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the joint public hearing of the supervisors and planning commissioners more than a year ago.
The new ordinance “will be known in local history as the Rappahannock Regimentation Act of 1986,” Mr. Eastham continued, predicting that any supervisor voting for enactment will eventually regret that vote. The new ordinance will bring “continuing and increasing litigation . . . more harassment and litigation among neighbors,” he said. According to Mr. Eastham, fair application of its provisions is an impossibility for “a competent zoning administrator.”
The new ordinance will be a “bludgeon in the hands of bickering neighbors and a bludgeon in the hands of imperfect county officials,” Mr. Eastham said, .calling on the supervisors to amend the county’s existing zoning laws and give Rappahannock zoning regulations “suitable for its citizens in length and complexity.” Adoption of the proposed ordinance will be “the most serious single mistake . . . that this governing body will make, in this county, in my lifetime,” the former School Board member concluded.
“For the umpteenth time,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Peter Luke explained that the Virginia Code allows for a zoning ordinance to be adopted following a joint public hearing by the Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission. State law doesn’t set a limit on the time which may elapse between the hearing and adoption dates, he added.
Repeating Mr. Eastham’s complaint, Hugo Sinnott complained about the lack of public notice on the adoption of the proposed zoning ordinance. “I don’t see how you can take it upon yourselves to pass it here today,” he chided the board, recalling the scores of opponents who
had packed the joint public hearing at the high school last year. “There were promises made that there would be more hearings before the ordinance was passed!”
“We’ve had public hearings, public meetings constantly since August,” answered Mr. Miller. “I call for the question.”
The vote was unanimous and the proposed zoning ordinance became the existing ordinance. The board approved an order of 500 copies of the 150-page document; zoning administrator John McCarthy expects delivery by early next week.
97.3%