Planners recommend approval for Clover Hill Farm rezoning

The Warren County Planning Commission has unanimously, and enthusiastically, recommended approval of a handful of rezoning applications that will permit the historic Clover Hill Farm in Rockland to be used for social functions ranging from weddings to short term tourist rentals.

Mostly neighbors, but also “townies” including School Board Chair Catherine Bower, attended the 45-minute session at the Warren County Government Center on November 9.  All praised Clover Hill Farm’s new owners, Greg and Mary “Susie” Huson, on renovation of the 236-year-old house and development of the 72-acre property.  They welcomed “a handsome commercial development to their rural community”.

Clover Hill Farms today. Courtesy Photo/Susie Huson

Special events would be limited to 150 guests. Short term tourist rentals would be limited to no more than six guests at a time.  A commercially successful quarter-acre hop yard was established at the site last year.

None of the attendees spoke against the rezoning amendments, which will now be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors for a second Public Hearing and vote.

One of the six former owners of Clover Hill Farm (circa 1781), Susan Bowen-Hartley, who lives about a mile away on Rockland Road, told commissioners, “I see nothing detrimental to our historic Rockland community (by rezoning approval) … and I applaud the Husons on their endeavors.”

Bower, who lives in Front Royal, drew laughter from commissioners and the neighborhood supporters when she said she wished the property had been rezoned earlier so that her daughter could have been married there, rather than having to locate the wedding in Rappahannock County

Clover Hill was originally owned by Bowen-Hartley’s great, great grandfather about the time of the Civil War.  Other owners, including the Husons who purchased the property about two years ago, were the Bowen, Timberlake, Wood, Laws and Tolliver families.

Commissioner Lorraine Smelser remarked on “a beautiful place in a beautiful setting” while Commissioner Ralph Rinaldi commented that “we’ve been looking for this type of place for sometime.” Said Mark Bower, “It’s great to see it restored to some of its former glory.”

Neighbor Sally McGeath opened with the comment: “It looks beautiful” and thanked the Husons for “restoring vitality to the property.”

Bill Powers, who owns property across the road from Clover Hill Farm, described the Husons as “kind and considerate neighbors.”

“For the past two seasons, family and friends have supported the hop harvest which involves hand picking, drying and packaging the leaf hops which are sold locally,” Huson said earlier.  The rest of the acreage is used to pasture Black Angus cattle, produce hay, and grow those hops.

The two-story house, almost derelict when the Husons, who live on nearby Ashby Lane and work for the U.S. government in Washington, D.C., is entirely renovated inside and out, and shortly will sport a new driveway entrance so as not to impede local traffic.  The house remains one of a handful of early 19th century brick homes that survive in the county.

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