UDAs, or Urban Development Areas, were originally state mandated for counties with high growth projections, including Stafford. The idea was that the high-density, mixed-use developments would help reduce urban sprawl. But this year, the General Assembly went back on its 2010 decision. As of July 1, UDAs will be optional.

Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors discussed how to proceed with the development plans, which call for seven areas in Stafford to offer a mix of residential areas, retail, restaurants and other businesses. In February, the board had created an Urban Development zoning district, but asked the Planning Commission to review possible maximum densities. Now, the commissioners need direction on whether the county intends to keep the designation.

“If we call it UDA, we have to do the whole kit and caboodle that comes with UDA,” Supervisor Bob Thomas said. “If we could somehow keep some features of our Comprehensive Plan that were good things out of that, and maybe look at it from that perspective, I think that would be a worthwhile exercise.”

Supervisors will send a formal referral to the Planning Commission at its June 5 meeting.

Stafford has worked with Rhodeside & Harwell to develop plans for the Courthouse UDA to be a pilot program.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the board gave the park $48,000 for the asphalt needed for paving roads in the park. The Virginia Air National Guard Red Horse Division will provide the labor, but not the money. The Friends of Stafford Civil War Sites asked the board to pay for the roads, which were originally planned to be gravel.

“There’s no question in my mind, that when this is all complete, this is going to be a huge asset to Stafford County,” Supervisor Gary Snellings said earlier this month. “I just applaud Col. [Glenn] Trimmer for what he’s done. He’s done such a great job with this thing, and hasn’t gotten the first dollar in compensation.”

Here's what the park looked like last fall when I toured it with the Historical Commission.

To see the full breakdown of what has been spent on the park, from the count’s Tourism Fund, the R-Board and FSCWS, check out the agenda item.

“It’s just amazing, we’re spending millions of dollars on each park we develop, and this park isn’t costing us anything,” Supervisor Paul Milde said.

(Here is Tuesday’s complete online agenda.)

State law dictates what localities must provide through public records requests, but it does not outline how much may be charged to do so. Supervisor Gary Snellings said the bylaws committee wanted to clear any misunderstandings. “We were concerned, a lot of folks on some of the boards and commissions we appoint may not be aware totally they are under FOIA, and this will lay it out for them,” Snellings said.

The proposed policy would regulate the maximum amount supervisors, public officials and staff may charge for response time, based on their salaries in the county. For example, a supervisor may not charge more than $9.85 per hour, based on his $20,000 salary. The chairman may charge $10.34 per hour. “We put that in there really for the protection of the folks that are requesting the stuff,” said Snellings, who added he does not charge fees when he responds to open records requests.

Recently, Supervisor Cord Sterling charged $1,240 to fulfill a FOIA request—$155 per hour for eight hours. The Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council stated in a letter that the “rate does not reflect the actual cost to the County to produce the records.”

Sterling said all his emails are now on the county server, instead of being forward to his personal email account, which has been common practice for many supervisors. County staff will handle FOIA requests he receives. (Sterling also said that he believes he receives more requests than other supervisors, likely because he is the chairman of the budget committee.) “When people are issuing broad FOIA requests that require days upon days to sift through documents, that’s something that’s above and beyond what’s reasonable,” said Sterling, adding that he’d have to take vacation days to fulfill the request. “They should be responsible for covering the costs they impose upon society.”

Also on the agenda: 

-At 11 a.m., supervisors will break ground for the expansion of the Brooke Virginia Railway Express commuter lot.

• 234 more spaces will be added added to the existing 501-space lot.
• Supervisors broke ground at the Leeland Road VRE commuter lot at the last meeting; 196 spaces will be added to the existing 652 spots.
• Together, the two projects cost $4.4 million.

-The continued public hearing on the rezoning for the Clift Farm Quarter development has been deferred to June 5.

-Also at Tuesday’s evening meeting, the board will discuss a request from the Stafford Regional Airport for a $1.4 million loan.

