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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/26/2018 - City Council - Minutes - RegularUNAPPROVED MINUTES CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION November 26, 2018 A work session of the Council of the City of Salem, Virginia, was held in the Council Chambers Conference Room, 114 North Broad Street, Salem, Virginia, on November 26, 2018, at 6:30p.m., there being present the following members of said Council, to wit: Byron Randolph Foley, William D. Jones, Jane W. Johnson, James A. Martin, and John E. Saunders; with Byron Randolph Foley, presiding; together with Kevin S. Boggess, City Manager; James E. Taliaferro, II, Assistant City Manager and Clerk of Council; Rosemarie B. Jordan, Director of Finance; Mike Crawley, Police Chief, and Crystal LaBrie, Assistant to the City Manager; and the following business was transacted: Mayor Foley reported that this date, place, and time had been set in order for the Council to hold a work session; and WHEREAS, Chief Crawley reviewed the proposed ordinance on tethering that will go before Council at the next meeting; and WHEREAS, Mr. Boggess updated Council on the issues related to recruiting employees for Salem businesses. The Workforce Development committee is working with the schools and businesses to come up with a plan to assist with this problem; and WHEREAS, Mr. Boggess gave Council various updates; and WHEREAS, there were no other topics for discussion; and There being no further business to come before the Council, the work session was adjourned at 7:24 p.m. ____________________________________ Mayor _____________________________________ Clerk of Council Ci ty Counci l Meeti ng M INUTES Monday, November 26, 2018, 7:30 P M Council Chambers, City Hall, 114 North Broad Street, Salem, Virginia 24153 1.C all to Order A regular meeting of the Council of the City of Salem, Virginia, was called to order at 7:30 p.m., there being present the following members to wit: Byron Randolph Foley, Mayor, J ane W. J ohnson, Vice-Mayor, Council members: William D. J ones, J ames A. Martin, and J ohn E. Saunders; along with Kevin S. Boggess, City Manager; J ames E. Taliaferro, II, Assistant City Manager and C lerk of C ouncil; Rosemarie B. J ordan, Director of Finance; Melinda J . Payne, Director of Economic Development (absent); Mike Stevens, C ommunications Director (absent); Charles E. VanAllman, J r., C ommunity Development Director; and Stephen M. Yost, C ity Attorney. 2.Pledge of Allegiance 3.C onsent Agenda A.Minutes Consider acceptance of the minutes from the November 13, 2018, work session and regular meeting. Accepted as presented B.F inancial Report Consider the acceptance of the Statement of Revenues and Expenditures for the three months ending September 2018. Mr. J ones noted that the C ity is up about $200,000 in revenue for the year, and for the month of September, meals, lodging, and sales taxes were all in a positive upswing. He credited Ms. J ordan and her staff for their work and also the various businesses that have helped increase the revenue to the City. Received 4.Old Business 5.New Business J eff J eff A.Amendment to the Zoning Ordinance Consider ordinance on first reading rezoning the property located at 1201 & 1203 Texas Street (Tax Map # 149-1-1.1) from RB Residential Building with conditions to HBD Highway Business District with amended conditions at the request of Dynamic Medical, LLC, property owner. (Advertised in the November 8 and 15, 2018, issues of the Salem Times-Register. Recommend approval with amended conditions; see Page 1 Planning C ommission minutes.) STA FF REPO RT Staff noted the following regarding the rezoning request: the subject property consists of a single parcel of 0.522 acres, located on the north side of Texas Street, to the west of the intersection with Lynchburg Turnpike. T he property contains two one-story brick office buildings. On December 12, 1988, C ity Council approved to rezone the property from Residential District R-1 to Residential-Business R-B with the following conditions:(1) T he project will be constructed in substantial conformance with the Conceptual Plan by T. P. Parker & Son dated October 4, 1988, (2) Building "A" will be constructed within one year of the date of approval of the rezoning. Building "B" will be constructed within four years of the date of approval of the rezoning, and (3) Building "A" will be used for professional real estate appraisal services and related activities. Building "B" will be used as rental space for professional offices, real estate appraisal, and/or other similar occupations. Currently Dynamic Medical, a general