New year brings mix of old and new issues

The town of Culpeper begins the first full week of 2009 with three committee meetings, including one setting the stage for celebrations this year in honor of the town’s 250th anniversary.

Continued discussion of the future of the old Blair House on West Street and what to do about gang graffiti top the week’s other agendas along with a proposal for low-income senior housing on the north end of town.

Here’s a wrap-up of this week’s public business in Town Hall:

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FUNDING REQUESTS, GANG GRAFFITI, BLAIR HOUSE: Today at 4 p.m. the Town Council Finance, Personnel, Technology & Ordinance Committee holds its regular meeting to discuss, among other items, criteria for funding requests from outside agencies in the fiscal year 2010 budget.

The committee also continues to look at enacting a new law that would require private property owners to remove offensive gang graffiti within a set period of time, or, have the town send them a bill for doing so.

At its meeting Dec. 30, the Town Council Public Safety, Public Works & Planning Committee voted in favor of directing the police chief and town attorney to develop such an ordinance.

The graffiti matter goes to full council Jan. 13.

Also on today’s Finance Committee agenda is a recommendation from town staff to reject a bid from local contractor Richard Dwyer to move the old Blair House from its current situation at 205 S. West St. to a lot he owns on the north side of town.

The circa-1924 house sits across West Street from Antioch Baptist Church and is so named for its connection to the Rev. Harrison Blair, a former slave and the first pastor at Antioch, a historic black congregation organized in 1859.

Charles Claiborne Blair, his grandson, built the house some 84 years ago in an area once known as Sugar Bottom, a black neighborhood in existence in some form as early as 1886.

In June, the Architectural Review Board cited the Sugar Bottom connection as the reason the town should not raze the modest two-story dwelling, as originally proposed, to make way for a wider street.

At its recent meeting, the Public Safety Committee recommended that council reject Mr. Dwyer’s bid to relocate the house. That’s because it would have cost the town more than $30,000 to move it, according to Town Engineer Chuck Stephenson, director of planning.

“We believe that we can do it for less, and given the worsening economic conditions are hesitant to spend unless absolutely necessary,” he wrote in an e-mail Monday.

Dwyer, in his bid, estimated it would cost the town $37,685 to move the house to his property.

“There is no rush on removal,” wrote Town Councilman Chris Snider, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, in an e-mail Monday. “We will not do that road project for a while. Still looking at options. I’d like to think we could come up with a win-win.”

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TOWN’S BIRTHDAY: On Wednesday at 7 p.m., the 250th Anniversary Committee holds its first meeting in anticipation of big festivities this year to honor the town’s historic birthday.

Culpeper Town Council appointed the nine-member committee in December with prominent citizens, many of them town natives, to come up with ideas for the celebration.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the committee will elect a chairperson, set meeting dates and times and discuss its scope of duties.

Members of the committee are: John J. “Butch” Davies III, Angus Green, Tom Huggard, Donnie Johnston, Johnson Lane, T.I. Martin, Emma Richards, Bobby Ryan and Kathi Walker.

Culpeper Tourism Director Beth Burns will provide town staff support to the committee. Though not speaking for the council-appointed group, she said she envisioned some “signature event” commemorating the town’s 250th anniversary like a colonial-style dance, for example.

Besides a main event, Burns said, other usually scheduled special events around town could be tailored with the 250th theme, including Remembrance Days in April and the Fourth of July.

An act of the Virginia General Assembly on Feb. 22, 1759, established the town of Culpeper, describing it as a “high and pleasant situation in the county of Culpeper where the courthouse now stands.” One Robert Coleman owned the 27 acres from which Culpeper Town sprung up, divided into 40 lots.

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SENIOR CITIZEN DEVELOPMENT: On Thursday at 6 p.m., the Town Planning Commission holds a work session to discuss a request from Culpeper-based Trigon Development to rezone 12.3 acres at the end of Queen Street — located on the northern tip of town along Route 229 — from low density Residential-1 to the more dense Residential-3.

Trigon is requesting the rezoning in order to build an 80-unit complex for low-income senior citizens. If approved, the rezoning would allow for 50 more housing units than what the current zoning allows.

“This is an opportunity to address the critical issue of senior, affordable housing noted by the Comprehensive Plan,” wrote attorney Davies, representing Trigon, in a Dec. 12 letter to the town. “Given the present economy and the traumatic impact that the economic conditions have had on senior citizens, this application is critical.”

Trigon plans to pursue the Queen Street Village Senior Housing Project in partnership with the Virginia Housing Development Authority.

A primary concern of town staff with the application is that it lacks cash proffers — voluntary payments intended to mitigate the municipal impacts of denser developments.