|
Ryder back in the planning saddle
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
 | | Sherry Ryder listens to supervisors discuss the new comprehensive plan two weeks before she officially started the job of county planner. Ryder returns to the position after a year and half away from county government. (Recorder photo by Charles Garratt) |
|
WARM SPRINGS - After a year and a half away from county government, Sherry Ryder returned Monday to the Bath County planner position.
In addition to being county planner, Ryder is the zoning official and is qualified to help with erosion and sedimentation permits. She will soon take the certification course to be an E&S inspector so she can assist county building official Andy Seabolt.
Ryder, like Seabolt and other county employees, wears many hats. She is the first point of contact for property owners seeking information on zoning or requesting a zoning change or permit.
She has the authority to issue certain types of permits and sign some subdivision requests, primarily those for a family member. The rest go from her office to the planning commission, board of zoning appeals or board of supervisors, where Ryder acts as advisor for land use decisions.
"I'm very thankful they've given me the opportunity to come back," Ryder said Tuesday. She held the planner position from April 2003 until September 2005 when she left for personal and family reasons.
Ryder is a native of Bath County. She worked in the county administrator's office before leaving to work for a local attorney. She returned to the attorney's office between her last tenure as planner and starting the job again Monday.
Supervisors are reviewing the new county comprehensive plan and Ryder returns with a head start in advising on changes, since she oversaw the initial visioning sessions and committee work more than two years ago.
Of the new plan draft, Ryder said, "It is good enough to adopt with some future amendments."
She stresses the county needs to get the new plan adopted and begin updating land use regulations and the zoning map.
"We need something," she said. The current plan was adopted in 1999, she pointed out state law requires the plan be updated every five years. "We can always amend it," she added.
Ryder sees the threat of uncontrolled development as the biggest to the county. "There are developers watching Bath County," she said. And they were watching before Homestead Preserve began developing its upscale housing project, she added.
Bath County doesn't have a lot of usable land and lots of people want to do things with that land, Ryder said.
She said people think because a lot of the land is steep it won't be suitable for development. "Go to Pigeon Forge," Ryder suggested. "You'll see houses on stilts stacked one on top of another."
She believes the county needs more control in agricultural districts before things go that far. "We still have time," Ryder said.
In addition to the updated plan and land use regulations, she said zoning maps need to be corrected to delineate the proper zoning in proper places.
Ryder's personal goal as planner is "to be an asset to the county, to do what's good for the county."
She discovered Monday she wasn't an "official" official, so she is waiting for supervisors to make a formal appointment as zoning administrator at the next board meeting.
But not being official doesn't mean she isn't already busy. The joint public hearing on the comprehensive plan is Tuesday, July 10 at 7:30 p.m. Her office has already received some applications and a zoning complaint. And she has to review hundreds of emails accumulated since the position has been vacant.
"It's good to be back," she said, as she returned to the pile of papers on her desk and ringing telephone.
| 
)