office, occupies 1201 Texas Street (Building B) and Chloe White Agency, Inc., an insurance office, occupies 1203 Texas Street (Building A). Dynamic Medical is a medical office-consulting firm that pairs medical practices with laboratories. T he applicant proposes to expand their business and add the processing of samples on site to alleviate the shipment to other laboratories. T his request is to rezone the property to allow it to be used as an office/laboratory. T he applicant has stated that no patients will be seen on site and less than six vehicles will be parked. Building A will remain an insurance office at this time. As part of the request, they are willing to add laboratory to the list of conditions for the proposed uses for the property. Mayor Foley noted notice of such hearing had been published in the November 8 and 15, 2018, issues of the Salem Times-Register, and the Planning C ommission had recommended approval of the rezoning request with amended conditions. Mr. VanAllman noted the request is to rezone this property to allow lab work in the building. T he petitioner would like to conduct testing at this location which would involve bringing in new equipment and new materials. He noted in the staff report the existing use is shown as single family residence, but this is not correct. It is a commercial use, and the company is currently in this location conducting business. Also, regarding one of the original conditions, i.e. substantial conformance with the C onceptual Plan by T. P. Parker & Son dated October 4, 1988, the petitioners are in conformance with the previous conceptual plan. He also noted that he thought the petitioners were in the audience. J eff Howard with Dynamic Medical, LLC, property owner, appeared before the C ouncil explaining the rezoning request. T he company is a medical diagnostics distributor, and they serve physician clinics in Virginia and the surrounding states. C urrently, their most popular testing regimen is what is called medication monitoring. So they help physicians practice better medicine by understanding what is in their patients' bodies. He noted that part of this is being fueled by the opiod abuse epidemic. T heir business is growing substantially, and in order for them to continue to grow, they need to process the specimens rather than send them to an out of state lab. T he request to rezone the property is to allow them to do the testing in their facility. T he neighborhood should not see any effect from this change, as it will not be a patient-facing facility. T hey expect maybe a couple courier deliveries per day. In addition, this change will create some additional tax revenue for the C ity. Mr. J ones asked if they would be hiring additional employees. Mr. Howard noted that they will hire a part-time lab director, full-time lab supervisor and technician, part-time courier, and then next year probably a sales representative. Mr. J ones noted that he appreciates what they are doing and for the business they bring into the C ity. Mr. Martin noted that he mentioned they would be purchasing new equipment for the lab and testing. He asked if he had an idea of the cost. Mr. Howard explained the type of equipment and that the cost would be approximately $125,000 per machine. He further noted that the initial investment would be about $300,000. It was noted that this should have been listed as a public hearing on the agenda. Mayor Foley opened the public hearing and asked if anyone else would like to speak regarding the request. T here being no response, the public hearing was closed. William J ones motioned to adopt an ordinance on first reading rezoning the property located at 1201 & 1203 Texas Street (Tax Map #149-1-1.1) from RB Residential Business with conditions to HBD Highway Business District with the following amended condition: Building "A" will be used for professional real estate appraisal services and related activities. Building "B" will be used for professional offices, real estate appraisal or other similar occupations, and laboratory (conditions # 1 and 2 from the original December 1988 rezoning are hereby extinguished). J ane J ohnson seconded the motion. Ayes: Foley, J ohnson, J ones, Martin, Saunders B.Amendment to the Zoning Ordinance Consider ordinance on first reading rezoning the property located at 229 Apperson Drive (Tax Map # 234-3-1) from LM Light Manufacturing District to HBD Highway Business District at the request of 540 Properties, LLC, contract purchaser and Mechanical Development Company, Inc., property owner. (Advertised in the November 8 and 15, 2018, issues of the Salem Times-Register. Recommend approval; see Page 3 Planning C