Published: September 23, 2009 10:58 am      

Public hearing set for proposed comprehensive plan

LEWISBURG — As required by state law, the Greenbrier County Commission on Tuesday scheduled a public hearing on the proposed comprehensive plan for 7 p.m. Nov. 10 in the upstairs courtroom of the county courthouse.

The county planning commission, which worked with a paid consultant for a year in gathering public input for the plan, held a hearing on the document in August.

Twenty-six people spoke during the hearing, with 16 proclaiming support for the plan and only seven opposing adoption.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the planners voted 9-5 to recommend the county commission adopt the plan. When the planners forwarded the document and their recommendation to the county commission a week hence, the clock began to run on a 90-day decision-making time limit imposed on the governing body by state code. The county commission has until roughly the end of November to either adopt, reject or amend the comprehensive plan.

One member of the audience at Tuesday’s county commission session, Craig Holland, who identified himself as a resident of the West Coast and owner of 3,600 acres on Kate’s Mountain, spoke against adoption of the plan, an issue that was not on Tuesday’s agenda.

Holland maintained the plan prohibits private property owners from building homes on their lots while allowing The Greenbrier resort to do so. He said he has discussed the proposed plan with “national” attorneys as well as lawyers in Charleston and was advised by the latter to threaten a lawsuit if the commission adopts the plan.

He also criticized those who crafted the plan, saying, “This is done by amateurs in large part.”

Caldwell resident Marcia Wilson spoke in rebuttal to Holland, noting the plan’s author, M.H. Dorsitt, principal planner with Cambria Planning Group of Christiansburg, Va., is an expert in her field.

“Every appropriate step was taken (in formulating the plan),” Wilson said. “This is Greenbrier County at stake. We all need to work together.”

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Words were also exchanged between the commissioners and Organ Cave resident Robert Doering, who serves as chairman of the unincorporated community.

Doering again appealed to the commission to “switch sides” and join his community in fighting Ronceverte’s annexation of the Stoney Glen development and the roads leading to it through Organ Cave.

Doering and others filed a civil lawsuit to stop the annexation, but Circuit Judge James J. Rowe ruled that none of the petitioners had legal standing to challenge the action. The petitioners’ attorney, William Turner, has vowed to appeal the case to the state Supreme Court.

The commissioners protested that they were always on the side of the Organ Cave residents, but were advised by their legal counsel, Prosecuting Attorney Patrick Via, that they should not join the suit on the plaintiffs’ side.

“We hung with Organ Cave the whole time,” Commissioner Karen Lobban said, chastising Doering for filing the lawsuit in the first place.

Commissioner Brad Tuckwiller pointed out the residents of both Organ Cave and Ronceverte are the county commissioners’ constituents.

While he said he personally opposes the state law that renders the commission toothless in opposing an annexation, Tuckwiller said, “If we join the lawsuit ... it’s unclear to me if that will advance the cause.”

Commission president Betty Crookshanks said she and the other commissioners had taken petitions regarding the annexation issue to the Legislature, to no avail.

“I can’t express how disappointed I am,” Doering responded. “You might as well tell every farmer in this county to get out of town.”

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In other business:

n The commission unanimously approved a new accounting of the money in the carryover funds from the last fiscal year. An August vote on allocations of the carryover amount left only $39,206.31 for the contingency fund.

Tuesday’s rescinding of that action and re-allocation of funds left $138,068.81 for contingencies.

n The commission voted 2-1, with Tuckwiller dissenting, to pay for skunk removal service for two residents of Ronceverte. Tuckwiller said the city should finance its own skunk removal, as Lewisburg does.

n The commission voted 2-1 against Tuckwiller’s motion to wire the approximately $7.8 million now in the Tax Increment Financing fund for White Sulphur Springs’ wastewater treatment plant to United National Bank before Sept. 29. That is the deadline by which the money earmarked for the project must be transferred, Tuckwiller said.

As she had not placed the wire order on Tuesday’s agenda, Crookshanks proposed the commission hold a special session with proper notice instead of taking emergency action on Tuckwiller’s motion.

n The commission unanimously approved the county’s Farmland Protection Board’s acquisition of conservation easements on 155 acres owned by Dr. and Mrs. Philip Light and 245 acres of Sarver Heritage Farm in Organ Cave.

The federal government will match the board’s $446,250 to purchase the easements, which guarantee the land will remain undeveloped in perpetuity. The board’s funding comes from a tax on land transfers in the county.

— E-mail: talvey

@register-herald.com