Timberville Mulls Rezoning Options
By Kelly Jasper
TIMBERVILLE — The conflict, as some residents have framed it, is one between north and south, homeowner and renter, upstanding citizens and transient troublemakers.
Armed with allegations that drug dealers and prostitutes are populating their neighborhoods, some residents have campaigned to rezone Timberville’s north side.
In January, the residents approached the Planning Commission. In February, they filled the Town Council chambers for a standing-room only meeting that ran three hours long.
Residents at that meeting asked that their neighborhoods be rezoned from R-2 to R-1, a distinction that would require larger lots and no duplexes.
A motion to start the rezoning process never moved forward. Instead, the council asked that the Planning Commission review the issue, and five potential responses to the rezoning request.
The commission will update the public during tonight’s Town Council meeting, which will be at 7 p.m. in the town office.
While there will be an opportunity for public comment, tonight’s meeting is not a public hearing.
The Issue
Earlier this year, residents on the north side of town launched a campaign to rezone their neighborhood, preserving its old-town character, large lots and historic homes.
In letters to the town and in public meetings, many residents insinuated that the renters they were trying to keep out are drug dealers and prostitutes. They told of trash littering the lawns of duplexes and incidents that prompt police response — things they say weren’t issues back when their part of town was zoned R-1.
The issue’s roots reach back more than two decades, when the properties were rezoned to R-2. In 2005, the council was asked to change the 1980 rezoning, but declined to act on the request.
The issue was brought to the town again when the Planning Commission heard from residents at its January meeting.
Emotions ran high, and Mayor Donald Delaughter said the gathering may have “gotten out of hand.” He apologized to commission members at the February Town Council meeting, saying they shouldn’t have had to address the issues given their appointed, rather than elected, position.
Many of those same residents came to the council’s February meeting.
Delaughter cautioned residents that any conversation over the zoning had to remain civil.
“I am mayor of an entire town and when I have one side of the town saying they are better than another, one side saying they are more substantial than the other, it bothers me,” he said, according to a draft of the town’s February minutes.
The town heard comments from several residents, even though the session was not planned as a public hearing.
To rezone an area, the Planning Commission makes a recommendation to the council, a public hearing is held and then the council can make a decision. A decision to rezone North Main Street wouldn’t come out of tonight’s meeting because the town hasn’t gone through the entire process yet.
Solutions
The town put forward five potential solutions, which are now under the review of the Planning Commission. The solutions include:
nRezoning R-2 to R-1 while changing the lot requirements so that more nonconforming lots are not created. Currently, said Town Manager Austin Garber, 12 percent are nonconforming. If the area were rezoned to R-1 without different lot requirements, about 55 percent would be nonconforming.
nChanging duplex requirements to allow for dual ownership in R-2. Physical requirements would also be changed, such as requiring each side of a duplex to have differing rooflines.
nMaking duplexes a conditional use in R-2 zoning districts and allow dual ownership, which promotes home ownership, Garber said. Restrictions would be lifted to allow duplexes to be designed in keeping with the character of the neighborhood.
nRemoving duplexes from R-2 zoning districts.
nTaking no action, an option Garber says isn’t practical. “Until it is addressed, it’s going to be brought up again and again,” he said.
“None of these options are perfect,” Garber said. He says each presents its own problems but the town is also working with the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission to identify other potential solutions.
Because the town is wrapped up in budgeting this time of year, officials say a solution could be six months away.
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