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Conditional approval recommended
In a written memo to the commission, Zoning Administrator John McCarthy recommended approval of the Sharps’ application contingent upon a valid Health Department permit and with the condition that the workers be transients employed on land owned or rented by the Sharps. It is the status of the individual workers, not the length of time the facility is used, that is critical to the definition of a migrant camp, he told the commissioners. Describing the Health Department’s oversight role as “exhaustive,” he noted that a migrant facility serving more than 10 workers must be inspected bi-weekly by the local sanitarian.
Ruling the public hearing closed, Chairman A. Y. Stokes turned to his fellow commissioners for comments.
“Alex could well be the last big time operator,” said John Clark, noting that 50 years ago, orchards covered a majority of the county and the orchard industry employed half its people. But the orchard operators are old and “most Rappahannock County orchards are over the hill.” New trees planted now will take 10 to 15 years before giving a return on the investment, he said. With talk today of disqualifying orchards from the use value assessment program and the triple threat of damage by deer, drought and disease, no one is replanting, he said.
Commissioner Clark commended Mr. Sharp for going into the fruit production business and providing local people with jobs, guessing that the young orchardist may be the county’s second or third biggest employer. But as the years take their toll on the orchard owners and the trees they rent to Mr. Sharp, “will there even be a need for a labor camp down the road?” the Hampton District representative asked.
He called a year-round camp “a dangerous new precedent” and predicted that those migrants will take jobs from local people. “You bring a sizeable population of people here and do that over a period of years, soon there will be a sizeable population that requires full services (without being) good county taxpayers,” he maintained. He defined “good county taxpayers” as those who own real estate and pay real estate taxes here.
By recommending issuance of the special exception permit, “I would be recommending a sizeable tax increase for everyone in this county” to pay for those services to migrants, Commissioner Clark concluded.
“This has to do with preserving agriculture here in Rappahannock County,” countered Mr. Miller, the supervisor from Hampton District who is the board’s liaison on the planning commission.
Calling local help “a myth,” he contended that the lack of dependable labor for year-round mainte
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