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grant laborers full residential status,” Mr. Estes replied. “A good migrant laborer is going to work tobacco in Southside. He’s going to move along as the fruit and vegetables ripen ... If he has a family in Mexico, he’ll have to go home sometime.”
While orchardists need a labor supply year round, that supply is made up of rotating workers who come and go; the same individuals don’t live in the camp all year, Mr. Miller interjected.
“But we can’t guarantee the rotation!” countered Mr. Estes.
Douglas Baumgardner, attorney for orchardists who have been embroiled in a zoning dispute over permit conditions attached to a migrant labor camp, reported that in Frederick County, migrant camps are allowed as an accessory agricultural use. But that locality has an “administrative procedure” requiring landowners to file regular affidavits attesting that the employees housed there are seasonal, he added, suggesting a similar approach for Rappahannock.
“Seasonal should relate to the workers, not to the use of the housing,” he said. Mr. Baumgardner acknowledged that his clients, the Sharps, keep on a few migrant workers after the harvest season for pruning. “But just because you hold a migrant worker over for the winter months doesn’t mean he’s become a permanent resident.”
Mr. Baumgardner also called for stronger language in the new zoning ordinance to recognize agriculture as the preferred land use in conservation and agricultural zones. This would echo the comprehensive plan’s policy for encouraging and protecting agriculture, he maintained, asking in particular that agriculture be accorded priority over residential and commercial uses in those two zoning districts.
“The comprehensive plan (which is now under review by the Planning Commission) will have language like that in it, we hope,” replied Mr. Miller, the board’s representative on the Planning Commission.
Zoning administrator John McCarthy pointed out that the new or
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