A scaled-back plan for a warehouse to be constructed within four years is among the recommendations by the Rockbridge County Planning Commission for an amended special exception permit for BARC Electric Cooperative’s laydown yard at its Highland Belle property.
The Planning Commission voted 4-1 on Nov. 12 to send these recommendations to the Board of Supervisors, who will consider them at its next regular meeting on Monday, Dec. 8.
BARC is proposing to construct a single 150 feet by 80 feet warehouse building. BARC’s previous plans called for constructing a 150 feet by 100 feet building, in addition to a 200 feet by 100 feet “lean to” structure. The second structure has been eliminated from the plans.
Chris Botulinski, BARC’s CEO, said the warehouse would be built in the next three to four years. BARC uses its laydown yard to store materials and equipment for its operations to respond to power outages and to install broadband fiber optic cable.
The laydown yard is presently operating under a temporary SEP that was originally granted in 2017 but has been granted multiple extensions. The most recent two-year extension of the SEP was granted this past April.
An amended SEP, as recommended by the Planning Commission, would eliminate the time limit for the laydown yard. The idea is that once the warehouse is constructed, the unsightliness of materials and equipment that is objectionable to neighbors would no longer be an issue.
At a public hearing held prior to the Planning Commission taking action, several neighbors reiterated their opposition to what they view as industrial activity in an agricultural district and a temporary SEP becoming a permanent one.
“Excessive use of special exception permit negates the purpose and concept of zoning,” said Robin Moore. “I’m requesting that we don’t grant this special exception.”
Kerrs Creek supervisor-elect Steve Hart said the county failed to plan for the future when it granted what was to be a temporary SEP nearly a decade ago. He said he’d advised the supervisors, utilizing his “professional expertise” as an engineer, on the proper course of action, but that advice wasn’t followed.
“Now the two options are, you’re either going to tell the village of Kerrs Creek that there’s this big utility you didn’t know you needed but we think you needed, after we told you it was temporary because we didn’t really mean that,” said Hart. “Or, we’re going to tell BARC that this road we’ve been letting you go down for 10 years, we’re not going to let you go down there anymore. Okay, that’s bad for them. I don’t know how to come to a good answer. I’ve tried to do the best I could as a citizen. I’ve tried to talk with my neighbors. I don’t know how to fix this at this point.”
Buddy Powers said he has three main concerns – the time frame for building the warehouse, lighting that adversely affects neighbors and “incremental development” of commercial property in an agricultural zone. “If it was a commercial development in a commercial area, obviously you’ve got room to keep growing and growing,” he said. With an SEP in an agricultural district, he suggested, “You could say this is the farthest the goal post will go. BARC should be at a point to say, ‘This is where we need to be for the long term.’ ” Bill Russell said the county should never have given BARC the former Highland Belle School. “I don’t hold it against BARC that they got a great deal. I do hold it against the county for giving a bad deal. Kerrs Creek doesn’t have a community center. We do have the firehouse. But to use that on any sort of basis we have to move the equipment out of the emergency bays. I might ask BARC to make some of the room in the [former school] building available for community use.”
Tim Goodbar said the former Highland Belle school was actually offered to the Kerrs Creek Fire Department years ago, prior to it being offered to BARC, but the offer was turned down. He urged the Commission to support BARC’s request for an amended SEP. “I hope this is an opportunity to make rates cheaper,” he said. “If they don’t have the materials there, they have an hour to go to Millboro [in Bath County, where BARC’s headquarters are located]. Take that into consideration. … I would like to respectfully request you to send this onto the Board of Supervisors.”
After the public hearing, when the discussion returned to the Commission members, Tony Sibrizi said, “I don’t want to wait four years for that yard to be cleaned up. The main point of the people is to have [BARC] clean it up.”
Chair Tom Beebe said he believes BARC is being a good neighbor, responding to the concerns of residents in the area by making plans for the warehouse. He said he didn’t think the Commission should dictate how soon BARC could afford to make the capital expenditure for a warehouse.
The Commission voted 4-1, over Sibrizi’s dissent, to recommend the amended SEP be sent to the supervisors.
