Petersburg zoning request turns tense; councilor accuses city manager of marginalizing concerns
PETERSBURG – A vote to change zoning downtown for a multi-use development Tuesday sparked an exchange between a city councilor and the city manager over what the councilor called an attempt to “marginalize” his concerns about the project.
The exchange came right after council voted 7-0 allowing owner/developer Dave McCormack’s request to change the designation of 113 W. Bank St from M-1 Light Industrial to Planned Unit Development [PUD]. The 44,000-square foot building is the former home to Appomattox Tile Co., and McCormack wants to convert it into a mix of commercial and apartment space. The top floor would be converted to apartments as would the rear portion of the first floor. The storefront space on the first floor would remain as commercial space per the PUD designation.
Ward 4 Councilor Charlie Cuthbert, who first said he supported the proposal, asked McCormack if he were willing to lock in on a specific amount of commercial space on the first floor. Cuthbert claimed he was thinking about the long-term future when whoever owns the building after McCormack could be requesting changes to the designated space. McCormack said he was willing to commit up to 10,000 square feet of the first floor – basically the portion that fronts Bank Street.
Based upon reactions from other council members, Cuthbert appeared to be the only one with concerns about the commercial space.
"I don't want to lock you in to 10,000 [square] feet and all," Vice Mayor Darrin Hill said. "If you want your bottom floor to be retail space and your top floor to be residential, I don't see any problems with that."
Hill said he and other councilors at his end of the dais have been talking about McCormack's request "and we're fine with it."
"With all due respect to Councilman Cuthbert, if you feel like [10,000 square feet] is what you want to do, that's fine," he said. "I'm not in favor of the 10,000 square feet."
After the unanimous vote, Cuthbert asked City Manager March Altman if questions like the one he raised about the commercial space could be addressed prior to council taking action. “This was foreseeable,” Cuthbert claimed.
Altman disagreed.
“I don’t know if it was foreseeable,” he told Cuthbert. “Individually, a member of council had a concern.”
Altman said a limit would have to be part of a proffer statement that the applicant would have to submit as an amendment to the zoning request. The city could not “coerce a proffer statement” from the applicant at the podium, he added.
“Outside of that, I didn’t hear anything from any member of council about having a specific amount of retail or commercial space reserved,” Altman said. “It might be difficult unless we hear that in a work session arena or that is presented to us individually.”
Cuthbert then asked City Attorney Tony Williams if what Altman said was “accurate.” Williams replied it was.
“If one member says, ‘I would like X,' he cannot go out and try to negotiate for that X when the other members have not expressed the same concern,” Williams said.
Cuthbert said he was “breathless” about this issue because the limitation was in place for properties zoning to B-2 general commercial district. Petersburg, he said, “has a planning staff and a city manager with a lot of planning experience” that they should be able to address the concerns about commercial space in the vetting process.
Altman reiterated his previous statement and reminded Cuthbert that the issue was about rezoning the building from M-1 to PUD, not to B-2.
“Not knowing what an individual council member’s preference is on a particular case, not knowing that in advance, we cannot address it in advance,” Altman said. “We heard it tonight for the first time.”
Cuthbert took offense.
“I don’t think it’s right to try and marginalize my comment, to marginalize me by saying this is just the view of one council member,” Cuthbert retorted. “Council passed that ordinance some time ago for a reason.”
At that point, Mayor Sam Parham attempted to move the meeting along, but Altman asked for time to respond.
“I’m not marginalizing you or marginalizing your comment,” Altman responded. “The policy doesn’t apply because it’s a different zoning district.”
That prompted Parham to thank Altman for the clarity on the issue, “and we’re going to continue to move on.”
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Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on Twitter at @BAtkinson_PI.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Petersburg councilor accuses city manager of marginalizing zoning concerns
