In Northampton, the intersection of agriculture and residential is one of the unique and interesting aspects of our home. However, what happens when that relationship goes awry, and the partnership becomes adversarial?
This is apparently the case with the property of Chris Monroe. Mr. Monroe owns property that used to be the old Busy B store and is adjacent to Tankard Nursery. The issue is complicated and deals with the commercial right-of-way, incorrect deeds, and easements. On another level, it is about intimidation and the appearance of corruption at the County level. Basically, Northampton’s going to be and do Northampton.
In a nutshell, there is a roadway that runs in front of Monroe’s property that Tankard Nursery uses as a right of way for moving equipment back and forth. While this should be somewhat innocuous, Monroe claims that the road is way overused, with large trucks, tractors, and other equipment speeding past and rattling his home over sixty times per day.
The image to the left shows the easement purchased for the nursery. Monroe’s contention is why the nursery is using his property’s old driveway and not their deeded purchased 20ft easement.
Below is David Tankard’s comments on the history of the property and how the nursery views the right of way:


Despite efforts to resolve the conflict, the situation began to deteriorate. More vehicles used the road in front of Monroe’s home, to the point that he eventually confronted one of the drivers. A criminal complaint was brought against Mr. Monoe, claiming that he had threatened to use force to abate the situation (the complaint noted that Monroe threatened to shoot someone):

The charges were dismissed, however, Monroe spent a considerable sum to defend himself. Off the record, Monroe was told this was an attempt to have him jailed as a way to quiet and discredit him. Video evidence from his property seemed to invalidate the criminal complaint.
While this may have seemed like a good time to re-evaluate and de-escalate, the opposite seems to have happened.
According to Monroe, the use of the road has increased and gotten much noisier. Dump trucks with little to no exhaust release the air brakes loudly and seem to enjoy using lower gears to make things just that more uncomfortable.
Monroe captured these images in less than a day:
This video was on a Saturday morning around 7 am. It appears they honked the horn to be sure Monroe got the message:
As was mentioned, the intersection of Ag and Residential is one of the beautiful aspects of living on the Shore. It is important that both see and treat each other as neighbors. This case appears to have a long-standing, wealthy Shore family pitted against a single landowner that is asking for regress from the noise and traffic of farm equipment that is rattling his peace. It would be nice to see this situation worked out so that work can be done, and a homeowner can enjoy his home and property.
Zoning is zoning, and Special Use Permits generally do not favor the small homeowner. You can’t fight City Hall. But, is the homeowner at least expected to have a right to relative peace and quiet, or as the County states, it’s just too bad, so sad?

