Board OKs tower amendment, nixes scenic protection language

Nelson County:

“After months of deliberation and a lengthy discussion March 11, the Nelson County Board of Supervisors narrowly approved an amendment to the county’s communication tower ordinance. The board approved a repeal of almost all sections of the previous ordinance, Article 20 in the zoning code, and replaced them with new language that will reduce the requirements for a tower’s minimum setback from Virginia Scenic Byways and the Blue Ridge Parkway and serve as a comprehensive overhaul of previous tower classifications.

But the ordinance does not include proposed requirements that Nelson County Planning & Zoning Director Tim Padalino argued would help protect undeveloped mountain scenery in the county.”

~Writes Katherine Lacaze of Nelson County Times

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Hearing set on massive zoning overhaul for Northampton

Northampton County:

“Northampton County’s Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission will hear what the public thinks about its proposed massive overhaul of the zoning ordinance at a joint hearing scheduled for March 11 at 7 p.m. at Northampton High School. Economic Development Director Charles McSwain received marching orders from the Board of Supervisors shortly after being hired just over a year ago to streamline zoning requirements as a way to promote business development. ‘The Board (of Supervisors) wanted a new code that is more enabling,’ McSwain said last October.

One provision garnering significant public interest is a modification that would effectively cut in half the area regulated under the Chesapeake Bay/Atlantic Preservation district, which applies Chesapeake Bay Act requirements to the entire county. McSwain, who also oversees the county’s planning department, noted the shoreline would still be protected on the sea side by 100-foot-wide ribbon of conservation zoning along the shore, except ‘where there are existing, developed, water-dependent communities,’ such as Willis Wharf and Oyster.

The proposal would no longer regulate properties east of U.S. Route 13, unless they drain into the Chesapeake Bay. The proposal would also delete the district as an zoning overlay district, and place it in a separate section of the land use code with a different name: Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area.”

~Writes Connie Morrison of Delmarva Now

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Planning commission eyes changes to duplex zoning

Nelson County:

“The Nelson County Planning Commission is considering proposed amendments to the zoning ordinance that would allow a higher density of duplexes in agricultural zones. At its meeting Feb. 26, commissioners discussed proposed amendments that would alter the density requirement for specific duplexes, or two-family detached dwellings, in agricultural zones so they could be constructed on 2-acre parcels of land, as opposed to the current requirement of 4-acre parcels.

George Krieger, director of the Nelson County Community Development Foundation, proposed the amendments. Duplexes with four or fewer bedrooms and two or fewer baths are an “important tool in providing affordable housing” for low- to moderate-income residents in the agricultural zones of the county, Krieger told the commission.”

~Writes Katherine Lacaze of Nelson County Times

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