Will Petersburg sell more land to a developer who failed to keep past promises? THE AGENDA
Welcome to The Agenda! This weekly feature will cover all the public meetings in Petersburg, Hopewell and Colonial Heights that may be important to you.
On Tuesday, Petersburg's City Council will be meeting at 5 p.m. at the Petersburg Public Library. The meeting is open to the public and will be live streamed here. The meeting's agenda is full of items for discussion that are highly relevant to the public, including a questionable land sale, the city's budget presentations and more.
Petersburg considers sale of more land to developer who already bought land for pennies on the dollar, never fulfilled promises
Tuesday's City Council Meeting will include a request to schedule a public hearing on June 18 for the consideration of an ordinance that would allow the City Manager, John “March” Altman, Jr., to authorize the sale of a city-owned property at 741 Blick Street to J.C. Bynum Construction LLC.
J.C. Bynum Construction LLC is owned by Sheila Bynum-Coleman. Bynum-Coleman, who lost a race for a seat in Virginia’s House of Delegates in 2019, accepted a plea deal in a revenge porn case in late 2020 for distributing nude photos of a woman who had an affair with her husband. She was sentenced to 200 hours of community service.
Bynum-Coleman already owns 12 parcels of land in Petersburg, including multiple properties on Shore St and Wilson St. The assessed value of the 12 properties was $84,600 in 2020, the same year Bynum-Coleman purchased all 12 for $1,200—or $100 each. The properties were worth at least $7,050 each, and the move by the city to sell them for under 1.5% of their value infuriated locals.
At the time, both the City Council and Bynum-Coleman said that the sale would be beneficial to the revitalization of the city, as Bynum-Coleman promised to build 12 affordable "tiny" luxury homes on the parcels of land that she purchased and thereby increase the property value of the area. To date, only one of the properties has been constructed.
Now, the city wants to sell Bynum-Coleman more land. This time, the sale of the city-owned property located at 741 Blick Street would be for $3,750, or 83% of its assessed value of $4,500. To justify the sale of the land for less than it's worth, the city is once again citing the potential neighborhood revitalization that would come from the sale, in spite of the fact that Bynum-Coleman never completed the construction of the 12 luxury properties she promised in 2020.
What's Next for Petersburg? PetersburgNext
After months of planning, surveys, focus groups, public workshops, draft presentations and work sessions, the city will be having a public hearing to officially adopt Petersburg’s New Comprehensive Plan, PetersburgNext.
As the guiding policy document for the long-term planning and future development of Petersburg, The Comprehensive Plan is the city’s most important document for navigating growth, development, and change, according to the city of Petersburg. This is the final step in the process before the city council vote on the matter.
The goals of Petersburg's Comprehensive plan, as listed on the agenda, are as follows:
Economic Development: Petersburg will build a thriving and resilient economy that promotes quality jobs in diverse industries, workforce development, tourism, and business opportunities.
Housing and Neighborhoods: Petersburg will be a city where all housing and neighborhoods are attractive, safe, and accessible to all residents.
Parks, Recreation, Arts and Historic Preservation: Petersburg provides equitable access to parks, recreation, the arts, and historic resources to facilitate healthy lifestyles, tourism, and celebration of heritage and culture.
Community Facilities and Infrastructure: Petersburg provides and maintains exceptional community facilities, services, and infrastructure to enhance livability and promote a high quality of life for all residents.
Public Safety: Petersburg prioritizes community safety and wellbeing through consistent, efficient, and equitable public safety service delivery.
Environmental Stewardship: Petersburg will commit to fostering resilience, community wellness, and quality of life through protecting and enhancing its natural resources.
Mobility and Transportation: Petersburg’s community is equitably connected through a well-designed, well-maintained, and multi-modal regional transportation network.
Land Use: Petersburg will support land use and development patterns that are high quality, environmentally sustainable, and enhance economic opportunity and equity for the community.
FY2024-25 Proposed Operating Budget fails to include employee raise for second year in a row in spite of understaffing crisis
Also on the agenda for Tuesday's City Council Meeting in Petersburg is a public hearing for consideration of the City of Petersburg’s FY2024-25 Proposed Operating Budget.
The proposed city budget —which was previously presented to the public in two community meetings held in April—does not include a raise for city workers for the second year in a row despite severe understaffing issues plaguing the city. A fifth of city employee positions — 104 out of 501 positions — are vacant. Nearly three quarters of Petersburg's departments are missing a quarter of the staff that they should be operating with. But — already stretched thin — the workers who are staying behind to pick up the slack are once again seeing no pay raise, in spite of the fact that many are doing the work of several employees.
The city budget draft does, however, set aside $1.3 million for a proposed program aimed to retain city employees, with a special focus on police and fire department employees. There is no description provided for this program on the draft budget, and it is unclear to what extent this program would help retain employees in Petersburg's most direly understaffed departments, which include the Economic Development Department, Animal Control, Social Services, and more.
Proposed 2025 school budget $2.5M less than last year's
The City Council Meeting will also include a public hearing to approve and appropriate the FY2024-25 budget for Petersburg's public schools.
The proposed budget for Petersburg City Public Schools is $2,507,275 less than it was last year, in large part due to significantly less grants being offered to Petersburg's public schools this year. The FY 2024 adopted budget included $20,533,708 in grants. This year, the proposed FY 2025 budget is nearly half of that— only $11,565,663.
The total budget for Petersburg City Public Schools is $79,558,324, which includes the following breakdown:
Local Fees: $269,408
ERATE: $225,000
Sales Tax: $5,872,886
State: $46,163,889
City Transfer: $12,361,478
Food Service: $3,100,000
Grants: $11,565,663
City Council endorses financing City Council Member's brother's ongoing renovation of Hotel Petersburg
Finally, among other items, the agenda for Tuesday's city council meeting includes a public hearing to consider the adoption of an ordinance in Petersburg's Tourism Development Plan. This ordinance considers a funding request from the city's Tourism Development Financing program by Tabb Street Development, LLC to help fund their ongoing renovation of the historic but run-down Hotel Petersburg located at 20 West Tabb Street.
Tabb Street Development, LLC is owned by Nathan Cuthbert, City Council Member Charles Cuthbert's brother. Cuthbert purchased Hotel Petersburg from the city, which was assessed at $670,000, for $200,000 — less than a third of its value. Petersburg's City Council has endorsed both the Hotel Petersburg project as well as city funding of the project, and, according to the agenda, finds that the project "fills a void" in the city's tourism strategy.
This week's public meetings in Petersburg, Hopewell and Colonial Heights are as follows:
Tuesday, May 21
Petersburg City Council Closed Session Meeting, 3- 4 p.m., Petersburg Public Library. View the agenda for this meeting here.
Petersburg City Council Meeting, 5 - 6 p.m., Multipurpose Room, Petersburg Public Library. View the agenda for this meeting here. The meeting is open to the public and will be live streamed here.
Wednesday, May 22
Hopewell Board of Zoning Appeals Meeting, 6 p.m., Municipal Building (City Council Chambers), 300 N. Main Street. Inquires? Contact Planning Director Christopher Ward at (804) 541-2221. View the agenda for this meeting here.
Thursday, May 23
Petersburg Economic Development Authority Meeting, 6 to 8 p.m., Petersburg Public Library.
Tuesday, May 28
Keep Hopewell Beautiful Committee Meeting, 6 p.m., Hopewell Library, 209 E. Cawson Street. Inquiries? Contact Senior Planner Kelly Davis at (804) 541-2269.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: THE AGENDA: Contradictions and conflicts of interest in City Council.
