A Motion to Rectify Language in Code Fails in Town Council Vote as Attached Regulations Would Limit Urban Agriculture

“You’ve got to draw the line somewhere,” said Councilman Bruce Rappaport at a regular Front Royal Town Council meeting on May 28, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Warren County Government Center at 220 North Commerce Avenue. The evening featured a handful of applications for special use permits and culminated in a revisitation of urban agriculture, a topic that has been contentious for the council.

Town Council comes together for a regular meeting on the evening of Tuesday, May 28, in the Warren County Government Center. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh.

Rappaport remarked during a discussion of a proposed amendment to the Town code to rectify contradictory language. Amid that effort by Planning and Zoning to streamline the code, certain regulations were presented for codification that would limit urban agriculture in ways that Councilwoman Amber Morris, in particular, resisted. “I would love to,” she said in reply to Rappaport’s concern that a lack of regulation could lead to the introduction of cows and horses within the Town limits. The amendment being considered would allow for livestock in the Town limits on property where agriculture is permitted, but Rappaport’s point still raises an interesting question. When is regulation too much or too little?

Fifth from left, Mayor Lori Cockrell, accompanied by the council, stands with scholarship recipients Blake Ramsey (3rd from left) and Dillon Braddock (4th from left). Ramsey and Braddock also led the gathering in the pledge of allegiance.

Mayor Lori Cockrell (R), having acknowledged the Front Royal Federal Credit Union for seventy-five years of business, stands with two bank representatives.

Mayor Lori Cockrell (L), having acknowledged Stokes General Store for seventy-eight years in business, stands with Andy Stokes.

To Morris, who supports the idea of free-ranging chickens within Town limits, requiring keepers of chickens to provide four square feet of coop space and eight square feet of run space per chicken is too much. If this requirement, reflected in Tuesday night’s failed amendment, were codified, there would be people who find themselves suddenly in violation and need to make significant changes to their operations, according to Morris. Furthermore, she believes that owners of beehives should be able to sell their honey, and owners of chickens should be able to sell their eggs. In this respect, she and Councilwoman Melissa Dedomenico-Payne agree. In a brief exchange at the meeting between Dedomenico-Payne and Planning Director and Zoning Administrator Lauren Kopishke, wherein Dedomenico-Payne expressed that she wants the citizens of Front Royal to be able to make money off their agricultural products, Kopishke explained that her department wants to keep commercial activity from being practiced in residential zones in ways that do not honor the current code by introducing commercial activity into residential areas. Dedomenco-Payne said that it is not as though anyone is opening a farmer’s market in his or her backyard, to which Morris interjected that one should be able to if desired.

Thus, the amendment was a mix of things already in the code that needed to be made consistent, as well as new elements, all the above being things that drew a mixed reaction from the council. This amendment is part of an ongoing effort by the Planning and Zoning Department to entrench their practices in code and “give teeth,” using Kopishke’s words, to policies that protect the health and safety of animals in the Town limits. Too much or too little? When it came to a vote, the verdict seemed to be too much. While Councilman Wayne Sealock abstained, Councilmen Glenn Wood and Rappaport voted in favor of the amendment but were overruled by Councilwomen Dedomenico-Payne and Morris and Councilman Josh Ingram. After wrapping up other business, which included the renewal of Town Manager Joe Waltz’s contract, the council went into closed session.

Click here to watch the Front Royal Town Council Meeting of May 28, 2024.