Town Planning Commission approves Swan Estate Development proffers, defers Comprehensive Plan final recommendation

The Front Royal Planning Commission met Wednesday, December 21, welcoming its newest member, Commissioner Glenn Wood, and bidding adieu to newly elected Town Councilman Josh Ingram.

Newly appointed Planning Commissioner Glenn Wood Joins the Commission after a 12-year absence. – Royal Examiner Photos Stephen Sill

The Consent Agenda consisted of a single item, approval of an authorization to advertise a public hearing for a request from Barbara Samuels for a Short-Term Tourist Rental Special Use Permit (SUP) for a property at 437 South Royal Avenue. On a motion by Commissioner Connie Marshner, seconded by Commissioner Wood, the commission unanimously approved the consent agenda.

The Commission conducted public hearings on four items.

Yaohua Gu has submitted a request for a SUP to allow a Short-Term Rental for her property at 309 East Prospect Street. The property is zoned R-3, Residential District, and is in the Historic District Area. Zoning Administrator John Ware told the commission that the property was fully compliant with the town’s short-term rental ordinance and that inspections had been completed. There were no public comments about the proposed use. On a motion by Commissioner Marshner, seconded by Commissioner Daniel Wells, the Commission voted unanimously to recommend the application for approval.

Tabatha Luskey, Luskey Properties, LLC, made a request for a SUP to allow a Short-Term Rental located at 302 Blue Ridge Avenue in the Historic District Area. The property is zoned R-3, Residential District. The applicant stated that her parents would be occupying the lower floor of the property so that someone would be on-site as the rental manager. Zoning Administrator Ware indicated the property complied with the Short-term rental ordinance and that inspections were completed. There were no public speakers for or against the proposal, and on a motion by Commissioner Ingram, seconded by Commissioner Wood. The commission voted unanimously to recommend approval.

Short-Term tourist rental applicant Tabatha Luskey explains her proposal for a property at 302 Blue Ridge Avenue. The Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval.

These two applications will now be forwarded to the Town Council for final action.

Comp Plan discussion
The third public hearing concerned the long-awaited ground-up rewrite of the Town of Front Royal Comprehensive Plan, which will replace the plan adopted on March 23, 1998. Planning Director Lauren Kopishke told the commission that much has changed in that 14-year period. She provided a summary of the activities since work on updating the plan began in August 2021. Public input for the plan has taken the form of outreach events, traditional and social media coverage, web-based comment forums, and surveys. In addition, the Planning department accepted direct public input throughout the process. Around 3% of the town’s population provided input, according to the draft plan.

Town Planning Director Lauren Kopishke summarizes the latest progress on the Town’s Comprehensive Plan update, nearing its final form. The commission voted to defer final certification to allow some final touches to the year-long project.

In this final draft version of the plan, four “big ideas” are suggested to help achieve the Town’s desired vision:

Preserve our History and Create More of What We Love: Front Royal residents, business owners, visitors, and decision-makers all agree that the historic downtown area is the jewel in Front Royal’s crown, and it should be preserved and enhanced. This plan makes many recommendations which will, together, ensure that the positive aspects of downtown will be preserved and expanded in the future.

Affordable Housing: The Town will take action to ensure that community members are not priced out and forced to move elsewhere.

Lifelong Community: Front Royal will be a home for every stage of life. The Town will be a place where people can grow from childhood, raise a family, and age in place.

Environmental Access: Front Royal has extraordinary access to natural resources. Many significant opportunities exist to increase access and visibility to these beautiful assets.

The action item for the Commission was to certify the Comprehensive Plan package before transmitting it to Town Council. There were nine speakers for the public hearing, all of whom expressed appreciation to the Planning Department and, specifically, Planning Director Kopishke for developing the updated plan.

Local resident John Lundberg gave the Commission plenty of positive feedback for the plan. He pointed out a glaring issue with the Town’s failure to solve the railroad-crossing problem at Shenandoah Shores Road and Happy Creek Road. Longtime residents know that stalled trains at that intersection create a complete bottleneck for residents and businesses on the north side of the track since that is the single entry and exit point. Mr. Lundberg pointed out that the original plan for the Leach Run Parkway included a bridge over the railroad tracks. Still, that overpass was “nixed “by local officials as being too expensive.

Local Resident John Lundberg addresses the Planning Commission to express his concern about a needed improvement to the intersection of Happy Creek and Shenandoah Shores Rd.

