Rappahannock County needs to clean up its zoning act,

Rappahannock County needs to clean up its zoning act, to borrow a piece of popular slang. It goes without saying that our local land use laws are long overdue for revision. The county’s zoning and subdivision ordinances have more holes than a sieve, holes that have been pointed out again and again by concerned citizens, local attorneys and enemy lawyers who’ve battled the county in court.

We won’t go into specifics now. At this point, we’re waiting to see if the planning commission ever gets started on its repeatedly postponed subdivision and zoning ordinance review, most recently scheduled to begin at the first of the year.

But aside from emphasing the urgent need for attention to Rappahannock’s land use planning apparatus, we have two additional suggestions which will improve administration of local laws.

Litigation over P.E. Steve DeMent’s addition to his Sperryville antique business and the Nationwide Pentecostal Evangelistic Association’s campground on Aaron Mountain has been long and costly—and may not be over yet. The legal hassles and conflict over zoning laws which arose in both cases could have been prevented by a simple, inexpensive requirement that has been mentioned time and again but never implemented.

Why doesn’t the zoning office ask every applicant for any county permit which involves construction to include a simple sketch of what is to be built? Not a drawing to scale by an engineer, just a little sketch which shoWs generally where, Whaf id&d how big. If that had been required, then the zoning administrator would have known from the start that the NPEA was planning an open air pavillion for big camp meetings, not a church; that John Burke was planning a separate dwelling, not a two room addition; that Steve DeMent was constructing a separate antique warehouse joined to