Labor Pangs Attend Delivery of New Congregation to Warren County Community

En route to Eastham Park, known to those who frequent it as “the dog park”, one passes at the corner of West Criser Road and Luray Avenue a plot of undeveloped land which will soon be the site of a Catholic church. This development has occupied the attention of both the Front Royal Town Council and the Warren County Board of Supervisors for months. While an application to the board for a conditional use permit for a church sailed smoothly and unanimously through the board’s regular meeting on the evening of April 2, the applicant has encountered speed bumps with the Town Council regarding a request for out-of-town water and septic service at 0 Criser Road.

Warren County Board of Supervisors held a regular meeting on Tuesday, April 2, at the Warren County Government Center. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh.

Dedicated as St. John the Baptist and owned by the Catholic Diocese of Arlington behind the two applications respectively to town and county, this development will arguably create a mirror image of the existing sanctuary at the other end of Luray Avenue, opposite Maddox Funeral Home, which is also dedicated as St. John the Baptist. Considering how many parishioners it serves and how busy that end of Luray Avenue is on Sundays, it stands to reason that an additional chapel could help with overflow. The request for out-of-town water and septic service comes from the Diocese with the Board of Supervisors, as 0 Criser Road is in the county outside of Front Royal town limits.

Marisa Whitacre of Greenway Engineering speaks to the board on behalf of an applicant for a conditional use permit pertaining to a church at the corner of West Criser Road and Luray Avenue.

In her address to the board on Tuesday evening, Marisa Whitacre of Greenway Engineering, speaking on behalf of the applicant and having answered questions from the council the previous evening, told the supervisors that it appears the council plans to vote in favor of granting the out-of-town service request at their regular meeting on April 22. However, the applicant has made it clear that if the request is not granted, they will acquire the appropriate approvals for service via a private drain field.

The council has considered this out-of-town service application throughout multiple work sessions. In more than one instance, their discussion has focused on the need for a sidewalk on West Criser Road adjacent to the location at 0. At the most recent discussion on Monday evening, Town Manager Joe Waltz said emphatically that the real priority is securing a sidewalk on the portion of West Criser where students are currently walking in the road between Skyline Vista Drive and Route 340. Up to that point, the hypothetical sidewalk adjacent to 0 governed the council’s thought process. In what cases, they asked each other, would the council be justified in requiring the applicant to build a sidewalk, or how could they persuade the applicant to do so without a requirement? In the case of a boundary line adjustment to Town limits, the applicant would indeed be required to develop a sidewalk, as they would then be within Town limits and would therefore be subject to all the requirements facing development on a parcel located in the town. In the absence of a boundary line adjustment, persuasion becomes necessary. Could the council bargain with the applicant, resulting in a sidewalk? At one point, the applicant offered to provide a financial gift to the Town to defray a sidewalk’s expense and pay a percentile of the final cost. Still, as the size of the expense became clearer, along with logistical considerations, that gift and that assistance began to appear insufficient.

Having ruled out a boundary line adjustment and identified the need to legally add 0 Criser Road to the list of areas outside the Town that can receive service, Monday night’s work session for the council ended with the sidewalk unsecured and the appearance that, nevertheless, consensus will be had in a vote in favor of granting the out-of-town water and septic service to the applicant at the council’s April 22 meeting.