Zoning in

Deedee Bondurant is tired of looking at all those  little  signs  stuck in the ground at major intersections, like the corner of Scruggs Road  and Virginia 122 and where the thoroughfare intersects with her own road, Merriman Way.

“You could almost kill yourself driving through the stoplight trying to read it all,” said Bondurant.

In addition to safety,   there’s the matter of  aesthetics. Does it make the lake area, with its million-dollar homes, look cheap and tacky? Bondurant would like to see a stronger sign ordinance for the Westlake area. The Franklin County planning department is listening.

 When it comes to zoning, the county already stands out because only half of it is zoned. Now the planning department is planning something different  —  writing zoning ordinances that are area-specific.

“Franklin County is a collection of seven different districts, each of which have their own feel and flavor,” said Russ Johnson, Franklin County’s Gills Creek supervisor. “Those citizens that choose to live in that particular district have every right to preserve that district’s character.”

 Neil Holthouser, director of Planning and Community Development, said that as communities crop up and flourish in areas such as Smith Mountain Lake in the historically rural county, different protections are needed through zoning.

“Zoning treats a farm located in one part of the county, which may happen to be in a fast-growing area, exactly like a farm in another part of the county that is not experiencing growth pressure,” said Holthouser. “They may just call for a different set of protections.”

Most of the county is zoned A1 for agriculture, he said. The ordinances associated with it are very permissive, allowing agriculture, residential and commercial, said Holthouser.

“In areas where farms are transitioning rapidly into housing, we want to make sure farming and housing continue, but that they respect each other,” he said.

Holthouser said the Board of Supervisors has recognized an ordinance update was needed for some time. The 2007 update of the county’s comprehensive plan also warranted a need to review ordinances to ensure they complied with the new plan, he said.

The catalyst to move forward, however, was LakeWatch Spa & Resort, said Johnson. The planned development on Virginia 122 in Moneta was surrounded in controversy for a few years as it moved through the planning process.

After it was approved by the Board, a group of neighboring residents filed a lawsuit against the county. It was resolved out of court in July. Johnson said he pushed for the ordinance update “as soon as we finished the difficulties with LakeWatch.”

 Interpreting, finding ordinances

The biggest problem with the current ordinances is lack of clarity, Johnson said.

“We have so many ordinances that when I read it and you read it, we read it differently,” said Johnson.

When ordinances are interpretted differently,  the Board or a judge can decide  its meaning,   but they can disagree as well.

“I prefer the rationale that we all read it and know clearly what it means,” said Johnson. “We shouldn’t have to reach the point that citizens feel they have to protect themselves against their government.”

Holthouser said the ordinance update also will create better cross-referencing of the zoning codes. Currently, there is no simple way to locate a specific ordinance.

“In rewriting the code, we want each zoning category to be a complete discussion of that category,” said Holthouser. “From top to bottom, we want to tell you everything you need to know about what you can develop in that zoning category.”

 The planning department also is working on creating new zoning categories, said Holthouser. For example, there is only one agricultural district and two for residential suburban subdivisions. Holthouser said creating additional categories would give property owners or developers more zoning options.

Holthouser said the customization of zoning ordinances wouldn’t be by magisterial district, but by “areas that somehow have something in common and therefore could be zoned in the same way.” For example, all of Westlake could come under the same ordinances.

If the majority of residents in an area want  stricter sign ordinances, such rules could be written only for that area,  said Holthouser. He said such ordinances could help protect the feel and character of certain areas while not creating county-wide ordinances that would affect areas of the county that don’t have signage problems.

“Our current ordinances kind of paint a picture of the county in a broad brush,” said Holthouser. “What we’re trying to do is create more tailored or specific sets of rules that apply to different geographies.”

Johnson said the sign issue at the lake is a major one that must be dealt with delicately because so many businesses, including Realtors, depend on signs to attract customers.

“There’s a lot of investment in signage,” he said. “That’s not going to be the easiest minefield to get through, but we have to get through it.”

