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Bath officials prepare to vote on comp plan
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
WARM SPRINGS - With the state-mandated clock to take action running down, the Bath County board of Supervisors finished up changes to the new county comprehensive plan Tuesday.
Board members directed county administrator Bonnie Johnson to confirm the date the document was approved by the planning commission and determine a date in late July for a public hearing and vote by supervisors.
State code requires supervisors to take action within 90 days the time the plan was approved by planners. If the board fails to take action within that time, the plan becomes official automatically.
As in the first work session last week, supervisors found little in need of change in the 98-page document. All five supervisors attended the meeting.
Only three others - Sherry Ryder, Lynn Ellen Black and Jay Trinca - attended. Ryder returns to the county planner position on Monday. Black is a member of the planning commission and provided insight into the development of the plan over the past two years.
Trinca stirred debate with the board toward the end of the meeting regarding cluster development. In the "perspectives" section of the plan, Trinca requested the board remove the entire section discussing cluster development.
"This is one that has been bothering me since April," he told the board. "This is a pro-growth scenario put in by the consultant."
Black told supervisors the section Trinca referred to was not an endorsement of cluster development but rather part of the summary of various options available to the county presented at visioning sessions and to committees. She cited places in the plan where students and farmers said they did not want cluster development.
Chairman Cliff Gilchrest defended leaving cluster development in the plan as an option. Using Williamsville as an example, he explained how cluster development "might be the answer to the survival of small communities."
Supervisor Percy Nowlin said, "I like (cluster development) in areas where the plan is trying to support development."
Supervisor Stuart Hall didn't exactly agree with Nowlin but said he thought the county "didn't want it getting out in the ag areas."
"Cluster development is not for someone coming here from Fairfax," Gilchrest added. "The concept behind this is for people in Bath County who want to continue to live here."
While everyone might want a five- to ten-acre farmette, he noted, with limited land available and rising prices, cluster development may be the only way a young person could afford a home in the county.
Trinca was still concerned that "some lawyer is going to wave this page" in court and demand the right to cluster development. But after considerable discussion and input from Black and Ryder, the board decided to leave the section in the plan. They noted other sections in the plan and the land use regulations could protect the county.
Supervisors, with assistance from Ryder, went through the plan changing the word "provide" to either "support" or "encourage." All were concerned "provide" sounded more like a promise or mandate government might be called upon to fulfill in the future.
Board members confirmed the action taken last week to move the paragraph on commercial wind energy generation from land use to utilities. The statements in the plan leave open the option of commercial wind turbines in areas of the county if they do not impact view sheds.
Gilchrest said he thought such areas might exist and distributed a map showing large areas of Bath County have sufficient winds to support an industrial wind plant.
Supervisor Jon Trees agreed with Gilchrest that some areas of the county might be suitable. A meeting with Daryl Crawford of the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission on a model ordinance to deal with wind turbines planned for July 24 was postponed to allow more flexibility in scheduling a public hearing on the comprehensive plan.
Other changes discussed included leaving Millboro Springs in the growth areas. Gilchrest said that area was one of two locations in the county promised water and sewer when money first came in from Dominion's Bath County Pumped Storage Station. Thirty-one years later, he said, they still don't have good water or working sewage disposal.
At the suggestion of Hall, a paragraph supporting animal husbandry in residential districts with acreage size limitations was removed from the plan. "Your going to have pigs, chickens, every thing else if you leave it in," he said.
Richard Byrd echoed Hall's statements, saying horses and other farm animals don't belong in residential districts. "If I live in an agricultural district, I accept agricultural activity. Residential should be for residential." Byrd said.
Supervisors will set a date for a hearing on the comprehensive plan at their meeting July 10. The planning commission will also attend. After the hearing, the board will vote to either approve the plan as amended or send it back to the planners.
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