Spelunkers lot expansion and Council request to remove downtown apartment development restrictions top planners agenda

The Front Royal Planning Commission met March 17 with a full complement of commissioners with the addition of newly appointed commissioner Joshua Ingram, a 6-year resident of Front Royal and a former candidate for Town Council in the 2020 Election. Chairman Douglas Jones welcomed Commissioner Ingram and asked him to tell the commissioners about himself. In his brief remarks, the new commissioner indicated that he has a “passion for history” and chose Front Royal partly because of its charm and historic significance, which he is extremely interested in preserving.  He looks forward to working with the Town and the other members of the commission on smart growth.

After greeting new commissioner Joshua Ingram, far left, the Town Planning Commission got right down to business. Royal Examiner Photos by Stephen Sill

There were no members of the public present to provide general citizen comments, so Chairman Jones moved to the public hearing portion of the agenda.

The first item was a rezoning application by William Antonelli and 116 South St, LLC, which may be better known as Spelunkers, a popular restaurant on the corner of Pine and South Streets. The applicant is seeking the rezoning of two lots across Pine Street which they have purchased to provide overflow parking and restaurant storage capacity. The two lots are currently zoned Residential (R-1), and the applicant is requesting them to be rezoned to Community Business District (C-1) to accommodate their use for this purpose. The properties on 3 sides of the applicant’s property are already zoned C-1, so this is a minor expansion of that zone.

The COVID-19 restrictions have dramatically increased the importance of Spelunker’s drive-through facility and the applicant wishes to expand it to better allow traffic flow and needs to provide staff and employee parking somewhere other than the current parking lot. To illustrate the need, the commissioners were provided a concept plan showing the new layout, which is expected to reduce congestion on the existing Spelunkers lot, reduce the traffic safety hazard on South Street from “stacking” of vehicles waiting in line for the drive-through service.

Several commissioners asked questions about the details of the concept plan involving traffic flow and whether the commission will have the opportunity to approve the final project. Since the project to make the changes to the Spelunkers parcel and the two additional parcels is still in the conceptual stage, and the rezoning request is entirely separate from the eventual development, the final site plan is categorized a “minor” and will be administratively processed by the planning department and will not need to come back before the commission.

The commissioners unanimously voted to recommend the Town Council approve the rezoning request.

It is believed expansion of parking for Spelunkers employees and customers to two lots labeled ‘SITE’ in this graphic will improve flow for the popular drive-through service and better accommodate customers dining in.

The second public hearing involved a text amendment to the Planning Section of the Front Royal Town Code, and if planning Director Timothy Wilson was expecting a quick approval of the relatively simple amendment, he may have been surprised by the pushback from the commission. Director Wilson explained the genesis of the proposed amendment as a Resolution from the Front Royal Town Council in February that directed the planning department to prepare an ordinance amendment for a public hearing and a Planning Commission recommendation for approval by the Town Council. No members of the public were present to offer input to the proposed amendment, which mainly rescinds some existing restrictions on developing apartments in the Downtown Commercial District (C-2).

The changes include:

• adding text to the ordinance section 175-47(A) that limits conversion of existing residential and/or commercial structures to a maximum of eight total dwelling units.
• Removing text in section 175-48(A) that permits conversions only in buildings constructed after January 1, 1999.
• Removing text in Section 175-49(A) that imposes a requirement for an additional 1,000 square feet of lot area for each dwelling unit in excess of 1.
• Creating an exception to the supplementary regulations in section 175-113 related to lot sizes, building height, and parking, for apartment development in the Downtown Business District.

Planning Director Wilson explained that these changes respond to complaints from property owners and developers who feel that the current restrictions on apartment conversions act as an obstacle to utilizing properties to this purpose.

The commissioners, on the other hand, had several questions and comments regarding the amendment. Vice Chairman Connie Marshner observed that apartments in a downtown business district should be encouraged as they are part of what makes a successful downtown.

Commissioner Daryl Merchant was concerned about the scope of the exception, since the original concern was for properties on East Main and Chester Streets, whereas the Community Business District is a large and varied area where applying these exceptions could have unintended consequences. “Do these text amendments reflect the intent of the Town Council?” he asked.  Planning Director Wilson said that it did.  After some further discussion, the commission voted unanimously to table the text amendment proposal until it can be discussed at a commission work session on April 7.  The commission has 90 days to make its recommendation, and there would not be a requirement to readvertise a public hearing on it, since that notice requirement has already been met.

Finally, the commission considered a proposed resolution that the planning department prepared requesting the Town of Front Royal to provide funding in its fiscal year 2022 budget for a rewrite of the Town Comprehensive Plan. The current plan was written and adopted in 1998, and the code of Virginia requires every governing body to develop a comprehensive plan and to review it for potential amendments every 5 years.  Director Wilson indicated that the 23-year-old document really needed a complete rewrite rather than merely an update, and he observed that taking into consideration the scope of the rewrite, he felt it to be an 18 to 24-month task, which could make it advisable to fund it over two fiscal years. That could make it a more palatable budget item for the council to consider.

The Commission unanimously approved the resolution, which now must go to the Town Council to fit into a budget line.