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for a Rappahannock shelter have not yet been established, he said, noting that the law states only that the pound must be open “reasonable hours” during the week with the information publicly posted.
Attorney David Konick, former county zoning administrator who represents Scrabble landowners Clyde and Evelyn Dellinger, interjected that the Virginia code doesn’t provide for a joint public hearing by the planning commissioners and supervisors on a proposed land use’s compliance with the comprehensive plan.
Diane Bruce, clerk to the Circuit Court and Board of Supervisors, questioned whether the code prohibited such a joint hearing.
“I don’t know,” snapped Mr. Konick. “I‘m not accustomed to debating legal issues with clerks of the court.”
Chairman Gilkey ruled that the meeting would proceed as advertised with joint hearings on the proposed amendments to the zoning ordinance and the issue of compliance with the comprehensive plan conducted separately.
Addressing the proposal to allow non-commercial kennels and animal shelters by right in an agricultural district, Mr. Konick maintained that they should be allowed only by special permit. “Clearly this is the kind of use that ought to go before the Board of Zoning Appeals” for consideration of the neighborhood’s character and the impact on property values, he maintained. “There are some places in the county zoned agricultural where (a shelter) would be perfectly compatible. There are other places where it would not be compatible.”
According to Mr. Konick, the Planning Commission has gone on record on four occasions with recommendations to the supervisors regarding an animal shelter. In each case, he said, the Planning Commission has recommended that shelters be permitted by special exception or special use permit — never by right. “I don’t know of any rational basis for the Planning Commission to make any different recommendation than it’s made in the past,” Mr. Konick added.
“Is there then some rationale to explain why the commissioners have changed their position from the one they’ve taken before?” asked Jerry Lewis, another Scrabble landowner.
“You’re under the gun, aren’t you?” Planning Commission Chairman A.Y. Stokes asked the supervisors.
“I don’t know' that the planning commissioners have changed their minds,” countered Mr. Gilkey.
New Supervisor J. Newbill Miller, long-time member of the Planning Commission, recalled that past discussions focused on commercial kennels. “We didn’t give much thought to a county kennel, a public kennel, Rappahannock County’s animal shelter,” he explained. “We’re under pressure from the courts,” Supervisor Miller said, adding that the board’s legal advisor had managed to have the Humane Society’s shelter suit deferred repeatedly but no more. “Personally, I‘d like to wait and put the animal shelter where we’re going to put the new landfill. But our attorney tells us he doesn’t think the court is going to give us that leeway,” said Mr. Miller. “My thought and hope is that Scrabble would be a temporary site (for the shelter) until we get our landfill. ”
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