County Planning Commission a member short while workload keeps growing

The Warren County Planning Commission held a Work Session followed by a surprisingly calm regular meeting on June 8^th.  The absence of former commissioner Joe Longo, who resigned abruptly this week in the wake of a continuing dispute between the County Board of Supervisors and Property Owners of Shenandoah Farms, LLC (POSF) – You should read that Royal Examiner story here.

Warren County Planning Commission has an empty chair after the resignation of member Joe Longo, who represented the Shenandoah District

At their work session, the commissioners discussed the ongoing work on rewriting the County’s Comprehensive Plan, and focused on Chapter 7, Infrastructure. The County’s predominantly rural setting means that much of the water and sewer installations are private well-and-septic systems. Public water and sewer access exists mainly in the Route 522 North Corridor by agreement with the Town of Front Royal, and in a few subdivisions in the county.

Several Commissioners mentioned that there had been conversations in earlier years about negotiating an agreement with Frederick County for access to their water system, which draws water from quarry reservoirs near Stephens City, and some indirectly from the Shenandoah River via the Winchester City system. Vice Chairman Hugh Henry said, “Maybe Warren County should get in the water business.”  With the possibility of supplying larger users of water to the county, such as data centers – sound familiar? – The county will have to nail down who will pay for the infrastructure to support them.

County Planning Director Matt Wendling summarizes the state of the County’s infrastructure to guide the commission’s work on that section of the Comprehensive Plan.

All this informal discussion is to inform potential goals for the County for the Comprehensive Plan update. The Commission plans to continue its rewriting work over the next few months.

The regular meeting of the commission immediately after the work session had a full agenda, with four requests for Conditional Use Permit (CUP) requests for Short-Term Tourist Rentals, and one each for Bed & Breakfast, Private Camping, Guest House, and a Church.

Ferhan Ture applied for a CUP for a Short-Term Tourist Rental for his property at 959 Thunder Road in the Fork District. The property is zoned Agricultural. The applicants use this property as  their primary residence and will be overseeing the rentals in person. The commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of the permit.

Douglas and Christina Alley are requesting a conditional use permit for private use camping for their lot along the river in the Mandalay subdivision on Burma Drive. The mostly wooded property is in the special flood hazard area. The Conditional Use Permit would allow the applicants to erect an accessory structure for storage of recreational equipment not to exceed 200 square feet upon issuance of a building permit. There was no public objection to the request, and the commission voted unanimously to recommend approval.

Seung Wan “Brian” Suh is requesting a conditional use permit for a bed and breakfast facility.  The property is at 198 Ashland Court, an Agriculturally zoned property in the Happy Creek District. The applicant and his wife reside at the property and will be the innkeepers for the B&B.  Previously, the applicants had applied for a Short-Term Tourist Rental CUP, but withdrew it in the face of concerns voiced by his neighbors regarding guests being on-site without property owners being there. There were no objections at this public hearing, and the commission unanimously voted to recommend approval.

Valley View Ventures, LLC (Brooklyn Steele) has applied for a CUP for short-term tourist rental for a property at 4315 Rivermont Drive in the South River District. The property’s only neighbors are also the owners of the applicant property. There were no citizen objections raised during the public hearing, and the commission voted unanimously to recommend approval.

Edward Perry is seeking a conditional use permit for a guesthouse on his 10-acre Agriculturally zoned property at 690 Comforter Lane In the North River District. The applicant plans to build a primary dwelling on the property and in the interim live in the workshop-cabin until they receive a certificate of occupancy for the main house, thereafter, using it for friends and family when they visit. This CUP will require that the applicant not be allowed to rent the property out and stipulates that a condition will be placed on the deed whenever the property is sold that also binds the new owner to the same limitation.

Hunter Hughes and Rinku Sinha have applied for a conditional use permit for their residential-zoned property at 289 Heim-Jones Road in the Shenandoah Farms subdivision in the Shenandoah District. The applicants will occupy the property as their primary residence and manage the rental themselves. The public hearing yielded no public comments, and the commission unanimously voted to recommend approval.

James V. Elliot Jr. is requesting a conditional use permit for his property at 2633 Buck Mountain Road in the South River District. The property is zoned Agricultural. The applicant lives a few miles from the property and will manage the rental himself. Two speakers addressed the commission during the public hearing, Dave Scanlan and Phillip Vaught, and both speakers supported the request.  The commission unanimously voted to recommend approval.

The Self-Realization Fellowship Church at 2660 John Marshall Highway is applying for a conditional use permit for a church. The property is in the Happy Creek District in a 527-acre church-owned tract which is primarily undeveloped woodlands. The Church presently meets in a portion of a residence occupied by the worship leader and two assistants on the property, and the intention is to provide a facility that will be disabled accessible and separated from the residence but provide the same accommodations. The applicants have stipulated that the facility is not intended to expand usage or creating any new use. There were no speakers at the public hearing and the commission voted unanimously to recommend approval. All the foregoing permit requests will now go to the County Board of Supervisors for a final decision.

The commission then turned its attention to a proposed amendment for the County’s Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 180, to define and permit a by-right use of property in the Light Industrial (LI) and Industrial (I) Districts. This mirrors a similar proposal being considered by the Town of Front Royal regarding Data Centers. Chairman Myers opened the public hearing and there were two speakers.

The first, Darryl Merchant, as a private citizen and not as the chairman of the Town Planning Commission, made a plea for the commission to proceed with caution in granting a by-right use rather than by a conditional use permit. Data Centers in particular may consume resources in greater quantities than other industrial activities and they must be properly planned for, Merchant told the county planning commission.

This reporter – as a private citizen – referred the commissioners to a report from Fauquier County outlining a request by Amazon.com to locate a 33-acre data center facility outside of Warrenton, which will require approval by Special Use Permit. According to that report, Fauquier County will not bear the cost of infrastructure improvements to accommodate that data center but Amazon would pay for them. Once the public hearing was closed, the commission discussed the ordinance amendment’s provisions and with some uncertainties about the language of the ordinance, voted to defer a final vote on the ordinance change until next month’s meeting.

The Commission then reviewed a second Ordinance Amendment that revises the Floodplain Overlay District to meet FEMA and Virginia Department of Conservation recommendations. This will allow the County to participate in FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program and gain credits in the Community Rating system. The Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of this amendment.

Finally, the Commission considered its Consent Agenda, which covers authorization to advertise for public hearing a whopping seven new CUP applications for Short-Term Tourist Rentals (see below); a CUP for a cluster housing development by Larry Himelright; a pair of requests for a recreational facility at 19959 Fort Valley Road by Cole and Danielle Haase; and a CUP for a food processing facility at 426 Baugh Drive, by Shahi Foods.

• 499 Rome Beauty Drive, Linden, By Joseph Muniz
• 610 Joan’s Quadrangle Rd, Front Royal by Yulia Svetlichnaya
• 4359 Remount Rd. Front Royal, by Thomas Cho
• 298 World’s End Lane, Front Royal By Andrew Sickle
• 608 Venus Branch Rd., Front Royal, by Jennifer Harp
• 1945 Panhandle Rd., Front Royal, by Lyndsey DePalma & Amanda Shipe
• 938 Fetchett Rd. Front Royal, by John Clarke

There doesn’t seem to be any end in sight to the growth in short-term tourist rentals in the county.  Hopefully the Transient Occupancy tax that all the rental operators will be paying every month will help keep everyone else’s taxes down! Or is that a dream?