Planning Commission Sends Half-Finished
Zoning Recommendations to Board of Supervisors

By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

June 9, 2014

Tuesday, June 10, is the big meeting of Northampton County Board of Supervisors on next steps to rezone the county. The Supervisors will consider zoning recommendations submitted by the Planning Commission, which state in a cover letter that there was not “adequate time” to properly review the draft zoning proposal. Planning Commissioner Mike Ward said the best the Planning Commission can do is submit its recommendations and offer to finish the job if the Supervisors give them more time.

County Administrator Katie Nunez has advised the Supervisors that Virginia law stipulates a 100-day time limit for Planning Commission consideration of a zoning application. But opponents of the rezoning, led by Exmore activist Ken Dufty, maintain that the 100-day limit was never meant to apply to zoning changes proposed by the county itself. Instead, it is meant to be a protection to resident applicants to assure timely consideration of their requests.

“This section of code, as well as the time limitation, was obviously written by the Virginia Legislature to give a private developer or resident seeking a zoning amendment the certainty that their request would not be hanging out in regulatory nowhere land for an extended length of time,” Dufty said. “It was seemingly never intended to give a governing body the right to impose a strict time limit on their own Planning Commission.” Dufty has requested a ruling from County Attorney Bruce Jones on the use of the code by the Supervisors.

All members of the Planning Commission agree that they only made it halfway through the review of the massive proposed changes. Commissioner Ward noted that just deliberating the proposed elimination of the Chesapeake Bay Protection Act on the seaside could take two years.

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Planning Commissioners Roberta Kellam and Martina Coker made a motion recommending that the Supervisors “withdraw all applications related to Zoning, Floodplain Management, and the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, and work with the Planning Commission to amend the Zoning Code in a manner that (1) is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan, (2) considers impacts to agriculture, aquaculture, tourism, economic development, affordable housing, sewer and water infrastructure, schools, transportation, groundwater, surface waters and natural resources, and (3) utilizes the Planning Commission’s review and recommendations on specific Zoning Code provisions that have been completed between March 11 and May 28, 2014.” The motion failed 2 to 3, with Commissioners Mike Ward, Jackie Chatmon, and Sylvia Stanley opposed.

During the April 15 State of the Shore meeting, Board of Supervisors Chairman Larry LeMond said, “We now have a new proposed zoning code of about 150 pages that has been through several public information sessions, a public hearing, and is now being reviewed by the Planning Commission. But this change has not come without some controversy. Some say that we have gone too far, or that we need to slow down. I say to those detractors: Let’s give this new zoning code a chance because what we have now is not working for everyone.”

LeMond continued, “This summer the Board will address any recommended changes to the proposal and we expect to adopt this new ordinance that will be beneficial for the environment, all the people who live and work here, and the overall health of the county.”

LeMond’s statement came after a marathon public hearing March 11 at Northampton High School where numerous speakers expressed concern about both the proposed changes and the process by which they were presented to the public.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Planning Commission Sends Half-Finished
Zoning Recommendations to Board of Supervisors”

  1. Bobby Roberts on June 9th, 2014 11:40 am

    Very fortunate for Board Chairman Mr. Lemond that he lives in Cheriton, with its sensible residential zoning. He won’t be hurt at all by the county zoning changes. Unlike the rest of us who live out in the county, he won’t wake up some morning to find a video arcade or a bar or a chicken house getting built next door to him.

  2. Craig Richardson on June 17th, 2014 2:27 am

    A video arcade? I think you’re a little off base on that one.