With portions of the new zoning ordinance passing last Tuesday, what does this mean for Northampton County? If someone finds out, please tell us at the Mirror, because we are not ashamed to admit that we are totally confused by the whole thing. From talking to several folks in the community though, it is the threat of increased density and over development that is the main fear.
The increases in density, that is, being able to build By Right, notably around places such as Willis Wharf and Oyster, with some up to 4 units per acre, is a crucial concern (also, how is the county supposed to pay for services to these new developments?).
A good bit of the push back to the new zoning is that rather than By Right density increases, the county should instead be requiring a rezoning to higher density. That is, it removes the possibility of negotiating increased density and in return getting a few affordable housing units in return. The claim that increasing density will make affordable housing possible (this has been the Homebuilder’s Association argument), is an unsolvable logic puzzle, a Catch 22. The developer can offer a proffer, such as road improvements, building a playground or fire station–that is, he can offer to do things they believe will provide incentives to the county to
permit the increased density, yet this can only happen with a rezoning. The same policy that should be creating more affordable housing options for folks like our teachers, instead lets developers off the hook and relieves them of being required to provide said affordable housing.
Although the Planning Commission attempted to remove the requirement for ammonia scrubbers for intensive farming operations, the BoS did push back, and kept that requirement in, thus making high volume chicken farming less feasible for Northampton.
Still, the vote Tuesday left these lingering thoughts, as was expressed by this citizen in a comment to the Mirror:
1. The portions of the zoning ordinance that were passed are so diametrically opposed to our current comprehensive plan, which is the collective will of the citizenry, that it can be characterized as nothing less than a land use train wreck. The Code of Virginia demands that any zoning ordinance amendment or revision be consistent with the controlling comprehensive plan. This has been affirmed by the Virginia Supreme Court. Emphatically.
2. The portions of the zoning ordinance that were passed were done so with no benefit from studies, testimony, or probative evidence. The Code of Virginia demands that any zoning ordinance amendment or revision be based on “economic and other studies”, which Charles McSwain admitted on record were never done. The requirement to base zoning amendments or revisions on probative evidence has been affirmed by the Virginia Supreme Court. In spades.
3. The portions of the zoning ordinance that were passed were done so after a public notice was sent to landowners, such public notice being so convoluted and disjointed that even a Rhodes scholar would have trouble understanding how his or her land was to be effected by the proposed changes. Indeed, in the mail we received land use maps, and in the Eastern Shore News, in microscopic print, was a list of uses that would be allowed in each new or reconfigured land use designation.
And, it can also be summed by this anonymous comment posted to the Mirror:
After Tuesday’s memorable landmark BoS meeting one cannot help but wonder why are we so incapacitated ? And in this day and age. For upwards of two years if not longer it seems as if Northampton has had a cancer festering. Citizens persistently have tried to tackle it, painstakingly & tactfully. Is there a doctor in the house?!
Nearly four centuries ago: 363/4 years actually since future America’s first protest against taxation without representation in the spring of 1651/2, Northampton complained to James City of several years weightie taxes. We know better what happened in a similar vein over a century later.
Yesterday morning amid our ongoing lovely weather, throngs of bluebirds and myrtle warblers flocked around their rarely utilized birdbath to the west. Looking east out of their sight range we discovered a large feral cat dwarfing their regular dive as it sipped, perched grossly topside, arrogantly staring us down & refusing to depart when coercive noises were made.
Such a visual experience at once reminded us of our history and the frustration and reality of our meetings and lower shore dilemmas.
Yes, Wayne Creed. Right on. Who knows what lurks behind this disjointed attempt by the County Administrator, the County Attorney, the seemingly renegade Planning Commission and the “follow you anywhere you want me to go, Mr. developer” Board of Supervisors to disembowel our current Comprehensive Plan. During the November work session, new Planning Commissioner Dave Fauber wondered aloud why the new zoning ordinance was steering commercial development onto the Route 13 corridor when indeed our 2009 Comprehensive Plan calls for sheparding new commercial and residential development into the towns where there are services such as fire, police, sewer, water and proximate emergency services. The 2009 Comp Plan was a multi-year all inclusive process that consisted of workshops, focus groups, paid experts (where are they now??), public hearings, and an impressive survey form that was sent out to over 1,000 residents. It (or should I say the majority of residents) calls for preserving our rural character, protecting open space and farmland, enhancing natural resource eco-tourism opportunities, and protecting our sole source aquifer by limiting development in the Route 13 corridor. When Dave repeated those mandates to the Planning Commission wondering why their recommendations are not consistent with the controlling Comp Plan, Commissioner Mike Ward chuckled and replied “you haven’t seen the new Comp Plan!”
An interesting sidebar was the addition to the new zoning ordinance of a term that we had not seen in the last 2 years, and recommended to the BOS by the Planning Commission to be added as an allowable use in the ag district: “electric generation facility”. Some thought that might be slid in there so that solar and wind farms could be added to the zoning ordinance. Not so, however. There are separate categories in the new zoning ordinance that allow both solar and wind, so that leaves oil, nuclear, natural gas or something other, like that which might come out of the business end of a chicken. Sweet. Perfect for the lower Eastern Shore…..or so they must think!
What is crystal clear here is that all of the county players mentioned above have either little knowledge about Virginia Code or past Supreme Court decisions which have struck down similar attempts to steamroll over the protective will of the community, or that they simply just do not care and are seemingly running another agenda other than that of the general public.
And that end result rests squarely on the administrative, legislative, and judicial shoulders of our county attorney, who now has to advise the new Board on how to undo the very ordinance that he in all probability condoned or perhaps co-wrote in the first place, Hopefully when some positions are trimmed and the budget tightened by the new Board, some of the extra change can be used to retain the services of an independent, well-schooled, and well-intentioned counsel who will advise the new Supervisors in a manner that is more reflective of code and law, and shows more respect for both.
Thought maybe I would of seen you at the meeting in nassawadox last night lots of concerned and agitated residents .
Sam….in response to why I did not make the fantastic town meeting Monday night, let me explain: In one of the rare moments in the last 20 months, I put the priorities of my business ahead of my civic responsibility fighting this full frontal assault on our liberties and quality of life by the Board of Supervisors as apparently choreographed by the County Administrator….traveling to Delaware for a long-overdue merchandise buy for Wachina. Not to fear……am back in the saddle……seeking equality….and echoing this refrain..
“justice dies when those who seek it stop looking for it”……see you Monday night at the last BOS work session under the current “leadership” (and I use that term very loosely!).