This may be a classic case of nobody’s right and everybody’s wrong, but it should be a wake-up call for Northampton County. At what point does the life and well-being of the citizen become an issue? Commerce, business, and Ag are incredibly important, however, there needs to be a balance so that all can thrive.
In Cape Charles, there has been an effort to try and balance the benefits of the Coastal Concrete plant with the needs of town residents. Not perfect by any stretch, but the town has at least engaged and promoted a dialog, a dialog that we hope will be ongoing. The Monroe case, and others like it, may need the County as an intermediary when conflict is the potential to escalate.
Tankard is an old and well respected last name and a family with deep roots on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. They have maintained good stewardship of their land, their last name and those that have worked for them.
I can not say that about the others mentioned.
So what your saying is because they have money they can do what they want👀 . . They hire illegal immigrants who shoot guns s all night and disrespect the community but as long as boss has money it’s cool.. we no how you voted🤔
You are a real mental midget…the word money was never mentioned in my diatribe. Money is the reward. You are not real bright are you? A few bricks shy of a load? Your elevator does not go all the way to the top, does it?
You would never understand my diatribe on the The Tankards, because your brain is so small that if they put it on the edge of a razor blade, it would look like a golf ball rolling down a 4 lane highway.
As to my voting…well that is none of your damn business.
You sound like a Come-Here, so no need to reply…I don’t care what you think of me or the Tankards!
I am disappointed that the Cape Charles Mirror did not request input from the other side of this issue. Notes:
1. The right of way is legal. I had my lawyer, John Custis, double check it for me. Mr. Monroe has conceded in early conversations that he knew about the right of way, but didn’t realize it would be used by tractors and other heavy equipment. The right of way has existed since 1987 and none of the previous owners of Mr. Monroe’s property have had any issue with it.
2. The right of way is a safety issue. We don’t like our tractors on the fairly busy Occohanock Neck Rd any longer than necessary.
3. The farm that I own that borders Mr. Monroe’s property is part of an AFD (Agricultural Forestry District). We are able to operate heavy equipment, irrigation pumps, etc at all hours on that farm.
4. Despite that almost all of the heavy equipment that uses the right of way is between the hours of 7:30am and 5pm. On rare occasions we do need to use the right of way during other hours, but it is almost always during daylight.
5. If tractors and other heavy equipment did go on Occohanock Neck Rd, instead of the right of way, they would be about the same distance from Mr. Monroe’s house. There would be virtually no difference in the amount of noise.
6. When this started I did try to talk to Mr. Monroe. I was screamed and cursed at when I refused to give in on use of the right of way. Mr. Monroe has since yelled at several of my employees. He has also screamed and cursed at me again when I was just riding by on my bike on the paved public road. Once he did even come on our property to yell at my employees. Despite all of this, David’s Nursery has told their employees to do their best to ignore Mr. Monroe. Whenever he is blocking the right of way by standing in the middle of the road, my tractors do take the long way around.
These are my main points, although there is more that could be added. David’s Nursery does try very to be a good neighbor. We do want all of our neighbors to like us. I am sorry that Mr. Monroe didn’t realize he was buying a house near an operating nursery and that he didn’t realize before buying that tractors and other heavy equipment would be using that right of way.
Sincerely,
David Tankard, Jr.
CEO
David’s Nursery LLC
Note: Thank you for your comment, and agreed, this was terrible reporting. Should not have run this story with time constraints.
There is a lot to say about where the rubber hits the road. Why don’t you tel everyone what you have done to my family how you plotted to throw me in jail or how you have your buddy driving though my land when you have a VDOT paved Road that takes you to your land even per the power company you shouldn’t be using my land…David Tankard JR you continue to harass me and my family. Sad what you and your Aka family have done. I have some unreal documentation that makes my family sick to see.
I will continue to fight for my family rights and to make right what you have done wrong to us.
These types of issues are a problem lots of places. Back in the early 80s when we moved to the mountains from town in Colorado we saw the same things. New neighbor trapping and killing the wild life because they wanted to live like they were still in town. Politics and who was here first is not where the focus belongs. Love and respect for your Neighbor, their culture and general lifestyle is key to being happy anywhere. Let the buyer be aware they are buying a lifestyle change along with their house. I for one love it here and love that the only traffic jam I have to contend with is due to farm equipment. Sound like mediation or another move will be required to calm the waters in this case.
I agree with you I love that my only traffic jam is farm equipment on the roads Aka not going through my land when they have there own deeded access and a VDot road right to the front door of both A&B lots to be honest ClearView road in clear view subdivision gives access to both lots. I have lived in a town of 400 In Oregon we loved it amazing farmers helping there community even letting us pick potatoes and other vegetables if we wanted. We truly understand helping your neighbors as I was a member of our road district when I was there and born military kid raised to help.
Thank you for you kind words and understanding.
we should of never been able to purchase this home they should of had this land long ago smh.
Well, Oregon sounds like where you should be then. With the rest of the perpetually offended.
Well bill I was In Oregon working born in Portsmouth as a navy kid this is my home so why don’t you go talk shit about omeone els you are a very disrespectful ass hole this is my home dick head. You are the problem with the shore.. disrespect a military family wtf is wrong you
I went in the military at age 17. My dad was a lifer. I have never seen the respect shown to a veteran, shown to their kids…
Thank you for your service and your families service. Mr Bell… now that everyone is in the same page there is no need to be a keyboard commando or disrespect anyone. To be disrespectful to someone on there issues blows my mind. we all are in a sad times and small community’s need to help one another and not push ones out or around. Smh