Cape Charles Mirror Report
by Wayne Creed
With the end of public comment on the proposed zoning ordinance looming, the citizens of Northampton County once again came out to hold their elected official’s feet to the fire over non-standard, unregulated Planned Urban Developments (PUDs), setbacks, but more importantly, to reinforce the message that large scale, intensive industrial poultry operations are inappropriate for this county. There were one hour and four minutes of public comments. While several speakers attacked the possibility of large scale poultry operations, the bombshell was dropped by Rebecca Geary, whose dramatic testimony provided context to the perception that the public may have been intentionally misled by County Staff and members of the Board of Supervisors in regards intensive chicken farming coming to Northampton, as well as the County’s intimate relationship with Tyson and possibly other large scale poultry processors.