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Bath comprehensive plan: Approved
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
 | | Mountain Grove resident Jerry Phillips warns supervisors to be "wide awake" as they consider the new plan and land use regulations. (Recorder photo by Charles Garratt) |
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WARM SPRINGS - With minor changes, the Bath County board of supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the new comprehensive plan.
Cluster development, horses in residential districts, and commercial wind generation were the main topics of concern voiced by two dozen citizens attending the public hearing.
In response to public comment, supervisors removed a paragraph on cluster development. This paragraph has been the target of resident Jay Trinca during the board's work sessions and at the planning commission's public hearing.
Trinca told supervisors he feared the plan "has not set a definite course to limit growth." In particular he felt the option for cluster development any where in the county was potentially dangerous.
"It's no secret I have problems with the plan," Trinca said. "I've attended 50 meetings and gotten 50 words changed."
With back up from Carl Chestnut and Glenn Criser, Trinca saw more than 50 words cut Tuesday.
Chestnut said he was "dead against" cluster development. "They are taking our farm lands and turning them into mud holes," he told the board.
Supervisor Stuart Hall agreed and held out until the end for excluding the concept from the plan.
"I don't think cluster development should go in agricultural areas where we don't have services," he said.
Eight citizens, led by Anne Layman, requested the board restore a paragraph removed at the last work session which directs the county to "consider changing the current animal husbandry regulations to allow for ... a conditional use in residential zones with a more substantial acreage requirement."
Layman and her husband built a stable on 13 acres in Mitchelltown two years ago only to discover zoning laws did not allow horses in the residential district where their land is located.
"Bath has been a sporting paradise for 200 years," Layman said. She urged the board to restore the paragraph with the possible limitation of allowing only horses, not all livestock.
There is a distinction between horses and other livestock, she said. "Horses are pets." There are no facilities like the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington for pigs or chickens, she added.
Resident Ryan Hodges agreed with allowing horses where there was sufficient land in residential districts. He said he "didn't want to stop hearing a young colt stomping around" in his neighbor's fields in the morning.
Supervisor Richard Byrd said he was content to remove the animal husbandry provision during the work sessions, but after listening to public comment, he agreed to put it back in, recognizing the comprehensive plan was a guideline and not a mandate.
Hall felt people in residential areas deserve a certain amount of protection. He was against restoring the animal husbandry provision, citing past problems with horses in swimming pools, smelly mules, and animals not being properly cared for.
After supervisors discussed changes, Byrd made a motion to adopt the plan with the return of the paragraph five on animal husbandry and the other changes noted from the work sessions.
Hall offered a substitute motion, removing the paragraph on cluster development and keeping the animal husbandry paragraph out of the plan.
Byrd offered a compromise of including the animal husbandry and removing cluster development. Hall agreed, and the board voted 5-0 to approve and adopt the new plan.
The board did not make any additional changes to the provisions regarding commercial wind generation. During work sessions, the brief section on wind energy facilities was moved to the utilities section, where it remains.
Hodges spoke in support of "protecting our ridge lines against wind turbines." While he said there was a need for wind energy, he emphasized it needed to be in appropriate places and did not feel having turbines in Bath was what the county desired. There was little additional discussion on the matter.
After the hearing, chairman Cliff Gilchrest cited the objective in the plan that reads, "Include model ordinances that will protect water quality, ridgetops, viewsheds, dark skies, and soil quality," as the tools allowing land use regulations to have the "teeth" to "provide the kind of protection we'd all like to see."
The board and the planning commission will hold a joint work session on wind energy facilities Tuesday, July 24 at 6 p.m. in room 115 of the courthouse. Darryl Crawford, senior planner for the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission, will make a presentation on model ordinances.
Board members agreed with supervisor Percy Nowlin's request to include a statement in the public health and safety section saying developers must pay the cost of required infrastructure changes. A similar statement had been added to all other sections during work sessions at Nowlin's request.
The hearing was held jointly with planners. Each of the supervisors thanked the commissioners for the hard work they put into the new plan revisions.
The plan was prepared over the course of the last two years by the commission, county planners, and citizen committees. The 98-page document details the vision citizens have for the county for the next five years.
The Code of Virginia requires each locality to have a comprehensive plan, and to update the plan at least every five years. The current plan was adopted by the board in 1999.
Supervisors were working under the wire to act on the new plan. The planning commission voted April 12 to submit the document to supervisors for approval. State law gives supervisors 90 days to act or the plan is approved by default.
County administrator Bonnie Johnson said the board didn't receive the revised plan until its May meeting, giving supervisors barely two months to hold work sessions and the required public hearing.
Now that the plan is adopted, the planning commission will begin updating land use regulations and the zoning map. County planner Sherry Ryder said she expects the commission will work on the regulations one section at a time.
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