HomeMy WebLinkAbout6/6/2017 - Regular
June 6, 2017
257
Roanoke County Administration Center
5204 Bernard Drive
Roanoke, Virginia 24018
The Board of Supervisors of Roanoke County, Virginia met this day at the
Roanoke County Administration Center, Fourth Floor Training Center, for a special
meeting with the Planning Commission. Audio recordings of this meeting will be held on
file for a minimum of five (5) years in the office of the Clerk to the Board of Supervisors.
IN RE: CALL TO ORDER
Chairman McNamara called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. The roll call
was taken.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman Joseph P. McNamara, Supervisors George G.
Assaid, Al Bedrosian, and Martha B. Hooker
MEMBERS ABSENT: Supervisor P. Jason Peters
PLANNING COMMISSION
MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman Wayne Bowers, Members Rick James, Paul
Mahoney and Jim Woltz
PLANNING COMMISSION
MEMBERS ABSENT: Member Troy Henderson
STAFF PRESENT: Thomas C. Gates, County Administrator; Daniel R.
O’Donnell, Assistant County Administrator; Richard
Caywood, Assistant County Administrator; Ruth Ellen
Kuhnel, County Attorney; and Deborah C. Jacks, Chief
Deputy Clerk to the Board
IN RE: REQUESTS TO POSTPONE, ADD TO, OR CHANGE THE ORDER OF
AGENDA ITEMS
Ms. Kuhnel added a new business item as item C-2, which was the
Request to approve final documents to facilitate the transfer of the former William Byrd
High School Property to the Developer. There were no objections.
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IN RE: NEW BUSINESS
Resolution establishing a written policy for participation in Board of
Supervisors meetings through electronic communication (Ruth Ellen
Kuhnel, County Attorney)
Supervisor McNamara explained the necessity for the resolution.
Supervisor Bedrosian stated he did not have a copy and requested copies to be
presented to the Board. Supervisor McNamara asked that this item be moved after the
next New Business item in order for the requested copies to be disseminated. There
were no objections.
Request to approve final documents to facilitate the transfer of the
former Wm Byrd High School Property to Developer (Ruth Ellen
Kuhnel, County Attorney)
Ms. Kuhnel outlined the request. There was no discussion.
A-060617-1
Supervisor McNamara moved to approve the staff recommendation to
approve final documents for the former William Byrd High School property and
Supervisor Assaid seconded the motion. Motion approved by the following vote:
AYES: Supervisor Assaid, Bedrosian, Hooker, McNamara
NAYES: None
ABSENT: Supervisor Peters
Resolution establishing a written policy for participation in Board of
Supervisors meetings through electronic communication (Ruth Ellen
Kuhnel, County Attorney)
Ms. Kuhnel outlined the request for the resolution. Supervisor Bedrosian
stated he is not ready to approve this resolution. There was no further discussion.
RESOLUTION 060617-2 ESTABLISHING A WRITTEN POLICY
FOR PARTICIPATION IN BOARD OF SUPERVISOR MEETINGS
THROUGH ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION
WHEREAS, Virginia Code § 2.2-3708 allows members of local governing bodies
to participate in a meeting through electronic communication means from a remote
location in certain situations; and
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259
WHEREAS, a written policy must be established for such participation.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Supervisors of Roanoke
County, as follows:
That the following policy is established for Board members’ remote electronic
participation in Board of Supervisor meetings:
1. On or before the day of a meeting, the member shall notify the Chairman
that the member is unable to attend the meeting due to an emergency or a
personal matter. The member must identify with specificity the nature of
the emergency or personal matter. A member may also notify the
Chairman that the member is unable to attend a meeting due to a
temporary or permanent disability or other medical condition that prevents
the member’s physical attendance.
2. A quorum of the Board must be physically assembled at the primary or
central meeting location. The Board members present must approve the
participation; however, the decision shall be based solely on the criteria in
this resolution, without regard to the identity of the member or matters that
will be considered or voted on during the meeting. The Clerk or Deputy
Clerk shall record in the Board’s minutes the specific nature of the
emergency, personal matter or disability and the remote location from
which the absent member participated. If the absent member‘s remote
participation is disapproved because such participation would violate this
policy, such disapproval shall be recorded in the Board’s minutes.
3. Participation by the absent member shall be limited in each calendar year
to two (2) meetings or 25 percent (25%) of the meetings of the Board,
whichever is fewer.
4. The Board shall make arrangements for the voice of the absent member
to be heard by all persons in attendance at the meeting location.
