MINUTES OF THE JOINT PUBLIC HEARING FOR THE STRASBURG TOWN COUNCIL AND PLANNING COMMISSION HELD ON THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2006, AT 7:15 P.M. IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS OF THE TOWN HALL.

COUNCIL MEMBERS present:  Mayor Crisman, Vice Mayor Nicholson, and Council Members Himelright, Larrick, Nicholson, Rinker, Taylor, Wallace, and Wilson. 

PLANNING COMMISSION MEMBERS present:  Chairman Smith, and Commissioners Howard, Kepler, Terndrup, and Whittle.  Absent:  Commissioner Elliott.

Mayor Crisman stated the purpose of the Public Hearing is to receive citizen comments on proposals and in many instances this is the first time the Council and Commission have heard comments on the proposals and they will not render any decisions or opinions or answer any questions nor will they respond to comments.  He said the items on the agenda are also on the Worksession agenda where they will be discussed further.  Mayor Crisman added this is what he “affectionately refers to as ‘silly season’; it’s election time and I will make the comment now that there are proper forms for campaigning and there are improper forms for campaigning.  Town meetings and public hearings are not an appropriate place for campaigning.”

SUP 2006-04 Shenandoah Family Homes, Inc. to operate an office out of the residence on property identified as Parcel Identification Number (PIN): 025A1 ((4)) (3) 8.  the property is located at 527 Ash Street and is currently zoned Residential-2 (R-2).

Kim Bishop, 728 Crystal Lane, Strasburg, VA:  Mrs. Bishop said in the past she made birthday cakes for the people of Shenandoah Family Homes and it is really nice for the people to be able to live in homes and if the people who run this feel they need an office where they can work out of, she hopes this will be taken into consideration as she feels they are doing a wonderful thing for the people they are helping.

Public Hearing closed at 7:18 p.m.

RZ2006-05 Madison Development Associates, LLC, requesting that property identified as Parcel Identification Number (PIN): 025 A 165A be rezoned from 61.06 acres of X-Transitional to Residential-2 (R-2) and 73.29 acres of X-Transitional to Agriculture-1 (A-1).  The property is located to the east of Oxbow Subdivision and to the north of the Madison Heights Subdivision and is commonly known as the Island Farm.

Warren Pieratt, 429 Dickerson Lane, Strasburg, VA:  Mr. Pieratt said he has lived in this Town for over 16 years and has two children.  This development has the recreational facilities that are needed in this Town.  Over 60 acres will be given to a foundation that will maintain this.  It will primarily given for the use by Strasburg Little League and Strasburg Midget Football.  He said currently Strasburg Midget Football has enough funds to care for these fields as they have in excess of $16,000 from the budget.  Maintenance on the fields will also not be a problem as many volunteers have already said they will help.  They are hoping these fields will be ready to use during the season of 2007.  Mr. Boyd is making a tremendous donation in these fields --- “upwards of over a million dollars.”  He understands approximately $500,000 is being donated to the foundation for the upkeep of these fields.  He added they are not asking to build 1,000 houses at once; they are only building 18 houses per year.  These are going to be nice houses and “a state of the art subdivision that we can all be proud of.  Our kids desperately need more playing fields, desperately.  Our softball teams, we have 13 softball teams in this Town and we have one field.”  Football has five teams and one field and then they are at the discretion of the high school of when they can play.  He said it has been working so far, but with the program growing 30 players per year, it will eventually get to the point there will not be enough room to play and we need to expand and this is the best way to do it.  This will not cost the Town a thing.

Kim Bishop, 728 Crystal Lane, Strasburg, VA:  “Sports fields are nice and the agriculture area here is nice: I think Strasburg is already or has too many homes planning to be built, too many homes, too many homes.  I think it’s time, if it is possible, to not build any more homes in Strasburg.  There are just too many homes and that is all I have to say.”

