The Haymarket Town Council approved the sale of the Town Center property for $2.3 million on Monday, meaning residents may soon have part of the so-called "walking town" they want, but at an unknown costs.
    The deal with Haymarket-based developer Gerry Kennedy will allow four historic buildings in town to be saved and moved after the April 8 settlement date to the Town Center property.
    Kennedy will also restore or refurbish three of the existing buildings at the Town Center, including the current town hall, to accommodate 16 to 18 small businesses. Part of Kennedy’s plan is also to have a one-acre parking lot constructed at the Town Center. His goal is to have everything ready by Haymarket Day in September.
    Unknowns include everything from how much money the new town hall at the Harrover property will cost and where the Town Council will meet after June 30, to just how successful Kennedy’s plan will be at bringing in business.
    "The majority of the town people want us to save the houses and make this a walking town," council member Ozzie Vazquez said during the 55-minute debate preceding the 5-1 vote in favor of the transaction.
    Council member Bob Weir dissented.
    Vazquez joined fellow consenting council members Shelia Jarboe, Sue Shuryn, Tasha Sikorsky and vice mayor John Cole in citing a plethora of reasons to support the sale.
    He talked in depth about managing risk and how in accepting the deal, the town would know exactly what risks it would take. Without taking Kennedy’s deal, however, the council members would not know if they would ever be able to sell the property for as much money while still saving the historic buildings.
    "It’s a risk for us to continue to sit in this building," said Jarboe.
    Weir countered after the meeting that, "It’s one thing to go on heartstrings. It’s an entirely different thing to talk to the professionals who do this for a living, and they say that the absolute killer is the parking location and that nobody is going to walk."
    Haymarket owes about $1.1 million for the town hall, and because the town has not paid off the principle it owes on three bank notes, the town is docked $92,000 each pay period in interest.
    "That’s one of the reasons why it’s so imperative we get out of here, because it’s bleeding us to death very slowly and…it has not been a money maker," vice mayor Cole said after the meeting. "It never has been."
    "It would be fiscally irresponsible for us to accept this bid," said Weir, the council member noted for being one of two dissenters last year when Haymarket voted to install a 4 percent meals tax. "At this point, we don’t even know what (it’s) going to cost."
    He mentioned Monday there are no actual dollar figures to back up potential construction costs for a new town hall.
    Weir also stressed there is no property owned by the town council already suited to serve as an interim town hall after June 30, and the parking lot Kennedy wants to build will encourage people to drive through town instead of walk.
    Haymarket attorney Scott Weible backed up some of Weir’s claims, as well, suggesting in a letter to the town, "…that proposed plans and costs for the new Town Hall be completed and approved before any sale of the Town’s property be approved..."
    Previously, Weir noted that the lack of an anchor store as part of the development deal means that new people will not be drawn in.
    "And if it fails, you have shuttered shops that aren’t deriving any income for the town. Then, you’re nowhere except heavily in debt," Weir said as he stood next to his car outside Town Hall. "The business plan will not work without an anchor and won’t work with parking a block and a half away."
    The developer claimed the 16 to 18 business would be viable, however, and the proximity of the parking lot would not negatively impact potential walk-up business.
    "Well, we’re spending a lot of money to make sure that is the case, and I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t believe that it was," he said.
    Town manager Gene Swearingen offered confidence in Kennedy and containing costs for the new town hall.
    "We’ll have a budget for a new town hall, and we’ll just have to live within that budget," he said.
    "I don’t mind if our town hall is less than perfect if we get what is valuable to us," council member Sikorsky said during the debate.
    Though in December the town council had discussed the possibility of a new 8,000-square-foot town hall at the Harrover property, the idea of a 6,000-square-foot building came up repeatedly Monday.
    "We’re to the point of planning where anything is open right now," said Cole.
    Once the restoration to the town center property begins after June 30, though, no one knows where the town council will meet before the new town hall is built.
    "Lots of questions, no answers and an unacceptable offer," said Weir as he summed up the day’s proceedings.
    Vazquez offered a different take.
    "Well, the way we voted was basically the way the town’s people wanted us to go," he said.