By PAMELA GOULD and EMILY BATTLE
After weeks of contention about whether the U.S. National Slavery Museum should turn over studies paid for with $1 million in Fredericksburg taxes, the museum's director referred City Manager Phillip Rodenberg to documents already in city files.
However, apart from a June traffic study describing entrance requirements to the museum site, the information Executive Director Vonita W. Foster referred to was mostly site plans, grading plans and erosion and sediment control plans.
Those plans, filed earlier this year with the city's Building and Development Services Department, were provided as part of the museum's site-plan approval process, or its application for a special-use permit for the building's height. The city awarded the special-use permit in August.
According to the terms of a March 2002 agreement signed by museum founder L. Douglas Wilder, the museum agreed to provide governmental services to benefit the Celebrate Virginia tax district in exchange for the $1 million.
The money is being repaid through a tax on businesses in the tourism development that sits on the shore of the Rappahannock River.
The museum is to be built on 38 acres within the Celebrate Virginia development. Wilder said this summer that it should open in October 2007.
The city money cannot be spent on building the museum itself.
Some members of City Council have said they should have access to studies paid for with tax dollars.
The Free Lance-Star submitted a state Freedom of Information Act request with the city on Dec. 5, seeking to obtain the studies.
Yesterday was the deadline for the city to reply to the FOIA request after Rodenberg took an extension to the normal five-day response deadline.
Museum officials said last week they would not turn over studies conducted with the $1 million.
Spokesman Michael J. Smith said the museum considered the studies proprietary and did not want them available to the Smithsonian Institution, which is building the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
That statement contradicts earlier statements from museum officials that the two projects are not competitive.
In her reply Tuesday to Rodenberg, Foster provided a six-point list of steps taken toward developing preliminary plans for a public loop road and public parking in Celebrate Virginia.
She also provided a nine-point list of steps taken for environmental and cultural assessments.
Foster listed the names of the companies that performed the services but did not say how much each was paid, despite Rodenberg's written request for that information.
It remains to be seen whether Foster's reply to Rodenberg will satisfy council members who sought additional information after Foster provided a Nov. 8 report accounting for the museum's expenditure of $1 million.
"We have better information than we had," Rodenberg said. "This gives us another level of detail."
The $1 million was used to conduct a number of studies including a traffic study costing $3,900; demographic, marketing and other studies geared at assessing the economic impact of the museum costing $10,094; and the environmental and cultural assessments as well as preliminary plans totaling $255,621.
The Free Lance-Star requested copies of those studies from Rodenberg under the belief that the city should have possession of the studies since they were paid for with city funds.
In his response to the newspaper, Rodenberg referred to the museum's 2003 annual report to the city. That report includes a six-page report on its economic and cultural impact.
In a Dec. 16 letter to Foster, Rodenberg did not request the studies, but asked Foster to identify which documents already on file with the city were funded with city money.
The 2002 agreement stated that the museum was to perform traffic studies "to analyze and develop a transportation plan to serve the District and to link the same with downtown Fredericksburg, hotels, and other tourist attractions within the region."
In her response to Rodenberg, Foster said this task was fulfilled with a traffic study that examined what sort of turn lanes and traffic signals would be needed at the museum's entrance off Carl D. Silver Parkway.
Museum officials could not be reached for comment yesterday evening.
To reach EMILY BATTLE:
Email: ebattle@freelancestar.com