Minutes 03/23/1993 - Laserfiche WebLink

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O28 MarSh 23,1993 Motion of Mr. Clemons and seconded by Mr. Pitts to allow the speaker an additional minute of time to speak and was adopted by unanimous vote. (Exhibit 93-116 (D)) DeForest Mapp, 3828 Flagship Way~ spoke on the practices of the Community Services Board's director as President of the Elizabeth River Properties of'Portsmouth, Inc. and requested. Council to investigate same. Councilman Clemons requested a report at the next work session. Theresa Bohannon, 1053 South Street, representing the Ida Barbour Tenant Council, Inc., spoke requesting Council support for establishment of Boys and Girls Clubs for Public Housing. Helen Person, 1314 Green Street, ~epresenting the Washington Park Tenant Council, speke regarding the relocation of the residents from the Washington Park area. Presentation by Roy Cherry, Deputy City Manager, regarding a newspaper article and correction on I.R.S. investigation into payments into the Police/Fire Pension Plan for the City Manager. Council requested a written report from the City's independent auditors addressing questions regarding the Police/Fire Pension Plan payments. - UNFINISHED BUSINESS - 93-88 Code Amendment ahd rezoning application: (a) Ordinance to amend Chapter 40 of the Code of the City of Portsmouth pertaining ~o sign regulations relating' to temporary signs, exempted signs, and prohibited signs. (CA-92-06) Motion of Mr. Epperson and seconded by Mr. Griffin to adopt the amendments to Chapter 40. Mr. Pitts made the following statement and requested that it be entered into the minutes: "Although I feel uncomfortable about the equity of this sign amendment and the oppression that it seems to put on the "Mom and Pop" and small businesses in Portsmouth, I wil~ reluctantly vote for this sign ordinance with the hope that it will open the door to a review of where we are and where we would like to be. We either have to decide to be a bedroom community with only our real estate homeowners bearing all the tax cost or encourage small business to help balance the tax burden. I want to sincerely thank Ida Kay Jordan for her very sensitive column in the Thursday/Friday Virginian Pilot-Ledger Star "Currents" which gave us a different voice on how we could look and be perceived. We need to be a user friendly City. Many of our larger retail stores have left and now~without some way of softening the blow, we may be guilty of sending a clear message to our smaller retailers in Portsmouth. "We don't care if you can't attract customers as they drive to neighbor cities for retail goods and services, we just don't want to look at you anymore." It appears to me that in our present direction we are more and more creating a Sterile atmosphere downtown which may be pleasant to look at by some people, but we so far have proven that we don't have enough people who like this environment in Portsmouth to support our downtown businesses, as is. It is my opinion that we must create a festival atmosphere, a holiday attitude, and caring climate to have a happy place where the majority of our citizens would want to congregate. Without the opportunity to vote otherwise, I will vote yes with the promise of a review of our sign ordinances (~articularly of window sign restrictions), and the consideration of an appeal process for a sign use variance to specific businesSes." (Exhibit 93-88 (a))