Supervisors unanimously adopt zoning rewrite

Six comment on revised ordinance at public hearing

By Amy Boucher

   INDEPENDENCE – The man who wanted to repeal zoning in Grayson County, Supervisor Glen “Eddie” Rosenbaum, on Thursday night praised those who revised the entire ordinance in three months and made a motion, unanimously approved by the Grayson Board of Supervisors, to adopt the new zoning ordinance.

Only six people made comments on the ordinance at a public hearing. Supervisors’ Chairman John Brewer noted that 250 to 300 people who “loved their county” attended a meeting in January with divided opinions on zoning in Grayson. “It’s been a rocky road.” But he said he is “extremely proud” of the resulting ordinance.

About 30 people attended Thursday’s meeting, which was held in the courtroom instead of the board room in anticipation of a larger crowd.

The supervisors ordered the revision after first taking steps in January to repeal zoning altogether on a 3-2 vote. Rosenbaum, who initiated the repeal, tabled the action in February and with the support of the entire board directed the planning commission to revise the ordinance to make it more "user" and "business friendly."

“What we’ve been through has been a team effort with hard work and dedication to the people’s will,” said Rosenbaum after the vote Thursday, reading from a prepared statement that he said he had a little trouble seeing because he had been fighting a woods fire earlier in the day. He called the resulting ordinance more user-friendly, business-friendly and environment-friendly.

Planning and Community Development Director Elaine Holeton told the supervisors that rewriting the ordinance was identified as a goal in the 2014 Comprehensive Plan. The Grayson Planning Commission met eight times over three months to work on the new draft, focusing on six issues: readability, allowable uses in all districts; property setbacks; general regulations in all districts; exemption of agricultural buildings from zoning requirements; and clarification of the administration section. The planning commission recommended both the revised zoning ordinance and an associated revision to the subdivision ordinance to the supervisors for adoption.

(For detailed information on some of the changes, see previous posts dated March 29, March 26, April 9, and April 15. Click here: http://www.amyreports.blogspot.com/2014/03/planning-commission-slogs-through.html; http://www.amyreports.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-devil-is-in-details.html; http://www.amyreports.blogspot.com/2014/03/agricultural-district-dropped.html; http://www.amyreports.blogspot.com/2014/04/zoning-revision-tackles-shoreline.html;http://www.amyreports.blogspot.com/2014/04/zoning-ordinance-revision-ready-for.html)

“Thank you for the countless, countless, countless hours you’ve put in on this,” said Brewer, who also serves on the planning commission and was part of the revision.

Two speakers at the hearing, Barbara Russell and Laura George, were concerned that the new ordinance does not make clear that it replaces the old one, finding this language in the “general requirements” section problematic: “The provisions of this ordinance are cumulative with additional limitations imposed by all other laws and ordinances, previously passed or which may be passed after the adoption of this ordinance, governing any subject matter in this ordinance.”

Russell is a former planning commission member.

George said Holeton has told her that the county attorney said the language is not a problem, “but as an attorney, I see a problem. This is the opposite of what you want to accomplish …Our county attorney is wrong.

“We want this to be retroactive and trump all prior rules.”

George, Ruth Ross, Martha Anderson and George Santucci, representing the National Committee for the New River, all asked the county to consider protecting water resources by limiting the amount that water-intensive businesses can use.

“Please ask the planning commission to study this,” George said. “We are sitting ducks for a Nestle Corporation…They come in and suck the water dry and, ‘Bye-bye.’”

Santucci offered an example of a rule the county might adopt. He asked the supervisors to consider a business that uses 300,000 gallons of groundwater a month, and “the impact that might have on neighbors. Aquifers don’t honor tax parcel boundaries.”

Grayson residents have no recourse now if their aquifer is reduced by industrial use. He suggested that if a business proposes to use more than 300,000 gallons a month, it should have to prove first that “that amount of water is there.”

Anderson said she lives near a rock quarry which uses a lot of water and neighbors “are concerned about that.”

Elmer Russell of Troutdale, who has previously spoken against zoning, said, “The people are expecting you folks to do what is right with zoning, and that’s all I ask…Whatever you do, it needs to be done honestly…I’m not saying yay or nay.” Russell said the supervisors should represent the will of the majority.

Almost everyone who spoke praised Holeton and the planning commission for their hard work. Rosenbaum also praised County Administrator Jonathan Sweet for “holding the ship together while the county was experiencing some turbulence.”

The supervisors unanimously approved the revision to the subdivision ordinance, in which planned unit development regulations were moved from the zoning ordinance to the subdivision ordinance.