Groundbreaking for commuter lot expansion at Leeland VRE Station

Adding 196 spaces to the commuter lot will cost just over $1 million. However, by rebidding the Leeland and Brooke lots at the same time, instead of separately as was first done, the county saved $1 million. (A groundbreaking could be planned for May 15 at the Brooke VRE lot.)

Construction has started already, and could be done around September, said VRE Project Manager Kip Foster. “If the weather is as good as it has been the past few months, we hope we can do better than that,” he said after the ceremony. There are about 400 spots already at the lot.

Ribbon cutting for Falmouth sidewalks

As I reported in Tuesday’s paper, part of the Belmont-Ferry Farm Trail is nearing completion. A new sidewalk runs along Washington Street, in front of Amy’s Cafe, and under the Falmouth Bridge. The existing trail in Pratt Park now extends a good ways through Brooks Park, up until the top of the hill. Building a switchback to connect the two pieces is the last part of Phase 3.

Click to enlarge the county's latest version of its map.

Update: 

Fire crews at Rodney Thompson Middle School are now going through “rehab,” says Mark Doyle of Fire & Rescue. That means they’re getting a break and cooling down. “We’re thinking we’re winding down,” he said about today’s bomb threat incident.

Update:

Mark Doyle of Stafford Fire & Rescue says crews have been at Rodney Thompson Middle School since just after 11 a.m. Bomb sniffing dogs have alerted to an area by student lockers, he said. The Marine Corps EOD team from Quantico is also at the school, using optical cameras to look inside lockers.

The school was immediately evacuated to outside the building when crews arrived. Several students were treated for the heat, and everyone has since been transported to North Stafford HS. Parents can pick up their children, and regular bus routes will run this afternoon.

Photo submitted by parent Robert McAleese, when police closed Walpole Street.

Updated from Sheriff’s Office:

Stafford County Public Schools will be transporting the students at Rodney Thompson Middle School to North Stafford High School, utilizing buses brought to the scene. Parents may pick up their Rodney Thompson student at North Stafford High School OR wait until the end of the school day and the students’ regular bus will bring them home like a normal school day. All students are safe.

Original release:

The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office is responding to a bomb threat at Rodney Thompson Middle School. The students have been evacuated from the school and all are safe. The Sheriff’s Office is at the school and is investigating the threat. No other information is available at this time.

– Press Release from Stafford Sheriff’s Office

Alarms went off around 10 a.m. because of smoke in the shop area. The building was evacuated as firefighters ventilated smoke out of the school.

The cause was a malfunctioning HVAC system, Doyle said. “There was no fire, no damage,” he said. Classes should now be returning to normal.

There is no regular 3 p.m. portion of the meeting. Instead, three events are planned:

• 3:30 p.m., groundbreaking for the Virginia Railway Express Leeland Station commuter lot expansion, at 275 Leeland Road.
• 4:30 p.m., ribbon-cutting for the completion of Phase 5 of the Belmont-Ferry Farm Trail, in front of Amy’s Café, 103 West Cambridge Street. This part of the trail project included sidewalk repairs up to Belmont.
• 5 p.m., a dinner in honor of Fire and Rescue Chief Rob Brown, at Amy’s Café.

The meeting will reconvene at 7 p.m. in the Board chambers. The agenda isn’t posted online quite yet, but I’ll add that information when it’s available.

At last week’s meeting, the Board put off approval of the fiscal 2013 budget and 2012 tax rate, citing unknowns in the state budget, which was not approved that day either. State legislators approved Virginia’s budget the next day.

But there were still several other unknowns at last Tuesday’s meeting, including what the tax rate should be in order to achieve a balanced budget.

Supervisors will take up the budget again at their regular meeting May 1. This will likely push back the due date for taxes.

The budget committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the county administration conference room. Members will discuss Utilities, the CIP and the fiscal 2013 budget.