Gesina Korte:  “I just came here to support Mr. Boyd’s plan.  I would like to express my support for that as a parent, as a coach, and as a lifelong Strasburg citizen.  I feel that his plan is very encouraging to me as those three things --- as a parent, a coach, and a citizen --- because he’s offering something that I don’t see being offered by a lot of this other development and that is something for our kids.  Here in Strasburg, we all hold our children very special and close to our hearts and I think that he is offering us something that will allow our kids to prosper and to be part of athletic teams, for as Mr. Pieratt said, our midget league football, as well as our little league organizations, are at maximum capacity.  It’s pretty sad to me that we have to scamper about the Town just to find a playing field for our kids to practice on.  He’s offering something, as I said, I don’t see being offered anywhere else; all I see is houses, houses, houses; at least he has a well thought out plan.  Yes, the houses will come; there will be capital gain there, but the gain that I’m looking at is the gain that we will gain with our children and our youth.  I just wanted to express my support for his plan in building the athletic fields and the houses that will probably come with them, but I’m more focused on the athletic fields that he’s offering.”

Scott Terndrup, 247 S. Fort Street, Strasburg, VA:  “The Island Farm was correctly zoned by the County.  The proximity of this property to Cedar Creek, to the historical issues of massive flooding, to fragile wetlands and woodlands, as well as the national park and historical estates that border it, makes this property unsuitable for development.  This was all well documented in the last go round we had several years ago.  By all means, honor the request to rezone the flood plain from agricultural back to agricultural and build those recreational facilities promised by the developer to our young people; there is nothing stopping that from happening.  He could have done it under the County ordinance; he could have done it now; so let’s do it.  We’re all parents and we’ve all had children, we’ve all coached, and we all love our children so if he’s offering to build these things, let’s do it.  However, his request to build a medium density residential community of 95 homes is reckless and it’s premature at this time.  I propose a moratorium on all rezoning requests until the following conditions are met:

1)      The ambiguities of the zoning ordinances need to fully comply with the growth plan specified by the Comprehensive Plan; those two things have got to go together.

2)      A panel of citizens review and make recommendations to the Town Council about the adequacy of our current Comprehensive Plan.

3)      Of great concern is our Town’s infrastructure --- we cannot make developments hoping this infrastructure will be built; the water and sewer treatment plants need to be under construction before new construction is promised.

4)      We need a traffic impact study that includes the 5,000 new rooftops that have already approved in the last four years.

5)      Need to look on this growth of the last four years --- on pollution in our Town, on crime, and my biggest concern is are we altering Strasburg to just another ‘bedroom community;’ I think we need to do a little research before more rooftops are built.”

Charles Maddox, representing the applicant: “The site that we are proposing tonight is of note; you’ve seen it before, you saw it last year during the annexation request in October…This site was deemed to be within the Town of Strasburg in 1984 by a study that was later approved by a three judge panel and the commission on local government to be part of the Annexation B area and ultimately be included in the fabric of the Town.  The reason we are here tonight is to discuss our vision of how we can properly be introduced into the fabric of the Town.

1)  We’ve identified, in our report, a number of transportation issues.  For many, many years, the Town has talked about an eastern way around Town; this project delivers that, that Comprehensive Plan need. 

2)  We’ve also talked about ‘cash flows’ that would allow revenue sharing for improvements to our Town and this project brings you that opportunity through cash proffers. 

3)  It provides a safe and efficient way of traveling for emergency vehicles around Town, not having to come through the main street intersections here, Washington Street and so forth.  It will not increase traffic significantly in the residential areas, but it will allow alternative ways for the residential areas to move throughout Town especially to the Route 11 area.  Together with a Crystal Hill expansion, there will be now two ways from east to north around the Town which will further tend to reduce the density of traffic through any one neighborhood.

4)  The sanitary sewer has been designed.

If you recall a number of rezonings have occurred in the last several years in a step-wise, organized fashion along Route 11 corridor that has produced the Oxbow, Section I and Oxbow, Section II projects that are now reaching/nearing site completion.  Those projects bring a road down to the island.  In 2002, when Mr. Doug Boyd applied for annexation and hoped to connect to the Madison Heights project without any other connection, he was given straight-forward direction by the Council and by the Planning Commission that he needed to do better than that; that we need an alternative route into the site and since 2002, he’s been working diligently to make this happen.  The presentation before you tonight accomplishes that goal.  Also there was a lot of thought put into where the hundred year flood line was; that was an issue that really was well discussed and well presented at the time, however, it was felt more study would be needed.  By hiring the Town’s own consultant, or by the Town hiring the consultant and being reimbursed by Doug Boyd, and having that consultant produce this flood plain analysis which absolutely predicts the 100 year storm elevation, it solved that problem and we have shown this elevation on our plan.  But, more than that, the consultant that the Town has chosen to review its plans, and in this case to do its floodplain analysis …” (Mr. Maddox was not allowed to finish due to the time limit on speakers during the Public Hearing).