Another common complaint in the lake area is automobile graveyards, said Holthouser. Johnson said it will be an easier issue to deal with because unlike signs, the ordinances make clear what defines an autombile graveyard. But he reminds constituents that the graveyards won’t just go away.

“Most of them were here long before many people were here,” so they’re grandfathered in, said Johnson. “We need to make sure that the rezoning respects both sides and allows someone to make a living.”

Future proposed automobile graveyards could be restricted to specific parts of the county, he said.

Citizen input

Holthouser said residents have to realize that Franklin County is historically rural and most county residents want to see it stay that way. Zoning ordinances must be written to protect everyone, from the lakefront home owner to the multi-generational family farmer, he said.

To help shape the ordinances, the planning department has reached out to the community, creating the Technical Advisory Committee  comprised of more than 40 county residents.  Holthouser said they are serving as a sounding board. The group has been meeting every other week since Jan. 28, discussing population-growth estimates and zoning categories.

One of the committee’s jobs has been to analyze population estimates from various sources to decide which it believes will be most accurate, said Holthouser. For the past 40 years, Franklin County has seen an average annual population increase of 1.55 percent, according to U.S. Census data. Since 1970, the population has grown 186 percent from 28,163 to 52,582.

 Population  estimates over a 20-year period range from 10,037 new residents to 18,166, according to sources . Holthouser said the committee has essentially rejected the high-end estimate, seeing a population growth closer to, if not higher than, the lower-end estimate.

“We are going to grow,” said Holthouser. “But with the recession, it’s kind of hard to tell what kind of toll it’s going to take over the long term.”

To accommodate growth, the  Planning Department is attempting to pinpoint areas of the county that could be developed and what kind of developments those residents would desire, said Holthouser. That’s another task of the committee.

“What the Technical Advisory Committee is going to help us do is understand how to steer or direct development in the county based on suitability and market preferences,” he said.

Several lake residents are on the committee, including Bondurant, Bill Brush, Phyllis Johnson, Bob Camicia and Lois Spencer.

Spencer said she thinks there are many  reasons why lake residents are interested in addressing zoning. They include property investments, time and past experience.

“All of us probably came from areas that were suburban-type of areas that probably had much more zoning than the southern part of Franklin County does,” she said. And, “a lot of them are retirees, so they have time on their hands.”

Camicia said being on the committee has been a good experience because he’s been able to meet and hear the views of people from other areas of the county.

“It’s a very mixed group … so you get a lot of different inputs and views, which is what they’re after,” he said. “I enjoy listening to and value their opinions.”

Camicia said it’s refreshing to hear so many viewpoints on the topic because, as a planning commissioner during the development of the comprehensive plan, few people took interest in the rewrite.

“This one is closer to home,” said Johnson of the strong public interest. “This is your property, this is your value. This isn’t, in a sense, a guideline; this one is a rule.”

Through the rewrite, community input is not only encouraged, but required, said Holthouser.

“It’s going to be the community, the people of Franklin County that tell us what they think the different categories are,” he said.

What’s next

The next step in the ordinance update process will be reaching out to the broader community with meetings in “all corners of the county,” said Holthouser.

“In April and May, we’ll say: 'Here’s what we’ve learned. Do we have the issues correct? Are the approaches we’re thinking about the right approaches?’ ” he said. “We think this area of your county is going to see this growth. How would you like us, the county, to arrange that growth?”

Following the community meetings, the planning department will begin drafting new ordinances. The process of presenting the codes  to the county Planning Commission will begin in the fall before moving onto the Board of Supervisors for a vote. Holthouser said the new rules are tentatively scheduled to take effect in mid-2011.

After the Planning Commission has read the ordinances but before it moves to the Board, the planning department will meet with individual property owners to answer questions about how their property will be affected, said Holthouser.

He said the county planning department is walking a fine line as it updates ordinances to protect property while respecting property owners, which is why their input is so valuable.

At the end of the process, Holthouser said the department and county residents can only “sit back and trust your ordinance, trust your ordinance will produce good development.”