned on reviewing them and welcomed any Council members to join him. Mr. Bzdyk estimates that, once the job starts, completion should take between one and two months. He wants to minimize disruption to ongoing operations of the Town office as much as possible.
D. John Heyner. In the last meeting we talked about the two Stormwater management proposals we had received, and, at that time, Mr. Albright thought a third proposal would be desirable. We did receive a third proposal, which is in the Council data packet. Mr. Heyner and Mr. Albright will draft a comparison matrix of the three proposals, and plan to meet with the respondents on February 19th. They plan to have a report for the Council at their next meeting.
Regarding the Public Comments this evening, Mr. Heyner feels effort needs to be focused on strategy. With respect to Oak Hill, so much effort was put into fighting the development, that a lot of potential postives that could have been negotiated were lost. Also, Mr. Heyner reminded the public that they need to focus on facts, figures, and impact statements when addressing the Town Council and the County Board of Supervisors. He believes they will be more receptive to these types of comments than to general statements about personal preferences.
E.
Meg Nash. The next Hometown Festival meeting will
be on February 23rd. She is
receiving more interest on participation in the yard sale during that Festival.
X.
Town
Administrator’s Report. Applause to
Karen Kirk and Alan Wolverton- through their work, the Town was able to recoup
$6,200 from Hurricane Isabel expenses.
There was a previous meeting on source water protection (i.e., well heads). At our last council meeting, there were council members who asked to be informed of future meetings of this type. Mr. Albright would like to yield chairmanship of this committee to another Council member who has interest. Mr. Bzdyk is willing to assume this position after hearing more about the scope of the job.
Town Council had previously asked that the policy on charging developers for Plan Reviews and for Construction Inspections be examined. The Town attorney has reviewed this, and we should be able to recoup plan review fees. We can’t, however, recoup inspection fees, in the instance of Oak Hill Investors.
Ms. Graham asked if Mary Ruth had been contacted to inform her that she could not hold her annual flea market in the Town Hall. Mr. Yost said he plans to do that imminently. Secondly, Ms. Graham asked if any steps had been taken to get the Cedar Street water projects started. Mr. Yost stated that a detailed report should be available after their next meeting.
XI. Bills for Payment. Ms. Graham moved bills be paid. Ms. Nash seconded. Ms. Nash asked why Kerosene was being purchased from Purcellville Builders? Mr. Yost replied that it was being used to heat the water tower. Ms. Graham observed that a heater was purchased for the water tower even though the Town doesn’t technically own it yet. Mr. Yost replied that there was a serious freezing issue at hand, and damages could have been sustained without the heater. It was prudent to buy the heater to avoid the consequences freezing would have caused. The engineer for the developer/owner and the Town engineer had been consulted.
Vote to pay bills:
5-0
Aye: Mary
Anne Graham, Vice Mayor
Mark
Albright
Phil Bzdyk
John Heyner
Meg
Nash
Absent: Hazen Dean
XII.
Public
Comments: Mr. Scott Ramsey reported
that he was part of the group who sent a letter to the Town regarding
distressed properties. He had not heard
any feedback and would like to point that out.
Council members stated that this issue is being discussed in Executive Session (as it is a legal matter) and that, upon resolution in that meeting, a response to the residents would be forthcoming.
Another resident commented, with respect to the Website redesign, suggested that it would be nice to have Council meeting agendas posted on the web. Also, the copy of the reports concerning water project status would be welcome information on the web. Finally, this resident requested a contact for Storm water management issues. It was suggested that she talk to Mr. John Heyner.
Mr. William Walden commended all that worked toward the Streetscape Master Plan that was presented today. He suggested a way to get more public knowledge and input on this matter would be to post the document on the web. With respect to school board questions tonight, Mr. Walden suggested the Council might have better success getting answers to the questions they are planning to ask by going to the school board office staff, because of the recent large turnover in school board members. Finally, Mr. Walden agrees with Mr. Heyner that public comment to the county should focus on facts and figures. The Public would appreciate help from the Council in quantifying the kind of burden that will be placed on the water and sewer system with the addition of the 70 homes allowed by the potential rezoning proposal. Mr. Heyner stated there is a study that is almost complete that will supply that information. That study data should be available within a month.
Mr. Jeff Stewart stated that at his home on Hampton Road, he gets water that is pink, black, and most recently, yellow. This leads to the question of the health of the current water system. Pressure is also an issue.
Ms. Zimmer-Chu encouraged the Council to consider a resolution that would reflect the Town’s position on the proposed development by Richmond American Homes. The Council assured her that there will be many more meetings before a resolution is drafted, and that there will be time for that to happen.
A citizen spoke to traffic control measures through town. His experience is that a stamped brick walkway is not going to provide any noticeable traffic control measure. He recommends the only solution to this problem is to work with the County Sheriff’s office to have more staff police these roadways.
XIII.
Executive Session to
Discuss Legal Matters. Ms. Graham
stated the following: Pursuant to
section 2.1-344 of the code of Virginia I move that the Round Hill Town Council
recess the regular meeting and enter executive session. Regarding to the executive session, section
2.1-344A subsection 7, the public specific matters to be discussed are legal
matters.
XIV.
Return to Town
Meeting. Ms. Graham moved that the
resolution certifying the Executive Session be adopted. Ms. Graham move that the Council re-enter a
regular session. Ms. Nash seconded.
Mr. Heyner moved that the Council deny the Murtock claim for release of $30,000. Seconded by Ms. Graham.
Vote to deny: 4-0
Aye: Mary
Anne Graham, Vice Mayor
Phil
Bzdyk
John Heyner
Meg
Nash
Absent: Mark Albright
Hazen Dean
XII.
Executive Session
to Discuss Legal Matters. Ms.
Graham stated the following: Pursuant to
section 2.1-344 of the code of Virginia I move that the Round Hill Town Council
recess the regular meeting and enter executive session. Regarding to the executive session, section
2.1-344A subsection 7, the public specific matters to be discussed are legal
matters.
The meeting adjourned at 12:38 a.m.
Approved Minutes are located in Town Office.