Former Councilman Scott Lloyd urged the Commission to include a “Polycentric approach” to land use planning using ideas advanced by Leon Krier, “The Godfather of the New Urbanism,” a Belgian architect and urban planner who advocated for human-focused planning that is, making the development of business districts, residential areas, schools, and institutions co-exist in a way that works for everyone. These principles are incorporated to some degree in the draft plan by language encouraging “mixed-use development.”

Jonathan Lash told the Commission that the Plan “sounds good.” Still, he hoped that water quality in the Shenandoah River would be a priority, particularly as he understood that there was still mercury content in the river. The Virginia Department of Environmental Health issues a guide to fish consumption from water bodies across the state, including the Shenandoah River. The draft plan also makes a priority of water quality in the river.

The Commission discussed the comments made during the public hearing and, on a motion by Commissioner Marshner, seconded by Commissioner Wood, voted to defer certification of the draft plan to allow further review at its January 4 work session and a vote on January 18.

Swan Farm Development is back on the front burner

Finally, the Commission took up the request from Joseph F. Silek Jr., on behalf of Heptad, LLC, to amend previously approved proffers for the Anna Swan subdivision off Leach Run Parkway, south of Happy Creek Road.

A proffer is a voluntary offer by a landowner submitted with a rezoning application to perform an act or donate money, a product, or a service with the intent of justifying the appropriateness of the proposed rezoning application.

The property consists of 98.25 acres that are currently zoned Planned Neighborhood Development (PND) District. The original proffers proposed development consisting of a residential of 450 dwelling units creating a density of 4.58 dwelling units per acre. The residential dwellings were planned to consist of a mixture of single-family detached, single-family attached, and multi-family dwelling units. Town Code Section 175-37.09 permits a density of up to six (6) dwelling units per acre in the PND District, subject to the approval of a density bonus by the Town Council.

The Future Land Use Plan recommends the property’s future use as “planned residential.” The property has been designated as a potentially suitable location for relatively higher development densities (4 dwelling units/acre minimum). Modern planning principles generally promote higher density and clustered development in growth areas to avoid costly construction and maintenance of infrastructure to serve development in outlying areas and to preserve open space. This proposal would essentially double the number of dwelling units in the available space. This is important because the metric data provided by the most recent Comprehensive Plan study/rewrite shows that the Town has insufficient housing to support projected population growth.

Joe Silek Jr., representing Heptad, LLC, addresses the Town Planning Commission to explain a revised proffer package for the Swan Farm Development. The revisions would support adding 335 homes to the community adjoining Lech Run Parkway. Efforts to develop that property have been underway since 2005. The commission voted unanimously to support the proposal.

The original HEPTAD rezoning application was initially submitted to the Town on July 5, 2005. The property was referred to as Swan Farm at that time. On February 1, 2012, the Town council approved an amendment to the original proffers. The newly proposed amendments will permit up to 335 dwelling units, 165 single-family detached and 170 single-family attached. This calculates to a gross residential density of 3.4 dwelling units/per acre.

The proposed amendments also include changes to the currently approved lot sizes, reducing the required lot size from 50’x60’ to 46’x60’

Finally, the proffers include payments to the Town of Front Royal, $7,910.36 per Single Family Detached dwelling and $6,039.72 per single-family attached dwelling, to help defray the Town’s cost and expenses in improvements to Leach Run Parkway. The developer would also pay Warren County $6,039.72 per dwelling unit to “support capital improvements relating to the impacts of the residential development on the Warren County Public Schools.”

Planning Director Kopishke indicated the department had some concerns about the volume of permits that would need to be processed. The staff has concerns about the ability to process an additional 100 zoning permits due to current staffing levels. Typical zoning permit review takes two weeks, and this department processes an average of 34 new dwelling units/per year. The result is that review times may exceed two weeks. Thirty-seven new dwelling permits have been issued so far this year.

During the Public Hearing on the proposal, there were no public speakers, and, on a motion by Commissioner Wells, seconded by Commissioner Marshner, the Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval. The amendment will now go to the town council for final action.

In his parting comments, Commissioner Ingram expressed his appreciation to the Commission members, the Planning Department staff, and the people of Front Royal for their support in his two years on the Commission. Commissioner Wood said he was looking forward to serving on the Commission again – “It’s good to be back!”

Chairman Merchant adjourned the meeting at 8:45 p.m.