Petition to encourage Town Council to deny proposed changes to Article VI, Section 610 Business Commercial, of the Berryville Zoning Ordinance 2016

This petition strongly urges the Berryville Town Council deny the changes proposed concerning text amendments requested by House of Lords Inc. in order to modify Section 610 Business Commercial, Berryville Zoning Ordinance.

Article VI, Section 610 Berryville Zoning Ordinance provides in part:

610.2(u) Retail stores and shops as an accessory use to the primary permitted use on the parcel, provided:

(1) the retail store or shop is directly related, ancillary, subordinate, and incidental to the primary permitted use;

(2) the gross floor area of the retail store or shop (excluding storage) does not exceed ten (10) percent of the gross *floor area of the primary permitted use;

(3) the gross floor area of the retail store or shop (excluding storage) does not occupy more than 1,500 square feet; and

(4) the gross floor area for storage related to the retail store or shop does not exceed 500 square feet. (8/01)

The applicant, through its agent Mr. Echols, is requesting that the following language be established under 610.2(x) of the Berryville Zoning Ordinance as follows:

610.2 (x) Personal service establishments, retail stores and shops not to exceed 10,000 [square] feet for each free-standing business or for each business in a shopping center or strip mall center, (00/16)

This text amendment would delete Section 610.2(u), as set forth above, of the Berryville Zoning Ordinance as that allows retail stores and shops as an accessory use in the Business Commercial Zoning District. Basically small businesses.

To understand the scale of this change, Shop and Save building is approximately 25,000 square feet.

The intent of the Business Commercial District, as established by Section 610, is to provide locations for highway commercial uses (such as retail uses, restaurants, motels, office and employment-related businesses), within the precincts of the Berryville Area. Further, Section 610 of the Berryville Zoning Ordinance states that "adequate transportation and site planning of' all land uses shall have the goal of minimizing traffic conflicts with all other activities within the Berryville Area”.

By increasing the size and types of businesses in this location, the traffic would also be increased in an already busy area. This would include large supply trucks.

By allowing a developer to dictate changes to the zoning in that area – which also includes property that is not his, the town goes against good governance and best practices as established over the years since it

established and developed the Comprehensive Plan which is a document required by law in the State of Virginia.

The Comprehensive Plan was recently updated and none of these issues were brought up while the update was being considered prior to its approval. Good governance calls for changes of this type to be made to the Master Plan before any type of zoning issues can be addressed. The current Mayor has ignored this fact on another recent zoning change for the same developer.

By allowing this type of zoning to the north of the town, we change the dynamics of the town from the quaint rural town that many of us moved here to enjoy and be a part of. Mr. Echols will cite various tax revenues that will be brought in, but, those can only be speculative in nature. Because of our current economy and rural status we run the risk of seeing an empty strip mall area as part of the entrance to our town if this text amendment is approved.

In addition, by allowing this text amendment to the Berryville Zoning Ordinance, it will open up other areas for similar development.