Consultants, City Seek Input from Mayfield Community
Small area plan for the neighborhood and surroundings will provide specific guidance for the future.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Residents of Fredericksburg’s Mayfield neighborhood have three main priorities for their community—preservation, improved connectivity and accessibility, and improved maintenance.
Consultants from the planning and urban design firm RHI—which the City of Fredericksburg has contracted with to complete the small area plan for Mayfield, Dixon Park, and the fairgrounds—arrived at these three themes based on feedback residents provided at a community meeting in September.
“Today, we’re here to present what we heard from you and make sure we heard it appropriately,” said Sukirti Gosh, a consultant with RHI, at a second community meeting on Saturday.
The City of Fredericksburg has been divided into 10 small areas and a plan has been or will be developed for each one. The plans are a way to provide “specific guidance for the development, redevelopment, and public facilities” in each small area, according to the small area plan website.
City Council has already approved small area plans for Area 1 (Central Park/Celebrate Virginia), Area 2 (Fall Hill Avenue), Area 3 (Plank Road/Route 3), Area 6 (Princess Anne Street/U.S. 1 North), Area 7 (downtown), and Area 10 (Lafayette Boulevard/U.S. 1 South).
Planning is currently underway for Areas 8 (Mayfield) and 5 (University of Mary Washington/Central U.S. 1).
In addition to Dixon Park, the fairgrounds, and Mayfield neighborhood, Area 8 includes more than 100 acres of industrial-zoned land—a chunk of it right in the middle of the residential neighborhood. The small area is bordered by the Blue-Gray parkway, the Rappahannock River, the CSX railroad, and the boundary between the City of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County.
“All these elements create the complexity of impacts to be managed through the creation of a strong vision for the Small Area during the planning process,” the city website states.
About 30 people attended the first community meeting for the Mayfield small area plan in September and about the same amount attended Saturday’s second meeting—a good turnout, the consultants said.
For Saturday’s meeting, RHI made a series of suggestions and proposals incorporating input received so far and asked for more feedback from the community.
“We would also love to hear your thoughts” on the industrial-zoned land, Gosh said.
The proposals for the community to consider on Saturday included traffic calming measures along often highly-congested Dixon Street and Airport Avenue; improving pedestrian access to those streets; creating “gateways” at either end of the small area with signage, public art, and landscaping; and connecting the neighborhood with the river through waterfront trails and seating.
The proposals also stressed the historic significance of the neighborhood, noting that Mayfield is “home to important African American history in the City of Fredericksburg” and “should be preserved from intense redevelopment.”
The City of Fredericksburg is applying to have the neighborhood recognized as a historic district at the state and national level. This will “encourage preservation of the area but [will not] restrict an owner’s use or modification of a building,” according to Saturday’s presentation.
RHI consultants and city planning staff invited those who attended Saturday’s meeting to use sticky notes to add their comments to the proposals.
Mayfield residents Pam Lamar and Lori Lewis said calming traffic and improving mobility and pedestrian access are among their top priorities for the neighborhood.
“Traffic has gotten horrendous,” Lewis said. “It’s getting very crowded.”
Lamar said many of the sidewalks in the neighborhood have been lifted and split by tree roots, rendering them dangerous.
“I’ve tripped and fallen in front of my own house,” Lamar said. “And we have a lot of older residents in wheelchairs and scooters who would like to be able to get out and about. The neighborhood needs to be accessible.”
RHI has conducted an audit of sidewalks in the area to help make recommendations for improvements.
Lewis also said she’d like the industrial space in the middle of Mayfield to be turned into green space, rather than rezoned for commercial or residential use.
“Make it green space,” she said. “If it’s going to be residential, there needs to be some control.”
Many Mayfield residents, such as Lamar, grew up in the neighborhood and returned to buy homes near their parents. This aspect of the community is something that newer residents such as Joyce Resh, who moved into one of the Habitat for Humanity homes in 2021, enjoy and want to protect.
“People want to stay in the neighborhood because of its history and its families,” she said. “I like the convenience to downtown and the quiet.”
Resh said she’s excited to get involved in the process of developing a small area plan for her community.
Will Mackintosh and Janaan Holmes, at-large representatives to City Council, attended the meeting, as did Planning Commissioner Carey Whitehead.
“All public input is important, but comments from Mayfield residents were particularly specific and actionable,” Whitehead said. “Residents spoke to issues at the heart of community livability, like much-needed sidewalk improvements and the desire to preserve housing affordability.”
There will be a third community meeting to discuss the Area 8 plan on February 5, from 5 to 7 p.m.
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