Citizens Stage Pitchfork Rally Against York County Rezoning

Virginia Free Citizen ^ | May 15, 2014 | Shelby Mertens

[RightSideNews]

Citizens gathered in the front lawn of York Hall on Wednesday, May 14 with pitchforks and signs to protest the York County Board of Supervisors plan to consider rezoning the York Point neighborhood. The rally took place right before the York County Planning Commission’s public hearing.The board of supervisors has proposed R14-66, a resolution that rally protesters say will strip them of their agricultural rights. If passed, over 7,000 properties in York County would be prohibited from conducting commercial agricultural operations York Point is currently zoned as Resource Conservation (RC) and a special-use permit is required in order to operate a business there. The county is looking at rezoning the district to R33, which would create a new residential district.R14-66 is a response to the General Assembly’s passage of Senate Bill 51, which prevents localities from imposing regulations and requiring special-use permits for various activities at agricultural operations — such as agritourism events and the preparation and sale of foods otherwise complaint with state law —and House Bill 1089, which creates a standard definition of agricultural products and protects aquaculture as a form of agriculture.

[The Working Man]

From what I can see from the article, this is about private property rights and from the County’s side about ‘Special use permits’. In other words, taxes and fees on the usage of private property.

And then we have the people who just ‘love’ the country but don’t want people using their ‘country property’ to earn a living off of it.

Personal note:

There was a Lawyer who retired from the ‘big city’ and moved out to the country. He got all irate over the smell of cow manure and flies. So he tried to sue the local dairies out of business because they interfered with his ‘enjoyment of his personal property’.

He and his wife were told in very flowery language, that the dairies were here hundreds of years before him and that manure and flies were a part of that.

Of course the inevitable did happen, developers bought out tracks of Dairy farms that went up for auction to pay off the damn death taxes on estates and turned them into housing developments. Those new people voted in more restrictions and now there are no more dairies to offend them.

Strangely enough the price of Milk, Ice Cream and other dairy products increased drastically in the area. Unintended Consequences, I’m sure.

[riverrunner]

Zoning one of the worse forms on government control forced onto this country.

[xrmusn]

There was a Lawyer who retired from the ‘big city’ and moved out to the country
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
He had a brother that did the same thing...
Wife got in a ‘fender bender’ and he sued over no red light at corner, no sidewalks, no bike lanes etc, they then complained it took an ambulance to long to come from the next town, so they BOTH ran for Town Council, and before you knew it, there was a new Fire Station, with ambulance, sidewalks, bicycle lanes, stop lights.

After two years on council they both quit (after promoting several idiotic projects) then had the unmitigated gall to say
“When I first moved here, this was a nice quiet town. It sure went to hell fast.

(Of course the above not really the brother, not sure if all characters are true but I borrowed poetic license from the Libs and figure it has all happened maybe not quite in that sequence etc etc etc -
WHERE I am really ‘wrong’ is the LIBS do this to ENTIRE STATES, not just little hamlets)

[The Working Man]

It may be an allegory, but I’ve personally seen something similar over and over throughout my life.

I was living in Florida and had to go to a small Lab for some blood tests. While I was in the waiting room I chanced to overhear two women whose accents screamed, ‘Da Bronx’. talking about how they loved to come and stay during the winters and how nice it was to get away from the cold.

Then one of them said “But there are so few ‘services’ here. The other told her, don’t worry dear, ###### is moving here permanently she’ll demand more services.

Sure enough, the whole area ‘boomed’, the services came in and then it all crashed in the late 2000’s. To this day I think that if the tourism board had not pushed for the ‘winter complaints’ to come down and spend their winters in sunny Florida that the state would be a much nicer and more conservative place to live in.

[Pecos]

And that carpetbagger effect is happening all over Virginia. Every time someone from the northeast moves to the area, I groan because (a) I already know their politics, and (b) they will be intent on turning VA into the same kind of hell they just left.

[themidnightskulker]

I always wanted the pitchfork and burning torch concessions at these gatherings. ;)

[xrmusn]

I chanced to overhear two women whose accents screamed, ‘Da Bronx’. talking about how they loved to come and stay during the winters and how nice it was to get away from the cold
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Way back when - when the New Yorkers had a home in NY, Summered in the Catskills, Wintered in Florida, had a ‘residence’ in all 3 places then Retired to FL, the ‘joke’ was they were voting in all 3 or at least 2 places.

I think that FINALLY, we all (well the ones paying attention) figured out it wasn’t a joke, it was a way of life.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Strangely enough the price of Milk, Ice Cream and other dairy products increased drastically in the area.

On a side note, I'm not really sure ice cream contains dairy products anymore. When you let commercial ice cream thaw these days, it doesn't actually melt. It turns into this spongy, asphalt-like substance. Pretty scary to think of that stuff trying to pass through your gut.

[WayneS]

I have lived in Virginia for 49 years.

You are 100% correct.