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By DAPHNE McCULLOUGH
Rappahannock New* Staff Writer
No one, from the State Attorney General’s office on down to local government officials, seems to agree on what is involved in approval of an Agricultural and Forestal District. Members of the Rappahannock Farm Bureau heard one interpretation at last Wednesday’s annual meeting.
Hiram Zigler, member of the Virginia Advisory Legislative Council’s subcommittee that studied ag districts in New York and worked on similar legislation adopted by the Virginia General Assembly last year, was the featured speaker at the Farm Bureau meeting.
Zigler’s interpretation over what takes precedence—ag district or zoning ordinance regulations—in determining permitted land use differs sharply from opinions expressed at last month’s workshop sponsored by the Rappahannock-Rapidan Planning District Commisison.
After running down a list of benefits that adoption of an ag district gives farmers, Zigler ^ maintained that district regulations would override zoning and subdivision ordinance restrictions on land use. Specifically, he told the audience that a land owner in an ag district could put up a high rise apartment building despite zoning regulations to the contrary, provided the land owner supplied his own roads, schools and sewer facilities.
Farm Bureau member and county Planning Commissioner Newbill Miller objected that this would take control over development and growth away from local government.
Zigler countered that the cost of providing necessary services would prevent land owners in an ag district from pursuing this type of development. He added that the Agricutlural and Forestal District Act includes no restrictions on residential development but acknowledged that a land owner in an ag district would lose land use taxation and be subject to roll back taxes should he take his property out of agricultural use and instead build a high rise apartment.
Contrary Opinion
At a Planning District workshop on the Agricultural and Forestal Districts Act held September 30, Assistant Attorney General Mason T. Jacks stated “the basic ordinance that controls land use is the zoning ordinance. An agricultural district can be superimposed...but if there is a question on what would predominate in regard
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