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CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA

CITY COUNCIL Council Chambers, 715 Princess Anne Street Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401

Council Work Session

December 13, 2016

Council Vision and Strategic Work Plan Follow-up Sign Regulations Text Amendment

Bed & Breakfast Regulations Text Amendments Council Chamber Planned Renovations

The Council of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia held a work session on Tuesday,

December 13, 2016, beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the City Hall Conference Room.

Council Present. Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw, Presiding. Councilors William

C. Withers, Jr., Kerry P. Devine, Timothy P. Duffy, Bradford C. Ellis and Matthew J. Kelly.

Council Absent. Councilor Charlie L. Frye, Jr. (work).

Also Present. City Manager Timothy J. Baroody, City Attorney Kathleen Dooley,

Director of Planning and Community Development Charles Johnston, Zoning Administrator

Michael Craig, Development Administrator Marne Sherman and Clerk of Council Tonya B.

Lacey.

Council Vision and Strategic Work Plan Follow-up. Councilor Duffy

presented the updated draft Vision.

City Manager Baroody noted that the Council would be asked to share the draft vision

with the community along with the desired future states as well as the 36 priority work items.

Staff was scheduled to be offsite to work on work plans for the 36 items.

Councilor Ellis said he liked that it started with a vision then the desired future states and

it listed those items we would like to accomplish. He asked if this would be placed on the

website in a nice format for the public to see. Mr. Baroody said they planned to put this on the

website and they plan to update the Council quarterly and those updates could be placed on the

website as well.

Councilor Kelly suggested an addition for the vision statement, he like to focus on what

truly makes the City of Fredericksburg unique, which is the historic character. He suggested a

HON. MARY KATHERINE GREENLAW, MAYOR HON. WILLIAM C. WITHERS, JR., VICE -MAYOR, WARD TWO HON. KERRY P. DEVINE, AT-LARGE HON. MATTHEW J. KELLY, AT-LARGE HON. BRADFORD C. ELLIS, WARD ONE HON. DR. TIMOTHY P. DUFFY, WARD THREE HON. CHARLIE L. FRYE, JR., WARD FOUR

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title of “Remembering our Past and Building our Future” or “Honoring our Past and Embracing

our Future”.

Sign Regulations Text Amendment. Ms. Sherman presented a PowerPoint

presentation and in that presentation she explained the purpose of the changes which were due to

a Supreme Court ruling in 2015. The presentation also covered exempt signs, prohibited signs,

landscaping, design standards, non-residential uses in residential and planned development

residential districts, temporary signs, gateway corridor overlay districts, definitions, sign

measurements, non-conforming signs, and next steps. (See Attachment III for more information).

Vice-Mayor Withers suggested changing the removal of elections signs to no more than

10 days after the election. He thought 30 days was too long after an election.

Council had discussions on lit signs within a building and they expressed concerns that

those signs would not be regulated. To address the Councils concern for lit signs within a

building in the historic district staff said they would try to figure out a way to word illuminated

signs within a building.

In the landscape section, Councilor Kelly said he did not want to totally rule out

landscaping for signs and Mr. Johnston said he thought it could be addressed in the landscaping

portion of the UDO.

Bed & Breakfast Regulations Text Amendments. Mr. Craig said they had

been studying short term rentals for six months. He said during that six months they had been

receiving comments from the hosts, the neighbors, the Planning Commissioners and City

Council. Most of the comments suggested that the City review its ordinance to create a level of

short term rentals that was less intense than a full commercial Bed and Breakfast and that it

could be regulated administratively instead of by a special use permit. Mr. Craig noted that

several Virginia localities had adopted this approach.

The staff compiled a conceptual ordinance for the Council to review and consider. The

conceptual ordinance establishes a limited residential lodging as Air B&B, it would be an

accessory use to a dwelling unit. The principle use of the property would be the home,

townhome or apartment and as an accessory they would advertise a room for rent. This use

would be a by-right use in residential districts. The ordinance would clarify that a Bed and

Breakfast Inn would be a principle commercial use. The limited residential use would have

standards, it would either be owner occupied or occupied by a permanent residents. There would

be a maximum of 3 bedrooms and 6 guests. No additional kitchens would be allowed. The

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parking requirements would be 2 parking spaces per dwelling unit plus one space per guest

bedroom. There would not be any on site signage permitted, no outdoor events would be

permitted and a zoning permit would be required for the use and the zoning permit would include

an emergency contact. (See Attachment IV for more information).

Councilor Devine asked if staff would verify with the owner it the limited residential

lodging would be allowed if it was a renter requesting the permit and Mr. Craig said they would

because the owner would have to sign the permit. She also asked if a temporary sign could be

used and Ms. Sherman said there could be.

Councilor Kelly asked if they could put a limit on number of day stays and staff clarified

that there would be a 30 day stay limit. He also expressed some concern with the parking.

Councilor Duffy asked what constituted a kitchen because some places already had two

kitchens and Mr. Craig explained that if there was already an existing kitchen they could not do

anything about that and sometimes they would require that the stove be removed because that is

the easiest element to remove.

Councilor Kelly asked what the difference was between an Air B&B and a Bed and

Breakfast and staff noted that a B&B could have up to five rooms and ten guests and they could

host events whereas the Air B&B was limited to 3 rooms and six guests and they could not hold

any events. There were other differences such as signage, and B&B would also require a special

use permit.

The Council had additional dialog on what the differences were between a B&B and Air

B&B. The City Attorney clarified that a B&B would address the external impacts with traffic,

parking, noise and lighting issues which would be captured in a special use permit. The City

Attorney said the General Assembly referred the legislation to the Housing Commission and they

have a meeting tomorrow and staff had prepared a comment asking that they leave the

jurisdictions with the zoning authority because we are trying to reduce the number of steps for

the Air B&B owners but the City would have a different way of going about it in order to protect

its neighborhoods. The City’s regulations would allow the limiting of the number of rooms,

guests and it would not allow events. Mr. Craig said the City would like to preserve the ability

to keep the lower level administrative use but the way the legislature wrote the law staff does not

think they can.

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Mayor Greenlaw said she had contacted Bill Howell and she sent him what Mr. Craig and

Ms. Dooley had sent to her saying the City needed to be able to protect and preserve the safety

and integrity of its neighborhoods.

Ms. Dooley requested that Council adopt its legislative agenda which include the Air

B&B regulations and staff would go forth and work on the General Assembly to move in the

proposed direction.

Council Chamber Planned Renovations. City Manager Baroody presented the

changes to the design of the Council Chambers. He proposed to remove the end seats from both

sides of the dais and moving the knee railing forward 42” and closing off the swinging gate and

placing an ADA compliance podium behind the railing. They also propose to move the swinging

gate to the side knee railing. The hanging ball lights would be removed and replaced with LED

lights. There will be larger City seal installed behind the Mayor and the mural on the side wall

will be removed and given to the Museum and the rear doors will be secured. The Clerk’s table

would also be removed and the Clerk would be seated at the dais.

City Manager Baroody noted that the reason for these changes were for security and

ADA compliance reasons.

Councilor Devine asked if the staff could look at removing the lip underneath the dais. Adjournment. There being no further business to come before the Council at this

time. Mayor Greenlaw declared the work session officially adjourned at 7:04 p.m.

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Tonya B. Lacey Clerk of Council City of Fredericksburg