On motion of Supervisor McNamara to adopt the resolution, seconded by
Supervisor Hooker and carried by the following recorded vote:
AYES: Supervisors Assaid, Hooker, McNamara,
NAYS: Supervisor Bedrosian
ABSENT: Supervisor Peters
IN RE: WORK SESSIONS
1. Work session with the Roanoke County Planning Commission to
discuss the draft Reimagine/419 Town Center Plan (Philip
Thompson, Deputy Director of Planning)
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Mr. Gates gave a brief introduction. In attendance from Stantec was
Steve Kearney. Mr. Thompson provided the Board with a PowerPoint presentation
providing the Board with the draft Reimagine/419 Town Center Plan.
Supervisor Bedrosian asked what was the cost of the study with Mr.
Thompson advising base was $265,000 and with options $312,000, which the cost paid
for the County. Supervisor Bedrosian then asked who the largest property owner was
with Mr. Thompson advising there are three large property owners: South Peak,
Tanglewood mall property and Old Heritage. All three of those total more than 50% of
the study area.
Supervisor McNamara stated he has been to a similar area called Crocker
Square outside of Cleveland and if somebody thinks Tanglewood Mall is going to make
it in its current form, just look at the history. It is going down, so we are really are at a
unique opportunity/time frame to really transform that entire area. It could be the hub of
this valley. The challenge is we are not developers. From what he saw if you can
imagine the potential of this area; it would be transformative for this area. The current
status quo is not going to work and not have us where we want to be in 20 years.
Supervisor Bedrosian stated he would agree, but the big question he
always has and a lot of people have talked to him about where is government and
where is the free market. When he looks at this, he feels we should be in the Board
room of the developers instead of the County. He thinks it is beautiful, but when he
looks at what we have now, he sees dollar bills. The other thing is how is Valleyview
Mall doing. He sees stores moving in all the time. Jim Woltz advised they have a lot of
transition of new owners. Valleyview is not a good comparison because it draws from a
broader area than Tanglewood ever thought about; West Virginia and North of 81.
Supervisor Bedrosian says if they draw people they must do something that attracts
them. Tanglewood does nothing. Twenty-five years ago it was a booming place and it
seemed to just sit there. Mr. Woltz stated the broad area that it draws from and the
diversification of what is there. They have attempted a little of this, i.e. Barnes and
Noble. They have tried to create an atmosphere like we are talking about here. He
thinks one of the keys is if we can structure this so that it is allowed, the developer is
going to be the one that comes in and pays to develop this, but nobody is going to step
in unless we make our ordinances and the plan friendly enough that they would take an
interest in doing this. There is a perfect example in Sarasota. If you travel around and
look at these real estate developments that are going up, it would allow Roanoke
County to have a “city center” and have something that feels like a core. If you look at
Roanoke City you can see what has happened once it started. We can make the
building codes and standards so we can attract this. He would not worry too much
about the cost, the cost will be the developers cost. There needs to be flexibility in how
this is done.
Mr. James stated that if we keep it user friendly then the developers will
be there. He agrees that we are not going to do it as government. We are going to
create a plan that somebody will say they are willing to develop in that regard.
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Supervisor Bedrosian would like to see a similar locality that has done this
to see what was done. Do we have that? Mr. Kearney responded they have some
examples of populations vs. what the governments put in to get going that they would
provide. Mr. Kearney also noted that Tanglewood was not designed to pull from other
areas and Valleyview was.
Mr. Mahoney stated the owners of Valleyview have somewhat repurposed
their facility implementing some, but not all, they don’t have mixed up development,
resident like what is suggested in this plan, but if you look at the out-parcels, there are
different restaurants and commercial activities that are just outside the mall. They are
trying to create a central open space with internal parking. They were seeing some of
the problems and if you look at the turnover of the shops inside the old mall, Valleyview
has done outside.
Mr. Woltz added that you could change a couple of ordinance; there are a
lot of things that could be changed that would not be that difficult and then you could
see if there is somebody out there interested. Multiple heights could change the whole
area and some developer would take a look. He thinks it would put Roanoke County on
the map to become a target for a developer that otherwise would not look at it.
Ms. Hooker commented that if she understands Mr. Woltz, the Board
needs to look at this whole study as a zoning issue and talking about relaxing some of
the standards and giving great ideas, but not talking about doing it as a government with
Mr. Woltz confirming.
Mr. James added that from the Planning Commission standpoint, it is their
job to steer the ship to bring in potential investors.
Supervisor Bedrosian stated he understands, but what he sees is that as
soon as we do that then they require a $2 million investment from Roanoke County to
do something before they move in and we say yes, we don’t have the money, we
borrow it, etc. and that is how it always ends up. It never ends up where we say we are
going to relax the standards and we never touch it again. There is always money that
we have to put in.
Mr. James added that Stantec can provide us with information if we do put
in $2 million can we make $4 million back.
