By Monty Tayloe

By Monty Tayloe

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

The March session of the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors was low on agenda items requiring immediate action.

It served primarily as an information session for the board and general public about several matters important to the county, including the much contested farm winery bill.

The bill, which came before the Virginia General Assembly last month, would have made farm wineries exempt from local zoning laws, allowing them to hold large gatherings and events no matter the restrictions of their respective localities. Instead, a compromise altered version of the bill has passed in the general assembly, intended to be more palatable to localities worried a^out their sovereignty while placating farm winery interests.

The passed bill puts a one year moratorium on localities passing more restrictive special use requirements that affect wineries beyond other forms of agriculture, and prevents localities from prohibiting loud music or large private parties at farm wineries for the next year. The one year “sunset clause” is intended to allow the Secretary of Agriculture to study the problem of large events at farm wineries more closely, but will also placate localities that saw their power being stripped away by the original bill, as did the Rappahannock BOS. However, the sunset clause will in reality serve more as a delaying tactic. “This bill will be fought over just as much next session,” said McCarthy.

(See our related article on the Farm winery Bill)

Other General

Assembly matters

Another important matter before the General Assembly that affects Rappahannock is a $4.4 million budget amendment proposed by 15th District Delegate C. Todd Gilbert for Page, Rappahannock, and Shenandoah Counties that would include the counties in the calculations for the Cost of Competing Adjustment