Industrial Zoning Among Key Focal Points at Town Planning Commission Work Session

 The work session of the Town Planning Commission on March 4 kicked into gear with Allen Neel as the new chairman and Megan Marrazzo as the new vice-chairman. After addressing a few routine matters, such as the certification of a yearly report that Chairman Neel will present to the Town Council, as well as assessing compliance of the bylaws with code pertaining to rules governing remote attendance, the commissioners made a deep dive into a review of industrial zoning which over the course of the meeting would become one of several key focal points.

The Town Planning Commission gathers for a work session on March 4. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh

A bullet-point circulated the room, raising relevant concerns for the planning of industrial zoning. As an employment-generating use, industrial land is a strategic economic asset and should be protected as such. One might wish for a new grocery store, but in the absence of jobs created for residents who will be shopping there, it might be a case of putting the cart in front of the horse. Thus, there is a need for strategic zoning practice that recognizes industrial land as an asset.

The commissioners discussed at length the value of respecting adjacent uses, specifically residential. Vice-Chairman Marrazzo suggested that attention be given to appropriate performance standards to ensure that an industrial use involving heavy truck traffic does not overwhelm people living nearby. Of course, residential use should not encroach upon industrial, but neither should industrial be obnoxious to an already established residential zone that borders the property.

Infrastructure capacity was a segue for Planning Director Lauren Kopishke. Instead of adhering legalistically to a list of permitted uses and not departing from it, why not use impact, she argued, as a platform for assessing appropriateness? In other words, how much water will the user demand? How much electricity will it consume? In her mind, this could be a more flexible basis for considering issues of scale as the Town enforces a screening process for new enterprises in industrially zoned areas.

The Comprehensive Plan asks relevant questions. Is the growth sustainable? Is it fiscally responsible? And how will it harmonize with the quality of life while also generating economic development? These are the broad brushstrokes of a philosophy that the commissioners and staff are attempting to develop into tangible applications. Their concern with light, medium, and heavy industrial manufacturing served as a framework for part of their discussion, in which they identified light manufacturing as a by-right use in both I-1 and I-2 zones.

Appearance and community character are also broad concepts that any planning and zoning undertaking should treasure and protect. Although the commission ultimately makes a recommendation, all these concerns come into play as the commissioners furnish the council with a fully articulated policy, should the council choose to accept it. What they provide is, at the least, a basis for conversation.

Before adjourning, the commissioners also covered short-term rentals and home occupation. A preliminary table of figures from Neel promises to be the platform the commission needs for reassessing short-term rental policy. As Commissioner Teresa Fedoryka remarked, there may be a perception that the Town is not taking this seriously, and while Commissioner Andrew Brooks emphasized that the Town does not yet seem to have a problem, it is advisable to be proactive about the scale of short-term rentals in Front Royal, in advance of reaching a 3% benchmark for concern, a percentage of short-term rentals out of the town’s total rental inventory. In other words, the problem should be addressed before it materializes. Then, in preparation for a review of urban agriculture, Kopishke guided the commissioners through a discussion of home occupation, emphasizing a recent case in which an agricultural pursuit arguably dominated a residentially zoned lot, thereby failing to uphold the intent that the pursuit be incidental to the primary residential use.

 Watch the Front Royal Planning Commission Work Session of March 4, 2026.