PLANNING COMMISSION

Wednesday, June 26, 2002

Present: Mr. Brush, Ms. Proulx, Mr. Harlow, Mr. Drumheller, Mr. Harvey, Ms. Russell, Dr. Walker (Absent: Mr. Giles)

PERMIT TO ALLOW SECOND MANUFACTURED HOME/PHYLLIS B. MCCORMICK – With no public comment, Commissioners voted 8-0 to recommend approval of a Conditional Use Permit to allow placement of a second home on Richmond Highway in Gladstone. The Permit allows no more than two manufactured homes on the site.

PERMIT TO ALLOW SECOND SINGLEWIDE/JEANNIE C. OLIVER – The applicant was requesting a Conditional Use Permit to allow placement of the second unit, a 1970 unit, at 125 Allen Loving Drive in Roseland to be used as a weekend and vacation home for out-of-town relatives. Mr. Boger noted that Allen Loving Drive is a private road, not built to any standards, includes a greater than 90-degree turn and currently provides access for five dwellings. In addition, Mr. Boger noted the pre-1974 manufacture date on the home. He said that the Board of Supervisors is currently re-evaluating the county policy on disallowing pre-1974 units. Mr. Boger also said that there is some question as to whether the placement of the 1970 unit, already on the property, meets the setback requirements. After no Public Comment, Ms. Russell noted her concerns about whether the unit would actually be used for weekends only, the tough turnback on the road and that the pre-1974 unit does not meet the county standards. She asked Mr. Boger if the unit would have to be removed if a permit was denied or whether it could remain for storage only. Mr. Boger noted that a variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals would be required to change the use of the unit to storage. Mr. Brush said that he doesn’t believe “in the magic of the pre-1974” number. Mr. Hoffman said that the application shouldn’t be decided on the basis of the road as a property owner can build any kind of road he wants. Mr. Boger noted that road standards are a part of the county’s ordinance. Commissioners voted 6-2 (Mr. Brush and Mr. Hoffman voting no) to recommend denial based on the pre-1974 unit with no hardship reasons presented by the applicant.

PERMIT TO ALLOW AUTOMOBILE GRAVEYARD/THOMAS J. ROSS, JR – The applicant was requested a Conditional Use Permit to operate an auto graveyard on 3.5 acres at 1446 Phoenix Road in Arrington. Mr. Boger noted that there are approximately 150 vehicles currently on the site, mature screening along the sides of the property, appropriate fluid storage and no accumulation of tires. He said that the business has actually been there for a number of years and at one time participated in the state program to remove inoperable cars from the county. Mr. Boger, noting that if Arrington were to grow that that growth would be along Phoenix Road and S. Powells Island Road, said that if he were to make a recommendation it would be to deny due to a detrimental effect on the residential area. Mr. Ross said that the market for recycling the vehicles has been down and that as soon as the market goes back up, he would begin hauling the vehicles again. He said that he does not plan to enlarge the business, but rather to continue the business as is.

During Public Comment, Ms. Janet Miles said that as an adjoining landowner, she is concerned with oil and fluids washing down the hillside and into the creek. She also expressed concern that the operation could be a fire hazard and said that the graveyard is visible from all parts of her property. Ms. Laverne Jackson expressed concern about the environmental impacts and, noting another junkyard on Phoenix Road, said that this would be one more eyesore. Mr. Rick Larkin said that he was worried about gas and fluids getting into the groundwater, creeks and river. He said that the business would not add to the area property values and said that Arrington was becoming the dumping ground for the county. Mr. William Irving, whose home sits directly across from the entrance, said that he opposed the application. Mr. Bruce Leader said that while Arrington had given low-income folks ample opportunity to own land and build a home, there was also the opportunity to attract some upper-scale residential growth. He noted that beauty of the Powells Mountain area with great kayaking and fishing. He said he opposed the application. Mr. Zachary Morse said that the county talks about tourism and says there is no prime farmland yet allows anything to happen without trying to find solutions. He said that the county needs salvage yards, but that they should be off the road with good entrances. Mr. Morse said that the county needs to do something on the south side, noting that the land is all many have and projects like the proposed lower land values. He suggested the county designate some areas in the Colleen Industrial Park to help the salvage businesses. Mr. Harry Harris (South District Supervisor) said that there was obviously more opposition to the application than he had heard in the past. He said that the county had taken the position that there was a need for a recycling program, but said that this would apparently not be the right site for it. He suggested that the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors would need to look for sites for that kind of operation with the hope of getting the state program going again to remove junk cars from the county. Mr. Harris also suggested that when the Zoning Ordinance is rewritten, the county include another designation besides auto graveyard to describe an area where vehicles are stored until recycled.

