HomeMy WebLinkAboutLOD201300001 Letter of Determination 2013-04-09COUNTY OF ALBEMARLE
Department of Community Development
401 McIntire Road, North Wing
Charlottesville, Virginia 22902-4596
Phone (434) 296-5832 Fax (434) 972-4126
April 9, 2013
H. Clark Leming
Leming and Healy P.C.
P.O. Box 445
Garrisonville, VA 22463
Re: LOD 2013-001 Keene Landfill Site — Advisory Opinion
Dear Mr. Leming,
This is in response to the letter of determination application received January 28, 2013
and referenced above. You have specifically asked for an opinion as to the applicability
of Albemarle County Code § 18-4.18, Noise, ("Section 4.18') to an open air Police firing
range on the Keene Landfill site (Tax Map 129, Parcel 2A) (the "Keene Firing Range").
On February 6, 2013, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors directed staff to
consider other options for a police firing range and the application for a Keene Firing
Range site plan has been withdrawn. There also is no other pending application
relating to development of any other type of Police firing range at the Keene Landfill
site. Therefore, this is not an official determination but is an advisory interpretation, and
this question is subject to further consideration if and when a specific application is
pending before the County. See Vulcan Materials Co. v. Board of Supervisors of
Chesterfield County, 248 Va. 18 (1994) and Board of Supervisors of Stafford County v.
Crucible, Inc., 278 Va. 152 (2009).
As you note in your letter requesting this decision, by my 1995 memo to then -Chief
John F. Miller of the Albemarle County Police Department, I stated that the proposed
facility was a "public use." As stated in the Rural Areas district, the use category
allowing a "public use" states in part: "9. Public uses and buildings including temporary
or mobile facilities such as schools, offices, parks, playgrounds and roads funded,
owned or operated by local, state or federal agencies."
Section 4.18.05 list of sounds exempt from the Noise regulations includes the following:
4.18.05 EXEMPT SOUNDS
The following sounds shall not be subject to this section 4.18:
Page 2
LOD 2013-001
April 9, 2013
Keene Landfill Site — Advisory Opinion
H. Public facilities. Sounds generated from the operation of a public facility or public use
or activity including, but not limited to, sounds generated from school athletic contests
or practices, and other school activities.
Section 4.18.05 (H) exempts sounds generated from a) the operation of a public facility;
or b) the operation of a public use; or c) the activity associated with a public use. Your
letter states that a Police firing range is not a public use because it does not meet the
definition of a public facility by being "generally open to the public."
Section 4.18.02 defines "Public facility" as follows:
The term "public facility" means a structure or use which may be publicly or privately
owned or operated and which is generally open to the public, and includes but is not
limited to schools, libraries, parks, hospitals and uses of a similar character.
Regardless of whether a Police firing range is a "public facility," it is a "public use" under
Section 4-18.05(H). Although the term "public use" is not defined in the noise
regulations, there can be no question that a County -owned and operated Police firing
range is a public use. Unlike public facilities, there is no requirement that a public use
be "generally open to the public."
Although the catchline for Section 4.18.05(H) is "Public facilities," the exemption itself,
as explained above, applies to both "public facilities" and "public uses." As for the
significance of the catchline, Albemarle County Code 1-103 states that "catchlines ...
are intended as mere catchwords to indicate the contents of the section, and shall not
be deemed or taken to be ... any part of the section ..." In other words, the content of
the regulation itself, not the catchline, is determinative.
Therefore, because a Police firing range is a public use under current regulations,
sound related to the firing range would be exempt from the requirements of Section
4.18. Of course, the Board of Supervisors may amend the noise regulations at any time
to require that any Police firing range be subject either to the requirements of Section
4.18 or some other noise standards.
If you have any further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Amelia G. McCulley, A.I.C. .
Zoning Administrator