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Rules in Neighboring Rappahannock Restrictive
Thursday, July 7, 2005
By Jamie Turner - Staff Writer
Rappahannock County's goal for more than three decades has been to preserve the wide open spaces of agricultural land.
For years Rappahannock officials have had tight zoning measures in place to prevent growth from spilling in to ag. zones and compromising the county's rural character.
"We have a long history of managing our growth," said Rappahannock County Administrator John McCarthy. "Unlike many rural counties, we adopted our first zoning measures in the 1960s."
On the other side of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Page County only recently put in place stop-gap zoning and subdivision measures to slow down growth. And also unlike Rappahannock, Page County is preparing for a surge of growth.
When Rappahannock County took its first anti-growth measures decades ago, McCarthy said the County began to see homes and temporary residences sprouting up in the Chester Gap area. Soon after, officials adopted zoning restrictions in ag. and woodland conservation land.
"Since then the political culture has always been to keep agriculture viable, " McCarthy said. "We knew we didn't have a lot of transportation access to major highways like neighboring counties." "US 211 doesn't carry a lot of interstate traffic, so we didn't fee like we could compete with getting the big industries here," he continued. "So we decided to make our economy's focus on agriculture. And that drove our land use planning." Of the County's 264 square miles, McCarthy said about 90 percent is zoned woodland conservation and agricultural.
In 1986 Rappahannock officials tightened the zoning measures by enacting a rule that allows only one dwelling per 25 acres. "Density is what counts, " McCarthy said, "and we wanted to keep it low."
McCarthy, who has served as Rappahannock's administrator for 19 years, said it has been a consensus among life-time citizens and those moving into the area to keep the county rural. "The net effect is to keep a substantial amount of open space" McCarthy said, "and that seems to be what both come-heres and been-heres want." "It's been a priority among Rappahannock officials to keep control over growth in the area."
"We want to control our growth, " he said, "and we do have five designated village areas where we want to encourage growth."
The population of Rappahannock is 7,110 according to the US Census Bureau's 2003 estimates. Rappahannock County is made up of Sperryville, Little Washington, Amissville, Woodville, Flint Hill, and Castleton.
McCarthy said Rappahannock is seeing little growth in and around its towns and small communities. However, there has not been any interested among major developers in the area. "We have a substantial amount of land owned by out-of-county residents." McCarthy said, "but we haven't seen any national home developers buying homes or land in Rappahannock County."
Rappahannock officials recently revised the County's comprehensive plan, making very few changes. McCarthy said all previous zoning measures were left in place for the County to follow. With working farms serving as the thrust of the economy, McCarthy said that the County's second largest economic engine is tourism.
"People come through our area because they enjoy going through our pretty landscape and our quaint little towns," McCarthy said, "and they can enjoy that because we are preserving our agricultural land."
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