Town Planning Commissioners Recommend Denial of Proposed Junkyard

In a blur of governmental action, the percussive repetition of the data center concern may overwhelm a simple question: How should Front Royal’s precious, industrially zoned space be used? At a June 17 regular meeting of the Town Planning Commission, commissioners voted to recommend denial of a special-use permit application for a junkyard on an industrially zoned property on Kendrick Lane. Their reasoning was complex, reflecting questions about land use and water drainage on the six-acre site where this business would operate. As social media comments have aptly pointed out, this business would come in addition to an adjacent towing concern, which has a garage used that, for all practical purposes, at least gives the appearance of a junkyard.

The Town Planning Commission met for a regular meeting on June 17. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh

At a work session on June 3, the commissioners discussed their questions and agreed to compile a list for staff to convey to the applicant. As of the evening of June 17, the applicant had not responded, and in fact arrived after the meeting was concluded, while the commission was conducting a work session, to be informed of the commission’s negative recommendation and encouraged by Planning Director Lauren Kopishke to answer the questions in advance of the next step: Action by the Town Council.

During the staff’s presentation on the item, Deputy Zoning Administrator John Ware illustrated the site’s topography, explaining the limits of the floodplain and how water naturally flows down the property’s incline, potentially conveying leaked automobile fluids into nearby waterways.

Deputy Zoning Administrator John Ware presents to the commission one item for public hearing.

Even though the commissioners were focused on the dangers of automobile fluids leaking into water flows, the question emerges: What is the best use of this space? It is a question that might once have been answered by the now-insolvent EDA.

As the County’s new economic development director, Patrick Barker calls it, a tool among many, perhaps the EDA still has a role to play. But as Vice-Mayor Amber Veitenthal has asked rhetorically: How long does one keep the lights on for an insolvent body?

The new director comes at a time when applications like the one above arrive at the commission and then the council with a sense of inertia. Leaders may be able to articulate what they do not want, while struggling to identify what they do want.