Editor’s note: This is first of a three-part series on the proposed comprehensive plan for Greenbrier County. The county planning commission will conduct a public hearing on the document at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the courthouse in Lewisburg. The ultimate decision on whether to adopt the plan is up to the county commission.



Greenbrier County planners last dangled their feet in the dangerous waters of zoning in 1996, and they lost a few toes in the process, figuratively speaking.

Members of the planning commission were cursed and shouted down in public meetings held around the county to gain input on the issue. Some opponents attended every one of those meetings — held in Renick, White Sulphur Springs, Rupert, Rainelle and Alderson — to voice their opinions.

Although the planners ultimately presented a zoning ordinance to the governing body, only one county commissioner voted to adopt the land use regulations and the debate ended, albeit with bitter feelings on all sides.

Thirteen years later, a new group of planners has commissioned an updated comprehensive plan for the county, not zoning, per se, but close enough to potentially roil the same waters.

Set for a public hearing Wednesday evening, this new plan acknowledges “traditional approaches to zoning may not work in Greenbrier County ... It is, however, abundantly clear, that left unchecked, development over the next 20 years is likely to have a significant impact on the agricultural industry and on environmental quality and sourcewater.”

The county now has what the plan refers to as a “geographically limited zoning ordinance.” Only a few areas, notably the unincorporated community of Fairlea, outside of municipalities are zoned.

“The current ordinance is problematic because it unintentionally encourages developers to site development in the unzoned areas of the county in order to avoid meeting zoning requirements,” the plan points out. “This, more than any other condition, has encouraged sprawl and inappropriate development in Greenbrier County.”

It continues, “While plans are policy statements and not ordinances, are more general in nature and do not include the depth or specifics of regulations, they do provide a guide, countywide, to land use. This plan was written, in part, to allow for its adoption as an ordinance and provides greater use detail than would be typically found in a comprehensive plan.”

In preparing the proposed comprehensive plan, Cambria Planning Group of Christiansburg, Va., conducted six community meetings and solicited additional public input via a voluntary written survey. Nearly 500 surveys were completed, and 74 people attended one or more of the meetings.

The plan decries the lack of training provided to planning commission members and the shortage of professional staff. Its recommendations to rectify the situation include implementing one of several training programs available, and either hiring a full-time planning director or placing a professional planner on retainer while also increasing staffing to handle growing demands.

Planning directors, even for small jurisdictions, command salaries in the $50,000 to $70,000 range, according to the plan. Benefits would boost the expense even higher.

On the other hand, retainers for planning consultants can run anywhere from $24,000 to $60,000 per year, but the county would not have to pay benefits.

Neither of the staffing options appears likely to be immediately implemented. Earlier this month, the county commission allocated the budget carryover from the 2009 fiscal year and had only $39,206 left for its contingency fund after the distributions were made.

The proposed plan notes, “Zoning ordinances are one of the single best tools for protecting property values from uses which might detract from the neighborhood, the viewshed or the broader community.”

The plan notes if county officials do decide to again try to float a zoning ordinance, that it should be countywide, developed by a citizens action committee that includes significant stakeholders and incorporate “flexible” features that take into account “community standards.”

The plan states, “Flex zoning ordinances are, as the name implies, more closely tied to the comprehensive plan and community standards than to ‘one size fits all’ regulations. Given the diversity of location in Greenbrier County, a flexible ordinance is a far better option and a far better fit than the more rigid traditional approaches to zoning. A traditional ordinance will not work in Greenbrier.”

To read the full plan, go to www.greenbriercounty.net and click on “Comprehensive Plan” in the menu on the left side of the home page.

Coming Monday: An ambitious document.