The Gloucester Planning Commission met virtually last Thursday night and unanimously voted to recommend a rezoning application.
The applicant, The Bobby June LLC (Dr. Robert and June Klink), requested that TM 25-8R, located on the south side of Meredith Drive (SR 1019) and east of the Riverside Walter Reed Hospital complex, be rezoned from B-1 (Business) to B-2 (Village Business) in order to convert the existing structure into a single-family dwelling.
“It’s not a big issue to me because of what is going on with our rezoning in the Court House and the B-2 multi-use, but I do have a slight concern with spot zoning,” said planner Kenneth Richardson. “I personally believe that had this application happened six months from now with the new zoning regulations going through, approximately give or take, it wouldn’t be an issue at all. But it is for that reason with the anticipated change, I do plan on supporting this.”
Chairman Chris Poulson agreed with Richardson. “It’s not a big concern to me,” said Poulson.
Solar facilities
Also, during the meeting, planners received several comments from those who opposed as well as those in favor of the siting of utility-scale solar facilities in Gloucester.
“The toxicity of solar panels is very well documented,” wrote Charlie Dunston of Abingdon in a letter to the commission. “We must protect our land and watershed from the high probability of damaged solar panels, which has historically occurred due to severe weather, animals, and natural degradation of the material.”
Phil Olekszyk of Gloucester’s Petsworth District said he would like the RC-1 district be eligible for solar farms as well as the I-1 district.
“Solar farms are a preferred land use in RC-1 districts as compared to housing developments, strip malls or automobile service facilities,” he wrote. “In addition, they provide additional tax revenue to the county compared to agricultural uses, provide employment opportunities to county residents during construction and maintenance and offer current land owners in the RC-1 district an additional opportunity to sell or lease their property to a solar farm projects if they desire.”
The planners discussed their concern about having too many solar facilities in the county.
“Even though we’re heading in this direction of moving these towards an I-2 requirement, I think there’s still a lot of concern, not only from us but in the community that I hear, you know, from trying to engage and talk to a lot of people about this that there still needs to be some kind of percentage cap on these,” said Poulson. “Because we don’t know how this is going to end up going, if there’s still going to be a pile of interest and a push to develop these even with the requirements to potentially rezone some of this property.”
“I think we still need to determine what a reasonable percentage of land use cap is for solar farm use,” added Poulson.