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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSP201100002 Review Comments Special Use Permit 2012-06-22A �'IRGII314+ COUNTY OF ALBEMARLE Department of Community Development 401 McIntire Road, North Wing Charlottesville, Virginia 22902 -4596 Phone (434) 296 -5832 Fax (434) 972 -4176 June 22, 2012 Mr. John M. Rhett Castle Hill Cider 6065 Turkey Sag Road Keswick VA 22947 RE: SP201100002 Castle Hill Cider Dear Mr. Rhett, Staff has reviewed your resubmittal for this special use permit and the associated special use permit for fill in the floodplain. Review comments are included below. Planning While all of the reviewers' comments below (or attached) should be addressed, I'd like to summarize what are likely to be the critical issues when we get to the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors public hearings: • Scale: As mentioned previously, the Planning Commission will be concerned with how events of this scale, even with the reductions you have proposed, will impact the character of the surrounding Rural Area. I would expect this issue to be a major part of the discussion during the public hearing. • Public safety: As noted below, we can discuss this in more detail once I receive VDOT's comments on your traffic study. • Impacts on neighboring properties: The impacts of traffic and noise will certainly come up in the hearing. Items to consider: • Location of amplified sound: Can you suggest ways to specify the location of the sound system(s) (indoor vs. outdoor) for events of various sizes? Any measures you can add to reduce noise impacts would help to address concerns about audibility on nearby properties. Ideally all amplified sound would be indoors, but, if I recall correctly, that was not part of your original proposal. • Access routes: According to various nearby landowners, traffic to and from the site, including tour buses, has been going from Route 20 in Stony Point to the cidery via Turkeysag Road. (This may be because Google Maps routes people that way in some cases.) The proposed traffic control and "no left turn" sign at the exit would help to address this. However, preventing arrivals by that route is also important. How could you work with bus companies, party organizers, wedding planners, et. al., to distribute clear directions that state that this route should not be used? Can you suggest other measures to avoid this problem? ■ Frequency of events is also an issue — while the total number of annual attendees would be smaller, the events could still occur on many weekends, making them a fairly regular disturbance to the area. Please provide a plan on a single page (or if necessary on a few pages) labeled "Conceptual Plan." This plan would be referred to in any potential conditions of approval, and would be used to show the scale and location of the planned use. This needs to be ready well in advance of the Planning Commission hearing. Sizes of events: Outside the concern over the size and frequency of the events, the different "size classes" raise some issues. For the County, it would be difficult to monitor how many events of each size class Zoning (Francis MacCall) The applicant plans on submitting the applications for two separate stream crossing SPs. The one along the main road coming into the site should be included in the cost of the Cidery events SP. The second one for the pond would need to be charged the $2000 fee. I have no other comments as to the merits of the events proposal with regards to zoning compliance. Planning Note 1: 1 understand that these applications have been submitted. The SP for the road crossing will be considered at the same time as the events permit. The County Engineer will need to review the new submission, but the two applications can go to the same public hearing. Planning Note 2: The special use permit application for the pond can be reviewed separately and on its own schedule. As the pond is not necessary for the operation of the events use, approval of the permit for the pond would not be a necessary prerequisite for the events. Engineering and Water Resources (Glenn Brooks) Please see attached memo. VDOT (Joel Denunzio) VDOT comments will be available next week, and I will forward them to you as soon as I receive them. Please note that traffic impacts are a critical issue for this application. Please review the VDOT comments before making any revisions or setting up hearing dates. Resubmittal or Public Hearing Within 30 days of the date of this letter, please do one of the following: (1) Resubmit in response to these comments on a resubmittal date as published in the project review schedule (the full resubmittal schedule may be found at www.albemarle.org in the "forms" section at the Community Development page). Please use the enclosed resubmittal form; OR (2) Request a public hearing be set with the Planning Commission based on the information provided with your previous submittal (a date will be set in accordance with the Planning Commission's published schedule as mutually agreed to by you and the County), OR (3) Request indefinite deferral and state your justification for requesting the deferral. (Indefinite deferral means that you intend to resubmit /request a public hearing be set with the Planning Commission after the 30 day period.) If we have not received a response from you within 30 days, we will contact you again. At that time, you will be given 10 days to do one of the following: a) request withdrawal of your application, b) request PA deferral of your application to a specific Planning Commission date as mutually agreed to with staff, or c) request indefinite deferral and state your justification for requesting the deferral. If none of these actions is taken, staff will schedule your application for a public hearing based on the information provided with your original submittal. Please be advised that, once a public hearing has been advertised, only one deferral prior to the Planning Commission's public hearing will be allowed during the life of the application. The only exception to this rule will be extraordinary circumstances, such as a major change in the project proposal by the applicant or more issues identified by staff that have not previously been brought to the applicant's attention. As always, an applicant may request deferral at the Planning Commission meeting. Please feel free to contact me if you wish to meet or need additional information Sincerely, Scott Clark Senior Planner, Planning Division