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Vote, Same Result

Irish Creek Events Venue Again Rejected

The much-debated special events venue proposed for Irish Creek was rejected by the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors Monday on a 3-2 vote.

This vote to affirmatively deny a special exception permit for the proposed special events venue should be the last word on the contentious issue. The matter was thought to have been settled May 13 when a motion to approve a special exception permit for Lewis and Kendra Hamilton’s special events venue failed on a 3-2 vote.

However, County Attorney John Dryden determined that the earlier vote was insufficient to settle the matter. It was simply a failed motion, he found, and an affirmative vote to either deny or approve the special exception permit was required.

In Monday’s 3-2 vote, two supervisors flipped their votes from how they were cast on May 13. This time, Dan Lyons voted in favor of denying the special exception permit while David McDaniel voted against denying it.

Lyons explained his change of heart by saying he’d been per- suaded by the opposition to the special events venue by the neighbor who would be most impacted by it. Rick Conner, whose home is directly across from where a proposed bridge for the venue would be built, said headlights from cars leaving the venue would shine directly in his house.

“This would be a complete invasion of our property,” said Conner at Monday’s meeting.

McDaniel, who voted against granting the permit at the earlier meeting after failing to convince his colleagues to support additional conditions he proposed, this time cast his vote against denying the permit.

P rior to taking the latest vote on the venue, 36 speakers expressed their views on the matter during the citizens’ comments portion of the meeting. Of those speakers, 23 urged the supervisors to reject the special exception permit. The other 13, which included some members of the Hamilton family, expressed support for the special events venue.

During the supervisors’ discussion, Lyons acknowledged that not a lot had changed since the May 13 meeting. He said one thing that had changed, in his mind, was that Conner hadn’t objected to the special events venue prior to that meeting. “That influenced me because he was the one most impacted,” he said. “The bridge is not the problem. It’s the location of the bridge.”

With the bridge being proposed where it is, Lyons continued, “and Mr. Conner now opposed, this would have an impact on the abutting property. That’s grounds for denial.”

“We are elected to represent the people of our district,” said Bob Day. “However, often our votes affect all citizens of Rockbridge County. This vote only affects the people of Irish Creek – the people of the South River District. Therefore, I’ll be voting to deny the special [exception] permit and I urge the fellow board members to join me in doing so.”

He then made a motion to affirmatively deny the permit, using language county staff drafted at the direction of Dryden. Lyons seconded the motion.

The motion passed 3-2, over the dissents of Jay Lewis and McDaniel. In casting his vote, Lewis commented, “I continue to support landowner rights and our Planning Commission so I vote no.”

His reference to the Planning Commission was its 3-2 vote to recommend approval of the permit.