More Planning Nonsense!
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Independent Local News for Front Royal & Warren County, Virginia www.warrencountyreport.com 50¢ Warren County Report Vol 2 Issue 3 February 2, 2007 More planning nonsense! “I feel like you had some suc- cess with Wal-Mart and now you want to stop everybody.” - Joe Gillette Page 3 [Kelly Walker, right, seems disgusted at majority opinion expressed by Terese Brown] Page Warren County Report February , 007 Warren County Report Advertising Sales Manager: 122 W 14th Street Paula Conrow Box 20 (540) 635-4835 Front Royal, VA 22630 [email protected] (540) 636-1014 Assistant to Publisher Publisher and Leslie Bennett Editor-in-Chief: (540) 636-1014 Daniel P. McDermott [email protected] [email protected] Transcriptionist: Managing Editor and Reporter: Roya Milote Roger Bianchini [email protected] (540) 636-7386 [email protected] www.warrencountyreport.com February , 007 Warren County Report Page Town lambasted over new slope proposal Planners plow forward, council hedges its bets – postpones vote By ROGER BIANCHINI cipal Mark Smith, former town planning town planners, Front Royal’s top plan- Wal-Mart and now you want to stop ev- Warren County Report commission Chairman and Landscape ning official, Nimet Soliman, pointed out erybody.” Gillette said his wife called the Architect Joseph Duggan, Randolph-Ma- the ordinance is only aimed at properties wording of the proposed ordinance “jib- The philosophical war over how best con Academy President Maj. Gen. Henry being subdivided for development, so berish” that will have a severe adverse to control future growth in this commu- M. Hobgood (USAF ret.) and Warren was not likely to impact either the build- affect on the property his family owns in nity took another step into the increas- Memorial Hospital President Patrick No- ing plans of private institutions or resi- town. ingly surreal world of town politics fol- lan. dential building on existing lots. Smith, of Greenway Engineering, lowing a rare joint public hearing before However, that answer did not resolve said he did not currently represent any- the Front Royal Planning Commission Different standards a major and potentially legal sticking one with a building issue impacted by and Town Council on Jan. 22. point with a number of the other public the proposal. However, Smith said he felt Despite unanimous criticism and Hobgood and Nolan queried town hearing speakers. That question is if it is compelled to offer a professional opinion concern expressed by landscape engi- officials as to whether the proposed or- okay for private institutions or existing on the proposal’s shortcomings. neers, attorneys, property owners and dinance would adversely impact their residential lot owners to build on steeper Those shortcomings, which other private institution representatives, the landscaping professionals and attorneys town planners recommended approval elaborated on after Smith’s five minutes of changes to town codes that would fur- of speaking time ran out, included restric- ther restrict building options on proper- tions that would not allow homes with ties containing natural sloping within the walk-in basements to be built within the town limits by a 4-2 vote, Walker and town limits and a combination of slope Blacklock dissenting. and soil restrictions that would eliminate However, after extensive and often the possibility of building on virtually all seemingly circular discussion and mo- undeveloped property within the town tions proposals, council voted to delay limits. a first-reading vote (two readings are requited to change town codes) until its Jibberish? Feb. 12 meeting. That vote came after: The ordinance proposal rewords Sec- · First, Councilman Stan Brooks initial tion 64 Town Charter, Section 148-42 of motion, seconded by Tom Sayre, to ap- the Town Code to state: prove the first reading passed 3-2, with “The proposed development must Tewalt and Hrbek dissenting and Grady preserve all slopes steeper than 20 per- absent. cent as well as slopes between 15% and · A second Brooks/Sayre motion to re- 20% which have the following character- consider the original motion passed 4-1 istics: with Hrbek dissenting. · And finally, a Brooks/Darr motion WCR PHOTOS/ROGER BIANCHINI 1. are wooded, to postpone a first reading vote until the Front Royal Planner Therese Brown, left, waxes poetic on build- 2. contain highly erosive, highly perme- Feb. 12 council meeting passed 3-2, with ing on angles as fellow planner Kelly Walker ruminates on what able or shrink-swell soils, Tewalt and Hrbek dissenting. she is hearing during Jan. 22 joint planning commission-town 3. are located contiguous to the 100- council public hearing on changes to the town’s recently ruled year floodplain.” The recommended code changes illegal in part slope ordinance. would restrict building on properties Greenway’s Smith, who