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Haymarket Town Center re-approved; Ellie Cole appointed to council seat
Maybe, just maybe, the drama surrounding the Haymarket Town Center property is about to end.
Or perhaps it is just going to get worse.
On Monday, the Haymarket Town Council voted 5-1 to authorize the sale of the Town Center property to commercial developer Gerry Kennedy for $2.3 million .
Kennedy plans to bring up to 18 small businesses onto the property and move four historic buildings from around town there, as well.
“I'm very pleased with it,” said mayor Pamela Stutz. “I think when it's all over and done, the town residents will see this will be something that will truly help this town.”
She said other offers for the Town Center property included a medical building, a pharmacy with a drive-through lane and even a Burger King restaurant.
“Why do we want to be like Gainesville?” Stutz rhetorically asked. “We don't. We're a town, we want to have some identity.”
Next up for the Kennedy proposal will be another trip through the Haymarket Planning Commission, which derailed the plan the last time Kennedy submitted a similar offer.
Council member Bob Weir, who voted against Kennedy's original offer in January, was not alone in his opposition to the plan this time, though he was still the lone voice of dissent on the council.
Sixty-nine town residents who live near the Greenhill Crossing subdivision signed a petition asking the council to reject the proposal for reasons centering mostly around money, a perceived lack of tax-related benefits for citizens, and a process that was not “transparent and equitable.”
In order to reach the five-vote threshold required for the council to sell the property this time, a sixth council member had to be added to fill the vacancy left by former vice mayor John Cole.
Enter his wife and Kennedy supporter Ellie Cole, whom the council approved at the start of the meeting, 3-2.
Council members Weir and Shelia Jarboe voted against her. Ozzie Vazquez, Tasha Sikorsky and Sue Shuryn voted for her.
John Cole supported Kennedy's original plan in January, which the Town Council approved 5-1.
He then left Haymarket for a six-month period starting in February to serve as a civilian contractor in Iraq with the U.S. Department of Defense.
But he never officially resigned his council seat since he planned to run for re-election in May. He only resigned his title as vice mayor. The council then elected its own Street Scape manager Ozzie Vazquez to be the new vice mayor.
After Cole left, Kennedy pulled his proposal when he ran into problems with the Haymarket Planning Commission regarding a traffic analysis.
Weir, the lone dissenting vote from January, is the council's liaison to the Planning Commission.
So when Kennedy resubmitted his offer last month because of what he called an unprecedented level of support from town residents and the at-large business community, there was one problem: as long as Weir was against the proposal, the council would not have the five votes necessary to pass it once again.
When John Cole found out about this, he resigned his seat with the hopes that a Kennedy supporter would complete the remaining three months of his term.
Initially, Ellie Cole did not think she was qualified to jump on the board, even declaring such in her letter of candidacy to the mayor and town manager.
Eight other Haymarket town residents also applied for the vacant seat.
Cole's main competition came from former council member and Kennedy supporter Jay Tobias, who is running for another two-year term in May.
Tobias and Charles King, Jr., an applicant who had previously spoken out against the Kennedy offer, were passed over outright because, according to the mayor, they are both running for full terms in May. She said the council deemed that would give them a head start over all the other candidates.
Ellie Cole had no such intentions. She said that she plans to serve the remaining three months of her husband's term, and that's it.
“We felt that she has been in the town; she has the knowledge,” said Stutz. “She was up to speed on what she would do.”
Stutz said the other applicants were not as well-known to the council members as Cole, Tobias and King because “they had not participated in the governing process all this time.”
If he is re-elected in May, John Cole will miss only the July meeting of the next term. He is scheduled to be back in town in time for the August town council meeting.
In the meantime, his wife, who is a registrar at Trinity Christian School in Fairfax, will essentially act as his eyes and ears on the council.
“I know what his vision is,” she said March 28. “For three months, I feel I can put forward his vision.”
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