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aider if Rappahannock is going to be primarily a retirement community and arts and crafts center or whether the county will have other industry and business. “I define farming as a business; I support this 100 percent."
Attorney Douglas Baumgardner, who represents the Sharps, cited the goals of Rappahannock’s comprehensive plan: “to encourage the maintenance of the agricultural sector . . . encourage the renewal of horticultural activity . . . maintain an agricultural employment base (and) encourage a wide variety of housing types.” Mr. Sharp’s application to expand the migrant camp is consistent with those comprehensive plan goals, he said.
In addition, a migrant camp is compatible with the surrounding land uses in Hairis Hollow, traditionally an apple orchard area which once had as many as four operating migrant camps, Mr. Baumgardner said. He acknowledged that agricultural uses can pose a conflict with 25acre subdivisions and “people coming in for primarily residential purposes,” but added that “agriculture was here first before the 25acre subdivisions.”
“Apiculture needs help,” said Phil Irwin, lodging strong objections to interference with farming operations already caught in the price/cost squeeze. “For every orchard, every pasture, this county is saving money” by avoiding the demand for expensive services that development to intensive residential uses will bring, said Mr. Irwin. “We must not stand in the way of agricultural production,” he maintained, asking that the Sharps’ application be approved. “But I do hope that somewhere along the way, you will find a way to respect the neighbors,” Mr. Irwin concluded.
The orchardist interjected that, at the height of the harvest season, he asked the neighboring landowners if they had any complaints and Meredith Gorfein answered, “Frankly, we don’t even know it’s there.”
“Any problems they have, we’ll address,” Mr. Sharp continued. “We want to make sure our labor housing has no impact on them.”
Problem not with seasonal housing
“I find myself standing against the entire forces of agriculture,” said Meredith Gorfein. Agriculture “is not what this application is about. That’s not what our objection is about,” she contended.
Mrs. Gorfein acknowledged she’d told Mr. Sharp that she and her husband had no problem with the camp during the harvest season. “That’s the crux. We have no problem with agriculture, with migrant workers or with housing for migrant workers. But there’s a statewide understanding of what a migrant labor camp is,” she said, explaining that
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