OPINION: Why I'm Running for City Council

By Matt Kelly
CANDIDATE FOR FREDERICKSBURG CITY COUNCIL

Photo by Nils Huenerfuerst on Unsplash

If City Council succeeds, the home across the street from you could be torn down and replaced by a four-unit multiplex with no additional parking. City Council wants to increase housing density all over Fredericksburg, which will change the character of your neighborhood. And it wants to do it without input from you.

That’s why I’m running again for City Council in Ward 3.

While keeping residents in the dark and ignoring different perspectives, the Council has passed ordinances to increase density throughout the city. They have allowed out-of-scale residential development, doubling the allowed density in the case of Mary’s Landing between the old Mary Washington Hospital and Princess Anne Street. Most recently, Council fast-tracked approval of a massive data center project next to an apartment complex without contacting the residents.

Council is now considering a second nine-story data center project next to Great Oaks subdivision while making no public comment on the project and failing to reach out to the public to learn what it wants. In fact, it deliberately delayed a vote on the center until after this November’s Council elections.

As a result, your real estate taxes and utility bills have skyrocketed in recent years. The cost of infrastructure improvements and services to meet higher density will be borne by you. Residents are seeing more congestion as we mimic the development of the surrounding jurisdictions. And now Council wants to put two-way streets in the heart of downtown, which will bring traffic to a dead stop when commercial deliveries are made.

Efforts by residents to try and get information about what Council is doing have resulted in significant cost in time and money with little success. Residents should not have to file lawsuits against their elected officials to get public information, but they’ve been forced to. Residents who wish to volunteer their time and expertise to the city are denied the opportunity if their perspectives differ from those sitting on City Council. Earlier this year Ward 3 residents were denied the opportunity to have a voice in choosing their current representative to fill the vacant City Council seat.

The purpose of the City Council is to provide the best quality of life for ALL residents, not just a favored few. And as the custodians of residents’ tax dollars, they have an obligation to actively engage residents in making decisions that will affect their quality of life.

City Council needs to return to active engagement with the community and not continue to ignore, belittle, or lecture those they serve.

When residents were actively engaged, the city saw significant improvements in education, the environment, and quality of life. We need to make sure that after November 4^th we have a City Council that sees residents as partners, not adversaries.

I have been involved in many projects that have improved our quality of life in Fredericksburg while focusing on the goal of maintaining the city’s unique historic appeal. Success was in large part due to the active engagement of residents of varying opinions. That involvement was sometime rancorous, but the effort brought about better results. It is unfortunate that this process and goal are no longer even considered by Council.

Be it schools, the city’s first community swimming pool, award winning downtown hotel and parking garage, the Rappahannock River easement, a new police station, or the Fredericksburg Nationals stadium, community engagement went well beyond just obligatory public hearings. Meetings were held with different community groups at their convenience. Questions and concerns were addressed. And residents with different perspectives were appointed to committees overseeing projects.

Through this process we made changes to address concerns, considered different perspectives, and took advantage of the wealth of expertise in the community. Not everyone was happy with the result, but they did feel they had been heard.

An example is the construction of the downtown hotel and parking garage. Building a new structure in the city’s historic district worried many. At the time, discussions around these projects were referred to as the third battle of Fredericksburg. After some rancorous discussions to address the scale of the project, the result was two award-winning projects that complemented the historic character of downtown. Why? Because it included residents in the design process. The process wasn’t easy, but then Democracy never has been. We have different opinions, but we all must be allowed to be heard.

Today, City Council has diverged from the goal of maintaining Fredericksburg’s unique character. Instead, members focus on higher density to create what they term an urban hub. And city residents have not been part of that conversation.

Now, there is never any significant public engagement beyond what is legally required. Council releases little information to the public before public hearings and votes the same evening after little discussion, leaving city residents’ questions and concerns unanswered.

This is not the way to govern. This is not City Council’s city. It’s ours and we need to take it back before that four-unit multiplex pops up across the street from your home.

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