Following Public Comment, Mr. Brush said that he had seen many applications for auto graveyards, but had never seen one with a site plan or a plan for storage of fluids. He said that he hoped to sit on the Commission long enough to see one of those presented. Mr. Harvey expressed concern that the market is bad, has been for some time and that there are no indications that it will get better any time soon. He said that these businesses could be storing a lot of cars for a long time. Commissioners voted 8-0 to recommend denial on Dr. Walker’s motion. The motion included reasons for the recommendation that included the opposition from neighbors, residential growth in the area, uncertainty as to the number of vehicles that could be stored on 3.5 acres and the change to the character of the area.

PERMIT TO ALLOW SECOND SINGLEWIDE/RICHARD SEAMAN, JR – With no public comment, Commissioners voted 8-0 to recommend approval of a Conditional Use Permit to allow placement of the second unit at 1979 Dark Hollow Road in Roseland. The Permit restricted the number of units on the property to two.

PRELIMINARY SUBDIVISION PLAT FOR CONCH PEARL LLC – With no public comment, Commissioners voted 8-0 to approve the preliminary review dividing 6.450 acres into five lots at the end of Callohill Drive. The vote approved the division into five lots and the proposed road only.

REZONING REQUEST FOR .80 ACRES FOR CONCH PEARL LLC – Property owner Doug Long was requesting rezoning of .80 acres at the end of Callohill Drive as follows: .30 acres from Agricultural (A-1) to Residential (R-2); .40 acres from Industrial (M-2) to Residential (R-2); .10 acres from Industrial (M-2) to Agricultural (A-1) to create a 20-foot buffer zone. Mr. Boger noted several reasons for his recommendation for denial of the rezoning:

1) The fifty-foot buffer was created to provide adequate separation between zoning districts and uses in Callohill. If this buffer were reduced, it would be difficult to deny any future requests. Granting this request would give the applicant an advantage over remaining property owners who have the buffer on their property.

2) The fifty-foot buffer was created to provide some green space within the industrial park and without them, almost the entire park could be paved over under present zoning regulations.

3) The request is a classic example of spot zoning. The park was designed for commercial zoning along Rt. 29 separated by a buffer zone and then industrial with a buffer zone at the end, separating that from the adjoining property, which is zoned Business (B-1). Rezoning approximately 30,000 square feet to residential has no relationship to the pattern in the park. Changing the .70 acres to residential benefits only the applicant and not the community in general. In fact, one could surmise that this change would negatively impact the whole county by reducing the available commercial land for development in the Lovingston area. In its place, residential land would be added which would cost the citizens more in the long run to provide essential services to it such as public education, garbage collection, etc.

4) Rezoning the small area to residential would change the character of the park from one exclusively restricted to industrial and commercial uses to one with a hodgepodge of uses that have no relationship.

In response to Mr. Harvey’s question, Mr. Massie Saunders said that there could be up to 13 units on the 30,000 square foot parcel under current county ordinance. Mr. Long said that the market is for smaller parcels of land for smaller businesses and that he was trying to find the best and highest use for the parcel in question. He said that after attending the meetings on the proposed Comp Plan, he thought that the proposed plan would be a good application of the mixed use planning. He said that the proposed 20-foot buffer was a pretty area and included mature trees making it a natural buffer for residential. Mr. Long also said that he was not planning on 13 units and suggested that the Commissioners consider conditional rezoning to restrict the number of units. Following no Public Comment, Ms. Proulx said that when the Commissioners had talked about the Comp Plan, they were concerned about having residential next to industrial. Mr. Saunders said that he had been part of the group searching for land for a large industrial park for the county and that that plan had included residential and industrial on the same lots because that is the wave of the future. Mr. Brush agreed with Ms. Proulx and voiced concern about increasing the traffic at the Callohill intersection and concern that putting the R-2 zoning in the middle of the park would change the master plan for the park. Prior to the final vote, Mr. Long withdrew the application.

PRELIMINARY SUBDIVISION PLAT KNOWN AS ST. JAMES PLACE BY NELSON COUNTY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION – Postponed at the applicant’s request.

ZONING & SUBDIVISION ORDINANCE REWRITE – Mr. Boger asked Commissioners whether they would prefer to receive Cox Associates’ proposed chapters periodically for review or the entire proposed Ordinance at once. Ms. Proulx asked who was telling Cox Associates what to write and Mr. Boger said that the consultants had been working with the County Administrator and himself. He said the Board of Supervisors had indicated that they wanted the established committee to guide the process. (According to Rural Nelson’s 11/13/01 report, that committee included: Mr. Carter, Mr. Boger, Mr. Wood, Mr. Harvey, Ms. Proulx, Dr. Walker, Mr. Brush, Mr. John Bradshaw, Mr. David Hall.)

COMPREHENSIVE PLAN – Mr. Boger said that the Supervisors had been invited to attend the Planning Commission meeting on July 24 to discuss their changes to the proposed Comp Plan. He noted that Commissioners would receive those changes prior to the meeting for their review. Mr. Boger said that the Board had tentatively scheduled a Public Hearing on the Plan for August 13 during their 7:30pm session.