Report of Middletown Planning Commission 2012
The following account of the activities of the Middletown Planning Commission for 2012 is presented to the Middletown Town Council in accordance with Virginia State Code.
Membership The following members served for the entirety of 2012: Chairman, Walter McCauley; Vice-Chairman, Anita Holley; Commissioner Stephanie Pendleton. In January, Council Liaison Mark Davis was replaced by John Blaisdell, a change which seemed to those present at the January Council meeting to be more reflective of the dictates of then-Mayor Mark Brown than it was of the will of the Council as a whole. Mr. Blaisdell’s position as liaison was negated shortly afterward when he resigned from Council with Messrs. Brown and Barrington. Council then reinstated Mr. Davis as liaison. Zoning Administrator Wharton first resigned in January from most of his positions, later amending this to resignation from Planning Commission alone. Council did not appoint anyone to serve as Administrative Liaison.
The Year in Review Three major items occupied the Planning Commission in 2012: 1.
The Comprehensive Plan Update. In a remarkable display which managed to combine exceptional boorishness in equal parts with complete disregard for protocol or courtesy, thenMayor Brown attacked the Planning Commission before its January meeting came to order for not advancing his agenda in general and not rewriting the Comprehensive Plan to his dictates in particular. The opinion of the majority of the Commission on this issue remained what it had been in 2011, that the existing document was sound and not in need of extensive revision or rewrite. However, a rewrite was agreed to by Commission at the insistence of Mr. Davis, who had been involved in the discussions formulating the current plan, and who felt that a different format would be beneficial. As a result, work on the Gateway Commercial ordinance was tabled in favor of this. It must be stressed that as the Comprehensive Plan is the most important document a community can have, work on it must be done with care, objectivity and rigorous analysis; simply cobbling together a cut-and-paste version from an existing plan, with no other criteria for choices of inclusion or exclusion than personal like or dislike, will not do. It is necessary to look at events affecting the area as a whole and gauge possible impacts, which is why the Update Committee contacted Chris Boies at Lord Fairfax Community College so he might
talk with them concerning the college’s plans for expansion, as this would naturally affect any projects the town might consider for the North End of town. It must also be stated that the claim that not changing the Comprehensive Plan has put the proposed Reliance Road Boundary Adjustment at risk is unfounded. The only changes to the Comprehensive Plan that had been requested by the County had been handled in 2010 by then-Commissioner Heffern; in discussions with Messrs. McCauley and Davis, Eric Lawrence stated that more changes might be requested by the County in the future but there were none at present; and if the Steering Committee had any information to the contrary, it should have been forwarded to Commission, properly documented. 2. Crosswalk on Main Street. Some years ago, the desirability for a crosswalk on Main Street had been raised and investigated by then-Councillors Bernhards and Hickman; their findings had been discussed by Council and further action tabled for a future time. That appeared to be the end of the matter until late 2011 when Commission was asked to evaluate a proposal from Lellock Consulting concerning a crosswalk at the intersection of Main and Second Street. A report of this evaluation was prepared by Ms. Holley which was presented at the February Commission meeting. It was given to Mr. Blaisdell who was instructed to present it to Council. It was, however, intentionally misdirected by him to Mr. Wharton. Repeated requests for its return so it might be forwarded to Council by Mr. Davis ended with Mr. Wharton’s claim that it had been “lost”. The report was reconstructed by Mr. McCauley and forwarded to Mr. Davis. In an attempt to clear up the confusion surrounding various details about establishing a crosswalk , Mr. McCauley and Ms. Holley met with Messrs. Balderson and Carter of VDoT, who reiterated the information originally given to Messrs. Bernhards and Hickman. Messrs. Balderson and Carter also felt that a basic crosswalk could be managed on Main Street at a cost of roughly one thousand dollars. 3. Mobile Concession Units. The recent state of the national economy has seen a rise in popularity of food vending vehicles as a venue for small business. In January, Carl Story was granted provisional approval with a temporary use permit for his Hillbilly Dogs vehicle, provisional because there is nothing in Town Code to regulate this type of business. In preparing an ordinance to regulate these units, Commission received templates from NSVRC from Madison, Wisconsin and Old Town Winchester for consideration. Matthew Cloud of the Department of Health suggested using the Fairfax County ordinance as a reference. A final draft for this ordinance is being prepared by Mr. Davis.
The Year Ahead Work should resume on the aforementioned Gateway Commercial zoning designation, as well as the designation for the southern end of town and Main Street. As stated in last year’s report, there needs to be a stronger working relationship with both NSVRC and the Valley Conservation Council.
Appendix A Appendix A Summary of Permits Issued 2012 The following information is taken directly from the Permit Reports presented at each of the regularly scheduled meetings of the Planning Commission. For further information regarding any of these permits, please contact Zoning Administrator Wharton. January
7695 Main; electrical 7723 Main; temporary electrical service
February
7723 Main; building 7969 Main; building 2182 Shawn; building 7889 Main; mechanical
March
None
April
7780 Main; building
May
(No Permit Report forwarded in time for the Commission meeting or since)
June
2130 Shawn; building 7969 Main; plumbing 2153 Shawn; electric
July
2177 First; building
August
2112 Fifth; building 2433 First; building
September
7710/12 Main; building/electrical/plumbing
October
7800 Church; electrical 2460 Third; mechanical
November
None
December
None
Appendix B Certification of Monthly Minutes The undersigned hereby affirms that the minutes on record are an accurate and unbiased account of the discussions and activities that took place at each monthly meeting of the Middletown Planning Commission.
Walter McCauley Chairman for the calendar year 2012 Middletown Planning Commission