ommission minutes.) STA FF REPO RT Staff noted the following regarding the rezoning request: the subject property consists of a single parcel of approximately 0.5 acres, located near the intersection of Apperson Drive and South C olorado Street. It is triangularly shaped, and bounded by Apperson Drive on the southwest, by Riverland Drive to the north, and by Brook Avenue on the east. T he property is currently vacant. T his request is to rezone the property to allow it to be used for a car wash. T he applicant has proposed a single story, brick or block building for the site. T here will be no direct access from Apperson Drive, and access will be handled from Riverland Drive and will exit onto Brook Avenue where it can circulate back to the light. A vacuum and parking area is proposed at the front of the property. T his property is partially located within the 100-year and 500-year floodplains. Mayor Foley noted that this item is also a public hearing which was omitted from the agenda. He further noted notice of such hearing had been published in the November 8 and 15, 2018, issues of the Salem Times-Register, and the Planning C ommission had recommended approval of the rezoning request. Mr. VanAllman noted the request is to rezone this property to HBD Highway Business District to allow a car wash. He stated he wanted to point out that there will not be an entrance on Apperson Drive. Both the entrance and exit will be on the side streets. Also, Ben Crew with Balzer is in the audience representing the contract purchaser. Ben Crew of Balzer and Associates, representing the contract purchaser, appeared before the C ouncil explaining the rezoning request. He noted as Mr. VanAllman mentioned this request is for the construction of one story car wash facility. It is an automated building with two wash bays. It will be a smaller footprint about 2,000 square-feet which lends itself really well to this parcel which is only about 1/2 acre, bordered on three sides by right of way. With a smaller building footprint and limited parking demand from a car wash, they felt like this would be a good fit for this property. T he contract purchaser is purchasing the property from Mechanical Development. He further noted that the property has been for sale for a while since the restaurant building was demolished. Darrell C raft of 540 Properties, LLC ,who will be the owner and operator of the car wash, is with him this evening, and noted they would be glad to answer any questions. Mr. J ones asked Mr. Crew to explain the traffic pattern. Mr. C rew stated that the vehicles will enter from Riverland Drive and access one of two bays in the building. If a vehicle pulls in and for some reason are not able to go through the wash, there is a small bailout lane which is the second access point off of Riverland Drive. Once the vehicle goes through the wash, they will take a right towards Apperson Drive where they can access vacuums along seven parking spaces. T hen they will exit the property onto Brook Avenue. Mr. J ones asked with regards to history approximately how many cars would usually be in line for the wash. Mr. C rew noted that what they have shown on the conceptual plan is the City C ode minimum of four stacking spaces per bay. It would be hard to anticipate having four cars stacked up in each bay waiting to go through the wash, but they have met the drive-thru standards staff has established from the zoning ordinance. T here was further discussion the proposed project. Mayor Foley opened the public hearing and asked if anyone else would like to speak regarding the request. T here being no response, the public hearing was closed. J ane J ohnson motioned to adopt an ordinance on first reading rezoning the property located at 229 Apperson Drive (Tax Map #234-3-1) from LM Light Manufacturing District to HBD Highway Business District. J ames Martin seconded the motion. Ayes: Foley, J ohnson, J ones, Martin, Saunders C .Salem Municipal Golf Course Consider renewing the lease for Salem Municipal Golf Course for 2019. T he Clerk of Council noted that the City has received a request from Charles J ohnston for leasing the golf course for 2019. T he proposal is to use the same lease that we have used for the last 30 plus years. Mr. Yost believes that Mr. Kime originally wrote the lease, and we are still using it. He further noted that he would be glad to answer any questions. William J ones motioned to renew the lease for 2019 for the Salem Municipal Golf C ourse and to authorize the C ity Manager to execute the lease. J ohn Saunders seconded the motion. Ayes: Foley, J ohnson, J ones, Martin, Saunders D.Abstract of Votes Receive the Abstract of