Supervisor Bedrosian stated that he has always heard that before and that
is why he was interested in seeing another County that did it and how much did the
locality have to put in and what did that look like.
Supervisor Assaid commented that he likes the discussion about relaxing
standards and seeing what type of participation we can get from the landowners.
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Mr. Woltz stated from a revenue standpoint, you have to look at it not just
the tax revenue. He knows the County has to look at that because that is where the
budget comes from. However, what it may do for the overall community and not what
happens right there with the retail space, but then it becomes a whole different
development plan for builders, people that want to develop areas that are close to that
area. It may make Clearbrook become an area where people would want to build
something out there that could benefit because of the development. It may really spin
up more revenue; not just the tax revenue. We need to be careful saying “relaxing
these.” All we are trying to do is not really relax these ordinances and codes but create
an ordinance and codes that would allow for this type of development that is currently
not allowed.
Supervisor Assaid stated we are going to guide the owners and
developers of the property.
Supervisor Hooker added and create more options.
Mr. James stated he felt putting in residential and building some
apartments and have people move in you will have revenue back pretty quick.
Supervisor Bedrosian asked if he thought if we did that tomorrow what
would happen.
Mr. James stated just look at downtown Roanoke.
Mr. Woltz stated he thinks you would see developers start to respond,
even that one simple change.
Supervisor McNamara stated if we do nothing, we know exactly where we
are going and he is not interested in going there.
Mr. Mahoney stated from the Planning Commission perspective, he thinks
they are very excited about working with the Board to begin an implementation of this
process. What he would like to hear from the Board that this is the path you want to go
down. There is a whole lot of opportunities. Roanoke City changed their ordinances so
that they do allow for the mixed use of commercial and resident and you can see how
successful that has been for a whole variety of neighborhoods in the city. We believe,
we hope that same kind of catalyst could occur here. The concern he has if you look at
your implementation matrix, there is a lot of “stuff” that you may not want to do. So, he
would ask the Board when they have a chance, go through the various steps that are
set out starting of page 57 to page 65; there is some very specific steps that are talked
about with regard to what the Board would want to do or not want to do.
Supervisor Bedrosian stated that he would like to see actual data with
what it costs the taxpayer.
Supervisor Assaid reminded everyone that Roanoke City has access to
historical tax credits that Roanoke County does not have access to.
Supervisor McNamara asked what were the next steps.
Mr. Mahoney asked if the Board were comfortable with the implementation
steps.
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Supervisor McNamara asked for thirty days to review and get back to the
Planning Commission.
The work session was held from 5:10 pm until 6:18 pm.
IN RE: CLOSED SESSION
1. Section 2.2.3711.A.1 Discussion or consideration of the
employment contract of specific public officers, appointees or
employees, namely the County Administrator
At 6:18 p.m., Supervisor McNamara moved to go into closed meeting
pursuant to the Code of Virginia Section 2.2.3711.A.1 Discussion or consideration of the
employment contract of specific public officers, appointees or employees, namely the
County Administrator. Supervisor Peters seconded the motion.
The motion carried by the following recorded vote:
AYES: Supervisors Assaid, Bedrosian, Hooker, McNamara
NAYS: None
ABSENT: Supervisor Peters
At 6:19 p.m. Chairman McNamara recessed to the Board Conference
Room for Closed Session.
Closed session was held from 6:46 p.m. until 6:58 p.m.
IN RE: CERTIFICATION RESOLUTION
At 6:58 p.m., Supervisor McNamara moved to return to open session and
to adopt the certification resolution.
RESOLUTION 060617-3 CERTIFYING THE CLOSED MEETING
WAS HELD IN CONFORMITY WITH THE CODE OF VIRGINIA
WHEREAS, the Board of Supervisors of Roanoke County, Virginia has convened
a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in
accordance with the provisions of The Virginia Freedom of Information Act; and
WHEREAS, Section 2.2-3712 of the Code of Virginia requires a certification by
the Board of Supervisors of Roanoke County, Virginia, that such closed meeting was
conducted in conformity with Virginia law.
264 June 6, 2017
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Supervisors of
Roanoke County, Virginia, hereby certifies that, to the best of each member's
knowledge:
1. Only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting
requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting which this
certification resolution applies; and
2. Only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening
the closed meeting were heard, discussed or considered by the Board of Supervisors of
Roanoke County, Virginia.
On motion of Supervisor McNamara to adopt the resolution, seconded by
Supervisor Assaid and carried by the following recorded vote:
AYES: Supervisors Assaid, Bedrosian, Hooker, McNamara,
NAYS: None
ABSENT: Supervisor Peters
IN RE: ADJOURNMENT
Chairman McNamara adjourned the meeting at 7:00 p.m.
:u omitted by: Approved by:
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