Planners consider Sperryville zoning change

A request for an amendment to the county’s zoning ordinance to allow professional offices by-right along Route 211 from the village of Sperryville to the Shenandoah National Park boundary is being considered by the Rappahannock County Planning Commission.

Currently professional offices are not permitted in that stretch of the county, zoned Highway Commercial (HC).

Robert Chapman — also known as Robert Archer — of Sperryville has requested the text amendment to the zoning ordinance. However, as Chapman points out in a presentation accompanying his application, “the HC zone allows Office use but not ‘Professional Office’ (Doctors, Lawyers, Artists, Etc.) [even though] [t]here are at least six Professional Offices in HC at the moment.”

Jackson District Supervisor Ron

Frazier, who sits on the Planning Commission, noted that the application lacked a narrative explanation of how the zoning change would fit with the county’s Comprehensive Plan.

“But,” Frazier said, “as a member of the Board of Supervisors I have a bigger problem. We seem to be ‘piecemealing’ the HC zone. The supervisors and Planning Commission should have a broader, more overall look at what’s happening in Sperryville.”

He moved to send the application to the BOS.

But Hampton planner Al Henry characterized that sending the application to the BOS was “to put it in a dark room.” Henry feared the board would not get to a comprehensive approach to Sperryville in a timely manner.

Planning Chair David Konick, who also sits on the Board of Zoning Appeals, had another concern.

“The ordinance is a little ambiguous in terms of what kind amendments can be made by individual landowners,” he said.

Piedmont district planner Mary Katherine Ishee proposed an amendment to the motion: “Table the application until the Planning Commission receives determination from the County Attorney [Art Goff] and the Zoning Administrator [Michelle Somers] as to the extent a property owner has the right to submit an application to the Planning Commission for a zoning text amendment.”

The motion passed 5-2, with Henry and Stonewall-Hawthorne district planner Gary Light casting the nay votes.

Konick then advised Chapman to get on the agenda for the March 2 BOS meeting and write the narrative explanation for his application. The board, explained Konick, would send the application back to the planners to consider. In the meantime, the planners could seek advice from Goff and Somers.

The planners also reviewed a special exception permit application from Cliff Miller of Mount Vernon Farm LLC to build two tourist homes on his 790-acre property in Sperryville.

Miller obtained approval from the Board of Zoning Appeals for the new construction on the parcel which is zoned Agricultural. As part of the BZA approval, the permit was contingent upon dividing the land or obtaining the special exception permit.

The planners voted unanimously in favor of recommending to the BOS that the permit be granted.