Motions dates set in County kennel permit and golf club cases

On Wednesday, July 18, Warren County Attorney Dan Whitten was in court for brief hearings on two matters on the County’s legal horizon.  Hearing dates were set on motions days in August and October for first, Wendy Tenney’s appeal of a board of supervisors decision to revoke her conditional use permit to operate a dog breeding kennel; and then on the County’s petition to the court to remove golf as a necessary use at the 62-acre Front Royal Golf Club course.

The Tenney Motions Day hearing is August 23 and the Golf Club hearing was set for October 18.  The county government obtained management rights to the golf club in 2005.  The golf club land was gifted to the county’s citizens in 1938 by the Carson family in memory of their son William Junior, with its use designated as a golf course.

In a dog’s best interest?

The Tenney case relates to the April 17, 4-1 vote of the Warren County Board of Supervisors to follow its planning staff’s recommendation to revoke Tenney’s kennel permit in the wake of a March 6, 2017 fire that killed 16 dogs.  Only Tenney’s South District Supervisor Linda Glavis dissented.

That vote reversed a 3-2 planning commission vote to give Tenney a second chance at becoming a permit compliant, safe haven provider for dogs under her and her family’s commercial kennel care.

In the wake of the fatal kennel fire Tenney’s relationship with county planning staff reviewing her original permit and circumstances leading up to the March 6, 2017 fire became contentious at best.  The post-fire county planning staff review found violations of Tenney’s original conditional use permit; a history of cancelling inspections with delays or failures to reschedule; and past lingering unpaid taxes and business license fees.

Wendy Tenney makes her case at a March appearance before the planning commission. Royal Examiner File Photo/Roger Bianchini

However, written communications from Tenney to staff and copied to county supervisors shifted blame for the fire from what a post-fire site inspection reported to be an illegally-wired kennel electrical system and the use of the type of space heater Tenney was warned by County Animal Control not to use to heat the kennel, to county codes imposed on her requiring heating and air conditioning for the kennel in weather extremes.

Following the 3-2 planning commission vote to reissue Tenney’s permit under strict conditions and oversight, Shenandoah District Planning Commissioner Ralph Rinaldi, who with Commission Chairman Scott Stickley cast dissenting votes said, “I’m worried at the signal we’re sending to the citizens of Warren County – you can not pay your taxes and not pay your business license and sales tax; and not comply with your conditional use permit and you can still run your business.”

Now it appears the county’s elected officials right to NOT send that signal to county citizens will be the topic of legal arguments to be heard in Warren County Circuit Court.

To golf or not to golf at FRGC?

From above the Front Royal Golf Club nestled in the arms of the Shenandoah River. Photo/Front Royal Golf Club website

At the July 18 hearing Judge Clifford L. Athey Jr. continued the process of assigning court representatives – guardian ad litems – to represent the interests of William and Agnes Carson and their heirs, members of the existing Front Royal Golf Club, and citizens of Warren County who are the defacto owners of the property.

With a number of potentially interested parties out of state or still at unknown addresses, Athey scheduled the later October motions day hearing “to allow time to see who’s in the case and who’s not.”  That determination will come from responses to those inquiries sent out by the court and county government.

County Attorney Whitten told the court that were 92 current golf club members who were potential parties to the case, including four now out of state and one minor who had apparently received a gift membership from a golfing dad.

Athey appointed Bridget Madden as guardian ad litem for that minor golf club member.  Nancy William was appointed to represent the interests of Front Royal and Warren County citizens; and Chip White was named to represent William and Agnes Carson and their unknown heirs.

According to the Front Royal Golf Club (FRGC) website the course along the bank of the Shenandoah River was built to the design of William Carson Sr., patriarch of the family, who with his wife Agnes gifted the property for the use of Front Royal and Warren County citizens in 1938.

Whitten reported that the number of Carson heirs located – all out of state – had risen to nine.  In early July County Administrator Doug Stanley confirmed that two letters had been received from located Carson heirs supporting the County’s proposal to shift use of their family’s gifted property to general recreational.

With a motions hearing scheduled for three months down the road, Judge Athey reminded involved parties present that he was already setting trial dates in February of 2019.

William ‘Billy’ Carson Jr. (1908-1924) – Dependent on a court decision, county citizens may soon be walking, playing, picnicking and accessing the river from property gifted to them in his memory – just not playing golf. Courtesy Photo Carson family/WC Govt.

As previously reported, the county is seeking permission from the courts to remove golf as a required use on the 62-acre Carson property gifted to the county’s citizens 80 years ago.  The Carsons donated the land in memory of their son “Billy”, a student at Randolph-Macon Academy in Front Royal who died prematurely around the time of the gift.

The county government acquired management rights from the former controlling entity in 2005 during a period of financial difficulty for the most recent of former golf course operators.  The County paid off the existing debt as part of that arrangement.  However, one condition of the 2005 management agreement specifies that per the original gift “the current nine (9) holes for golf located on the 62 Acre Parcel, will be used and maintained only for golf.”

However citing increased golf course management costs and a rising tax burden on county citizens to continue the operation, the county has filed a petition for a declaratory judgment to allow it to shift usage to general recreational purposes.  The County has noted that when the property was gifted 80 years ago there were no other golfing options available to citizens in Warren County.

That has changed dramatically, with four other golf courses currently operating in the county totaling 99 holes of play.  Those other privately-owned courses are the Blue Ridge Shadows Golf Club (18 holes), Bowling Green Country Club (36 holes), Shenandoah Valley Golf Club (27 holes), and the Sly Fox Golf Club (18 holes).

A golfer and his dog – a dog surely trained to hunt severely-sliced or hooked golf balls – play the FRGC course. Courtesy Photo/WC Govt.