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Mayor asks for outside review of Fredericksburg's river easement document Date published: 2/28/2006
By EMILY BATTLE Fredericksburg Mayor Tom Tomzak has asked the City Council to hire an outside attorney to review its proposed river easement. Tomzak said yesterday that he wants John Lain, a partner with the McGuireWoods law firm in Richmond, to look over the document and answer questions submitted by council members. Lain works in McGuireWoods' real estate and environmental department. Tomzak said he called Lain, and asked City Attorney Kathleen Dooley to consult with him, after doing some Internet research and asking around for recommendations on attorneys with experience in environmental and land-use issues. Tomzak's request comes as the City Council prepares to hear public comment on the easement at a March 9 hearing. Tomzak said yesterday that he thinks the easement is an "adequate vehicle to protect the river." He also said he'd like to see the issue--which has been debated for more than two years--resolved by the end of April. "I do think the council has done due diligence on this document," he said. He said he wants Lain to help sort out varying interpretations that both council members and county officials have had of parts of the document. The agreement would permanently sell development rights on 4,232 acres the city owns along the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers to The Nature Conservancy, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and the Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries. Tomzak said he hopes Lain will be able to clarify points such as who really has authority over what roads cross the river in the future, how liable the city could be for future litigation over boundary disputes, and how the city can get more concrete guarantees that easement holders will be held to promises to help it protect the land far into the future. Some council members feel those questions have already been answered. Vice Mayor Billy Withers said he has no problem with another level of review, but "there's been more than enough due diligence." He said he thought the roads issue was cleared up when Dooley got a written statement from the state attorney general's office saying that the Virginia Outdoors Foundation had "no statutory authority to veto or override local decisions" on road crossings. "That's not the opinion that some people want to hear," Withers said. "So I guess we'll continue to look."
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