BY PEKAY PETTUS

BY PEKAY PETTUS

“WE’RE setting a precedent. In Amissville, the exception is becoming the rule,’’ planner Walter Masterson protested at the Rappahannock County Planning Commission’s meeting last Wednesday night.

Masterson was against rezoning a tract of land belonging to Irva Poe of Amissville from agriculture to residential. Miss Poe had asked for the property to be designated residential so that she could divide a tract of land into two lots, one 1.7 acres and the other 1.73 acres. The area is now zoned as agricultural, and the minimum lot size is two acres.

Pete Luke argued for the rezoning. “It’s surrounded with houses. The area is already more residential than agricultural in character. And this is in keeping with my thoughts to allow development around the existing communities, instead of out in open space,” Luke said.

Commonwealth’s Attorney George Davis said exceptions to the ordinance could only be made in the case of an “undue hardship,” as stipulated in the ordinance. Davis said this case, “is not any different from 100 other instances throughout the county.”

Luke again said that Amissville is already a developed area, so the rezoning would conform to existing land use. He had made that same argument on an earlier Amissville rezoning request, that of Elmer Jenkins. Jenkins received approval in January from the planners and the Supervisors to rezone a tract from agriculture to commercial, so he could operate a service station. Masterson had voted against Jenkins request, making the same arguments he was making against the Poe request.

AMISSVILLE Supervisor J. R. Latham agreed with Luke. “It’s not changing the character,” he said. Besides, this is a “family situation. It’s not a son or a daughter but a niece and nephew she wants to give the lots to,” Latham said.

“We gotta have some growth, so let’s have it around the towns,” Luke said. “It’s gonna either be