Planning Commission anxious to jump back into Comprehensive Plan

BOS votes to amend COVID-19 emergency ordinance with conditions

On Tuesday, replying to a request by the Rappahannock Board of Supervisors, County Attorney Art Go issued an opinion memorandum that clari ed what constituted “essential business” for the county’s public bodies.

It was on March 30 that Governor Ralph Northam issued a statewide stayat-home order to help prevent the spread of the highly contagious COVID-19. The same day, the BOS met in an emergency session to begin to shape the county’s response.

Part of that response was an emergency ordinance that all but put most of the county’s boards, commissions, and committees out of service for the time being because their business was not considered essential under the emergency ordinance. Caught in the ne print were some of the county’s larger public bodies, including the Rappahannock

County Planning Commission, which canceled two regular meetings.

Go ’s opinion letter, however, declared that public bodies could in fact meet if their business was “statutorily” required by the state law.

As counties’ comprehensive plans are statutorily required, the planning commission, which is currently reviewing and revising its own plan, was back in business. In fact they met electronically over the Zoom video conference platform last night, May 20, to review the plan’s chapter 8.

In an email Tuesday, planning commission chair David Konick said he is eager to get back to work.

“There is a lot of important work to be done, and now we are even further behind than when I took over as chairman,” Konick said. “Our land use laws are twenty and thirty years out of date, and after the comprehensive plan is adopted as revised, the zoning and subdivision ordinances need to be overhauled and updated to re ect what’s in the plan, as well as current realities and changes in zoning law and practice since the 1980s.”

Chapter 8 of the plan, he said, on implementation “is probably the most important chapter of the whole comprehensive plan, and that is where we left o in February at our last work session.”

Although the planners can begin work again, they are still not able to address the permit applications that have been pending since February and stacking up since then.

“According to the county attorney’s opinion issued earlier today, we can only address ‘essential business,’” Konick said. “We cannot consider special use or special exception permits or any proposed text amendments due to the changes to the county emergency ordinance that were adopted last Wednesday evening speci cally to prevent the planning commission from holding a physical meeting and taking up these matters, each of which was on the draft agenda that already had been circulated to the commission for approval.”

In the meantime, Konick sent letters dated May 15 to all applicants of special use or special exception permits explaining the delay in taking up their applications.

“[T]he commission is permitted to meet electronically, but only to discuss items that are mandated by statute (e.g., the comprehensive plan) or otherwise time sensitive and essential to the continuity of government,” reads the letter in part. “The county attorney and county administrator [Garrey Curry] have opined that land use permit applications, including yours, do not fall within this category. Accordingly, we cannot proceed with any meeting to consider your application until such time as Rappahannock County is at Phase 2 [of Northam’s ‘Forward Virginia’ initiative to re-open the state’s businesses].”

BOS MODIFIES EMERGENCY ORDINANCE

On May 13, the BOS approved by a four to one vote a modi cation to the county’s COVID-19 emergency continuity of government ordinance. Jackson Supervisor Ron Frazier cast the dissenting vote.

“Because of the loosening of restrictions under Phase 1 [of Northam’s ‘Forward Virginia’ initiative, which began May 15],” explained Hampton District Supervisor Keir Whitson in an email Friday, “The Board voted to remove from the ordinance the language that would allow for in-person meetings and to remove any ambiguity in this regard and to preclude chairs of bodies from calling physical meetings during this still-risky period.”

The amended text would allow in-person meetings of the bodies whenever Northam moves the state’s emergency pandemic response to Phase 2, allowing gatherings of up to 50 people.

But in recent days, as with other areas across the country, there are some within the Rappahannock County government — in both elected and appointed positions — who want the county to loosen operational restrictions to allow in-person meetings.

Board Chair Christine Smith and Frazier, with the urging of Amissville resident Page Glennie, had been calling for allowing public bodies, such as the planning commission and the Rappahannock Board of Zoning Appeals to address an ever growing backlog of work. Chores awaiting those two bodies include nalizing the county’s comprehensive plan and addressing applications for zoning permits.

In previous meetings, Smith noted that other counties have been conducting land use and zoning meetings. She asked Curry to look into those counties’ practices and determine if Rappahannock could also allow those bodies to meet.

At last Wednesday’s meeting, Curry explained that the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) does not allow land use business to be conducted over fully electronic meetings. And the state’s emergency order does not allow gatherings of over 10 people.