is in the with over a 15-percent grade, with some institution’s future building plans. slopes, why is it not okay for new resi- geo-technical engineering business, pre- exceptions up to 20 percent at the town’s Hobgood told town officials R-MA dential lot builders? With such distinc- sented the town with an alternate ordi- discretion. Current codes allow building was eight years into a 25-year Master tion being made it would seem safety nance proposal that removed arbitrary on lots up to 25 percent grade, with ex- Plan for expansion of its private middle concerns are not at issue in the proposal. decision-making authority from town of- ceptions up to 40 percent. Several land- and high school facilities and noted, “al- ficials with political agendas, in favor of scape professionals pointed out a 15- most all of our property is on slopes over Where to build? governmental decisions based upon pro- percent slope is twice that of a common 15 percent.” fessional recommendations from “certi- wheelchair ramp’s eight-percent grade. Nolan also observed that much of the One speaker addressing such issues, fied geo-technical engineers” following a The planners’ vote of approval came hospital’s main facility is built on slop- property owner Joseph Gillette, got right “geo-technical analysis” based on build- despite opposition expressed by 13 ing property exceeding the 15-percent to the point when he told the planners ing and industry standards on slopes be- speakers, including attorney and former guideline and worried over future build- and council, “The message I’m getting is tween 15 and 40 percent. Front Royal Vice-Mayor Daniel Pond IV, ing or renovation plans at that site. I can’t develop this, I can’t put a road in Greenway Engineering owner and prin- However, responding to queries from – I feel like you had some success with Slopes, pg. 11 Page Warren County Report February , 007 Bank ‘bomber’ robber sentenced Englehardt pleads not guilty in arsons Unauthorized dumping nets $1,000 fine, more or less April trial date set after new counsel secured weapon. Hupp agreed with the defense on the point then sentenced Wiles at the up- By ROGER BIANCHINI per end of guidelines where a simulated Warren County Report weapon was used. The guidelines suggested one year The woman accused of setting a and six months to three years and nine string of arsons in her Cherrydale neigh- months for using a simulated weapon ver- borhood between Aug. 28 and Sept. 1, sus a range of two years and one month to entered not guilty pleas to all four counts four years and six months on use of a real against her during a Jan. 18 court ap- weapon. pearance. Wiles remained at large for over a Deborah Sue Englehardt faces charg- month following the robbery. She was es, including setting fire to occupied arrested on May 10 at the Budget Inn at residences and felonious child neglect, 1122 N. Royal Avenue, where she was liv- that could see her sentenced to a maxi- ing with her husband. Pre-sentencing tes- mum of three life terms plus five years timony indicated Wiles, her husband and in prison. her two older children, ages 17 and 15, Joanne Teresa Wiles Warren County Circuit Court Judge were living across the street from the bank Dennis L. Hupp set trial dates of April By ROGER BIANCHINI at the time of robbery at the Blue Ridge Deborah Sue Englehardt 23/24 following Englehardt’s retention Warren County Report Motel at 1370 N. Shenandoah Avenue. of new counsel on Jan. 18. Englehardt’s Wiles said she has four children. parents are believed to have secured the services of attorney Kyle Courtnall of the Wiles told the court she has been di- A creative twist on robbing a bank BOSE Law firm of Springfield. Peter Hansen was Englehardt’s original court-ap- agnosed as bipolar/schizophrenic. Under – saying she had a bomb to detonate if she pointed attorney. Englehardt was staying with family in Dale City, Prince William cross examination by Commonwealth’s wasn’t given money – netted a 33-year- County, following her release from Fairfax INOVA Hospital. Englehardt was ar- Attorney Brian Madden Wiles admitted old, admitted crack addict nearly four rested at her family’s Dale City address on Dec. 6, two days after sealed indict- to an ongoing drug problem and said she years in prison and over $4,000 in fines ments were handed down by a Warren County Grand Jury. last month. was a regular user of crack cocaine at the time of the robbery. She also said she had On Jan. 18, Hansen confirmed he was exploring his client’s mental history as Warren County Circuit Court Judge part of a potential defense strategy prior to being removed from the case. Among Dennis L. Hupp sentenced Joanne Teresa gone off her legal medication for her men- tal disorder during the period before the the occupied residences the fifty-year-old Englehardt is accused of setting on fire Wiles to 10 years for the robbery of the was her own.