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What about agriculture?
An important point has come out of the continuing controversy over a migrant labor camp. Again and again at last Wednesday’s five-hour hearing it became clear that this was a clash between residential and agricultural land uses.
Here we have a farm. A part of the farm was developed years ago into a subdivision — a large lot subdivision, but still a subdivision. The rest of the farm stayed in agricultural use. That agricultural use has thrived and expanded, requiring housing for migrant workers to ensure an adequate labor supply when the apples on 450 acres of trees are ready to be picked. The neighbors in the subdivision object to the migrant housing, although it’s screened and hundreds of yards from their property line and even further from their house.
They complained that the conditions attached to the permit for the migrant housing had been violated; the BZA determined they were right. The orchardist has said he will be back to seek a permit to house 16 workers in a facility that will meet federal guidelines and that he needs the workers not just to pick the ripe fruit but also during winter months to prune the thousands of apple trees on lands he owns near Washington and in orchards he rents throughout the county. The neighbors vow they will fight the new permit.
This is agricultural/residential interface with the same problems that arise when the subdivision goes in next door to the hog lot. We didn’t think it would happen here in Rappahannock County for years to come, but the controversy over the migrant camps proves that the future is now.
Our zoning ordinance and comprehensive plan are filled
97.3%