Clay Athey, representing Madison Associates:  Mr. Athey said Madison Associates is “in effect Doug Boyd, someone who was born here and raised here in Strasburg, attended Strasburg High School, and had some success in his young life and this particular development for him represents his opportunity to give something back to his community.  The first thing I would draw you attention to is your forefathers were pretty bright --- in the middle 1980’s they realized that the only way that you control growth is to insure that it occurs inside of towns and not cross all the farmlands in Shenandoah County and so they went before the commission of local government and they found an area where residential and commercial development is appropriate.  This area is clearly within that area.  In 2002, Mr. Boyd came before you to annex this particular area which is in the annexation zone, I might add, as determined by a former Council.  He was directed that you need to find an alternative route.  Well, Mr. Boyd has found that alternative route.  In addition to that, what I would direct your attention to specifically is this exhibit (Mr. Athey pointed out various aspects of the plan on maps and diagrams displayed) which explains what Mr. Boyd is looking to do here.  I think your Town ordinance allows for up to six per acres in some areas; the proposal he has is to build 180 homes on 134 acres.  He is going to leave 71 acres in open space; he is going to include within that open space a conservation easement along the area that borders the national park; in addition to that he will have a walking trail that goes around this entire area; there will be 71 acres left agricultural and in open spaces at the end of this particular project --- 55% of this project will remain in open space.  In addition to that he will leave deciduous trees around much of that in the flood plain.  The flood plain has been studied and the areas within the flood plain will be left with deciduous trees or have recreational facilities built within them.  If you look at page 2 of the proffer values submitted by Mr. Boyd, and I can’t speak to projects that may have come before, that is not what I’m here to do tonight, I’m here to talk about this particular project so I would ask you not to necessarily throw out the baby with the bath water because I think this particular one is unique, at least from what I’ve been reading in the paper.  In this one, Mr. Boyd is proffering $500 per lot for your water and sewer to take care of your downstream sewer interceptor improvements for $90,000; $800 per lot to go to your future street system ---  $144,000 that that you can use for revenue sharing money to improve streets within your Town that obviously need improving.  He’s going to proffer $50,000 toward that long awaited stop light at Massanutten Street; $2,500 per lot for improvements to the Town’s infrastructure where you decide to do it; $4,000 toward the Shenandoah County CIP which we all know will end up going per lot towards the schools.  He is going to establish a foundation with $500,000 so that the children here in Strasburg can play on some fields.  The fields that he is proposing, and I might add that we have shifted them because the area in Madison Heights we did not want to create an area where there would be lighting because it might affect that neighborhood so we moved that to the other side of the site, includes a little league field which he intends to build immediately upon approval of this particular application, it includes a baseball field, a softball field, a foot ball field that he intends to start building, picnic areas, an equestrian center, and a soccer field.  Now, if you take the value of all of that, including the lump sum of $500,000 and the build-out of the fields, you arrive at $2,554,000 in amenities that Mr. Boyd has proposed with respect to this particular development.  In addition to that, if you just go to the value of other things that he is going to do to help out the Town in other areas that it needs, he’ll create a conservation easement, he’ll create 50 acres for this park that I just mentioned to you, he’ll have a stream crossing at Madison Heights; a road, at your option, to go to Madison Heights, that is a choice that you will make in the future if you decide to; and also some high pressure connections for your Town utilities.  The estimated tax revenue generated by this development at full build-out is, and this is an estimate, would be $228,000 estimated to the Town of Strasburg and $664,000 to Shenandoah County.  In addition to that he has proffered to build only 18 lots per year; that means the build-out of this will occur in 2017.  I would ask you not, once again, to recall what might have happened in the past, but to look at this project on its own merits.  Look at this project in terms of what it does for the Town of Strasburg and look at the low density, low impact nature of this particular development.  And, lastly, I’d like for you to think about your children.  Do you think these children need fields to play on?  My guess is they do.  And Mr. Boyd is giving something back to his community through this development.  I thank you for your time, Mr. Mayor and members of Council.”

The Public Hearing closed at 7:39 p.m.