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A nearly two-year-long process to update Rockbridge County’s Comprehensive Plan is culminating with the Board of Supervisors holding a public hearing on the plan this Monday, July 22. The Planning Commission last Wednesday, July 10, recommended the supervisors adopt the revised plan.
“The Comprehensive Plan is an important document regarding growth, development and change,” noted Chris Slaydon, the county’s director of community development and zoning administrator who has been guiding the process since it commenced in late 2022. The state-mandated plan, he said, “establishes government policy to help guide public and private activities as they relate to land use.”
Updates have been made throughout this latest draft of the plan. Data has been changed to reflect information found in the latest U.S. Census as well as the most recent American Community Surveys, which are conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in between its decennial census reports.
There are nine chapters to the plan – history, natural environment, population, government, economy, housing, transportation, community facilities and land use. This last chapter, land use, is the one that
Public hearing speakers argue solar arrays should be zoned industrial, not allowed through special permits in ag-zoned land. See page A2.
tends to receive the most attention.
Slaydon explained that the land use chapter “provides direction for the physical development of the county, reflecting a balance of the projected economic, population and housing growth, along with the preservation of the county’s traditional rural character. The land use chapter serves as a guide for future land use actions and decisions such as rezonings, special exceptions, map amendments and zoning text amendments.”
He pointed out that “the future land use map and goals and objectives are significant parts of this plan that will be used to guide future land use actions and decisions.”
Over the past two years, the Comprehensive Plan has been a topic of discussion during at least 10 different Planning Commission meetings.
Earlier this summer, five separate community meetings were conducted on the plan by the office of community development – one in each magisterial district. Most meetings were well attended, drawing an average of about a dozen citizens who provided feedback and offered direction, in some cases calling for subtractions from and additions to the plan.
A joint meeting of the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors was held June 25 in which it was agreed to move the draft forward.
At last week’s Planning Commission meeting, nine citizens spoke during a public hearing, offering mostly praise for the plan and urging Commission members to strictly adhere to its precepts. Concerns were expressed about one specific land use issue – solar fields – and how requests for these alternative energy facilities ought to be addressed with the county’s future planning decisions. (See separate story about the comments made on solar fields.)
Jeanne Oliver strongly urged the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors to be thoroughly acquainted with everything that’s in the Comprehensive Plan and land development regulations and to base all decisions on what’s in these documents.
“This county is an incredibly special place to live. Residents live here specifically for the attributes and the rural and mountain and agricultural character of Rockbridge County,” said Oliver. “While we totally understand that development can occur, many of us purchased land here, particularly in the outlying agricultural and mountain regions of the county, for the express purpose of not having the land around us developed for commercial reasons. Not every corner of the county needs to be developed. Most people would agree that pouring concrete over agricultural and forestal lands cannot be turned back. Once you open the door to development in these sensitive and important areas you cannot stop it. You cannot return it to its natural state. There is not that much open space left for us to preserve. Protecting what we have is critically important.”
Tony Tyree offered his support for the plan. “I believe that proper planning definitely helps you avoid problems in the future,” he said. “There’s a lot of good stuff in this thing – avoiding leapfrog development. Encouraging development in areas with public water and sewer, suitable roads. Avoidance of adverse impacts on communities and neighbors. Noise and light pollution and stuff like this.”
He did say he worries that “when these rezoning issues arise, it seems to me the businesses who are trying to get rezoned have an automatic edge over the people who are trying to resist it. I think that’s something we definitely need to address.”
Michelle Johnson said she found that the plan included “some beautiful language in there. … it talks about the attractive landscape, and the valuable natural resources that we have in Rockbridge County; it talks [about how] we should keep in mind agri-tourism and the importance of agri-tourism. The land has a special look that even surrounding counties can’t match, even though the same features are present. It also talks about natural environment goals and it talks about site development, natural features of the land, maintaining ground covers, protecting conservation – both habitat for wildlife and preserving our agricultural way of life …” However, Johnson said granting special exception permits for solar fields on agricultural lands undermines the sentiments expressed in the Comprehensive Plan about protecting natural resources, particularly agricultural lands.
After the public hearing, David Whitmore, who was chairing the meeting in the absence of Melissa Hennis, commented, “Everybody supports the plan but the sticking point is solar.” He said the process to draft a solar ordinance is being handled separately from the adoption of the Comprehensive Plan. “I encourage everyone to stay involved [in that process]. It should be coming up in the next month or two.”
Tom Beebe said, “I really appreciate how hard [everyone has] worked on [the plan], and [the process] has been open to the public. I feel this should be a living document and the public needs to stay involved. This is a good starting point and I make a motion to see this approved.”
He made a motion to pass a resolution prepared by County Attorney John Dryden to recommend the Board of Supervisors adopt the updates to the Comprehensive Plan. The motion, seconded by Bob Kramer, passed by a 4-0 vote.
Editor’s note: A draft of the proposed updated Rockbridge County Comprehensive Plan can be found on the county’s website at www.co.rockbridge.va.us.