Votes cast at the November 6, 2018, General and Special Election. T he Abstract of Votes was accepted as presented. E.Salem Sports F oundation Consider the request of Salem Sports Foundation for a donation ($1,084.22) equal to the amount of meals tax paid in connection with the Salem After 5 event. Mr. Taliaferro noted that this request is similar to a request from the last meeting. T he City cannot refund tax money, but we can choose to donate the same amount to the organization. T his is a request from the Salem Sports Foundation. J ames Martin motioned to approve a donation in the amount of $1,084.22 to the Salem Sports Foundation equal to the amount of meals tax paid in connection with the Salem After 5 event. J ohn Saunders seconded the motion. Ayes: Foley, J ohnson, J ones, Martin, Saunders F.Appropriation of F unds Consider request to accept and appropriate grant from Virginia Department of Criminal J ustice Services. Audit - Finance Committee Mr. J ones noted the Audit Finance Committee met earlier to discuss this request. Salem was one of 33 localities awarded funds to pay for school resource officer positions. T he C ity of Salem Police Department was awarded a grant of $29,792, which will be used to hire a part-time school resource officer. T he grant requires a cash match of $17,610, which is available in the Police Department part- time salaries account. T he C ommittee reviewed the request and recommends appropriating the funds for the School Resource Officer Grant. William J ones motioned to approve accepting and appropriating the School Resource Officer Grant from the Virginia Department of C riminal J ustice Services for $29,792. J ane J ohnson seconded the motion. Ayes: Foley, J ohnson, J ones, Martin, Saunders G.Appropriation of F unds Consider request to appropriate Animal Shelter donation. Audit - Finance Committee Mr. J ones noted the Audit Finance Committee also discussed this request. T he Animal Shelter is always in need of additional resources to facilitate the care and adoption of abandoned animals. Donations are used to benefit the care of animals by covering costs of spay neuter programs and purchasing items to promote adoptions. In August 2018, the Animal Shelter received a donation of $18,076 from the Estate of Norma Scaggs Bushnell. T he C ommittee reviewed the request and recommends appropriating the Animal Shelter donation. William J ones motioned to accept and appropriate the Animal Shelter Donation of $18,076 from the Estate of Norma Scaggs Bushnell. J ohn Saunders seconded the motion. Ayes: Foley, J ohnson, J ones, Martin, Saunders H.Appropriation of F unds Consider request to appropriate funds for the purchase of property at 508 and 516 East Main Street. Audit-Finance Committee Mr. J ones noted the Audit Finance Committee also discussed this request. T he City entered into an agreement with T.C . Squared Real Estate LLC on October 8, 2018 to purchase the property located at 508 and 516 East Main Street for a price of $825,000. C urrently, the C ity has marked this property purchase for economic development purposes. City staff is requesting that funds be appropriated from fund balance to cover the purchase price of these parcels. T he net amount due per the settlement statement is $818,483.27. T he C ommittee reviewed the request and recommends appropriating the funds to cover the purchase price of the properties. William J ones motioned to appropriate the funds to cover the purchase price of the properties located at 508 and 516 East Main Street. J ane J ohnson seconded the motion. Ayes: Foley, J ohnson, J ones, Martin, Saunders I.820 North Mill Road Site Consider setting bond for erosion and sediment control for the 820 North Mill Road site. Audit - Finance Committee Mr. J ones noted the Audit Finance Committee discussed this request. T he C ommittee reviewed the estimate for erosion and sediment control for the 820 North Mill Road site. T he Committee concurs with the City Engineer’s office recommendation that bond be set in the amount of $8,729 and a time frame for completion set at twelve (12) months. Mr. VanAllman noted that the site is residential, and it is planned for future use as residential single family. T he property owner would like to fill in the low area in order to build his house. T here is no current timeline when he plans to construct the house. He further discussed the request to fill this property. William J ones motioned to approve the bond for erosion and sediment control for the 820 North Mill Road site. J ames Martin seconded the motion. Ayes: Foley, J ohnson, J ones, Martin, Saunders 6.C losed Session 7.Adjournment T he meeting was adjourned at 7:51 p.m.