At Thursdays Planning Commission PC meeting a public hearing was set for June 13th to discuss the allowance of RV (Recreation Vehicle) rental spaces “campgrounds”. The owner of the Yacht club Kyle Schick and a potential buyer of the Yacht Club both advocated for RV’s to be allowed. From what I gathered; the buyer is only interested in buying the property if he is allowed to add RV camping. What is not clear is if he wants 5 or 50.
The conversation was 45 minutes but to sum it up:
· Currently Maritime Resort is not really a zone type.
· All marinas fall under Commercial Zoning today, while it’s called Maritime Commercial.
· The town has now decided to create a Maritime Resort Zone starting with a definition.
· Someone approached the town to allow RVs which sparked this discussion.
· After a lengthy discussion the PC was very reluctant to rush this but the owner was persistent that the PC set a public hearing right away (in the end they did set it for June 13).
· I believe if the definition is changed to allow RVs, the owner would still have to get a Conditional Use Permit CUP before they could have RV camping.
· What confused me is why are we having a hearing on something that was just brought to the PC.
· The PC said they really want public input so if you are for or against you should write the PC. NOTE: I’ve been told there is an issue with the general PC email so use the emails listed below. The director and chair are first so if you don’t want to add all emails they can forward to the rest of the members.
I’m personally not for allowing RVs in town but I only have one vote. The way I got involved in town politics 4 years ago was speaking in opposition of the RV park in Eleanor Park. There were a number of reasons people were against it but one thing that comes to mind was how massive RVs would navigate our extremely narrow streets on a regular basis. Property values are also a concern, the view of the point with large numbers of RVs appearing on our shores. Maybe it is normal for towns to have RV Parks in the middle of them but this is a new one on me.
For questions or comments you can contact me at:
David Williams - Planning Commission Liaison 540-604-4335
The devil is in the details has become my mantra. Maybe it would be ok with a daily maximum RVs allowed limit, a maximum number of consecutive days per RV, as well as a size limit to the individual RVs. Also, a road use tax would seem fair since the users would not be paying property tax. Overall, it would take a lot of “policing” to keep all in check and resources are already stretched thin. So, I would lean on the no side because even with proper structure, I don’t think enforcement is likely.