Crooked Run West facing central water denial at Nov. 12 council meeting

Despite November 4^th work session discussion indicating a clear council majority publicly stating they will not vote to approve Town central water and sewer extension to the now primarily residential Crooked Run West development outside the town limits in the Route 522/340 Commercial Corridor there will be a vote on the request at the Tuesday, November 12 Front Royal Town Council meeting.

“What is the will of council, do you guys want to punt this some more?” Interim Mayor Matt Tederick asked after suggesting the Town keep the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the County regarding the extension of Town central water-sewer out of town in place.

“No, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. We don’t have enough people on council who are interested in supplying water. None of us – well there are two undecideds who I don’t know where they stand and I don’t want to put words in anybody’s mouth – but if we continue to drag this to work sessions, we’re not being straight forward in just saying, ‘Look, we’re not interested.’ Just say that, we’re not interested and let’s move on to something else,” Councilwoman Letasha Thompson suggested in the wake of negative council comments concerning the request.

After a majority said ‘No’ on Nov. 4, Letasha Thompson suggested council pack up the Crooked Run West central water-sewer request and move on to other business. As of Friday afternoon, Nov. 8, Town Manager Joe Waltz, at right, had done just that as he leaves the Town to move back into the energy sector. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini

Responding to a question on process options by Interim Mayor Tederick, Town Attorney Doug Napier concurred with Thompson’s suggestion noting council could simply message the developer and/or the County that is still considering the rezoning request that would enable the project to move forward if Town central utility extension were granted “that there is no majority council support and leave it at that.”

However one of those apparent undecideds, Councilman Jacob Meza who at times appears to be council’s biggest proponent of accommodating the request, suggested a public vote to put council and its members on the record in response to the request. Tewalt agreed and the matter was forwarded to the forthcoming council meeting of November 12 for a vote.

Prior to that decision to proceed with an apparently negative vote on the Crooked Run West matter there was some interesting discussion surrounding the request and exactly what accommodating it would imply for the Town’s future control of its own central water-sewer utility.

With considerably more institutional memory of Town-County relations over the past two-plus decades, Gene Tewalt, left center, has often found himself at odds with younger council colleagues.

“I’m not in favor of supplying water out there to Crooked Run West; I’d like to see it stay commercial… I’m not in favor of giving them water for the change to residential growth,” Councilman Chris Holloway, himself a residential developer, said.

However, Holloway disputed Councilman Gene Tewalt’s contention that accommodating the request would set a dangerous legal precedent altering the Town’s water policy and agreement with the County that Town water-sewer be extended outside the town limits primarily for commercial and industrial development.

The issue is a consequence of the first-of-its-kind in Virginia 1998/99 Corridor Agreement between the Town and County that headed off what would have been a bitterly-contested annexation fight precluding the extension of Town water-sewer to facilitate commercial development seen as a community-wide benefit into the North Corridor.

“I mean I think we’re already supplying water out into other areas and I think if somebody did come along and want to sue us for not providing water and sewer they’d have good case cause we’re already supplying water and sewer to Blue Ridge Shadows all up through those areas… We’ve already opened the door,” Holloway told his colleagues.

“No, we haven’t,” Tewalt responded in disagreement, apparently based on the fact that the water-sewer extension to the residential aspect of the Blue Ridge Shadows project was done as part that group’s originally-submitted plan to build a professional tournament sized golf course as the commercial base for its residential aspect. That Town central water-sewer extension to Blue Ridge Shadows also facilitated additional commercial development to the adjacent Holiday Inn motel and Houlihan’s restaurant.

“If we open the door up, we’ll never be able to close it again,” Tewalt insisted of accommodating a primarily residential development central water-sewer utility request outside the town limits.

Council addresses recycling, Tederick contract and Crooked Run West