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Home My WebLink About08-22 CommentsCOUNTY of FREDERICK Department of Planning and Development 540/ 665-5651 Fax: 540/ 665-6395 August 10, 2022 Christopher Mohn, AICP (via email to: cmohn@greenwayeng.com) Greenway Engineering 151 Windy Hill Lane Winchester, VA 22602 RE: Proposed Rezoning for Metromont Property Identification Number (PIN): 54-A-11 & 43-A-22 Dear Chris: I have had the opportunity to review the draft rezoning application for Metromont. This application seeks to rezone 24.72-acres from B2 (General Business) district to the M2 (Industrial General) district and 20-acres from the RA (Rural Areas) district to the M2 district for a total of 44.72-acres. The review is generally based upon submitted application materials. Prior to formal submission to the County, please ensure that these comments and all review agency comments are adequately addressed. At a minimum, a letter describing how each of the agencies, and their comments have been addressed should be included as part of the submission. 1. Comprehensive Plan & Land Use. The Comprehensive Plan provides guidance on the future development of properties in Frederick County. More specifically, Appendix I, Northeast Frederick Land Use Plan, provides guidance on future development of the subject properties.  The Comprehensive Plan identifies the south parcel (PIN #54-A-11) with a “business” land use designation; the south parcel is not within the limits of any area plan. The parcel is also within the limits of the Sewer and Water Service Area (SWSA) and Urban Development Area (UDA). The proposed M2 zoning is inconsistent with the plan designation for “business” uses as it relates to the area of the County. Staff notes the expansion of the existing industrial use onto the subject property may otherwise be appropriate if potential impacts are sufficiently mitigated.  The Comprehensive Plan and Northeast Land Use Plan identifies the north parcel (PIN #43-A-22) with an “industrial” land use designation. The parcel is also within the limits of SWSA and UDA. The proposed M2 Zoning is Metromont Preliminary Rezoning Comments August 10, 2022 Page 2 consistent with the Northeast Frederick Land Use Plan designation for “industrial” uses as it relates to this area of the County. 2. Impact Analysis Statement. The Impact Analysis Statement notes use of existing commercial site access from Route 522 and Stine Lane (private road)/Route 11, and use of private drives for internal circulation. However, the analysis does not address use of Cives Lane (private roadway) and the intersection with Route 11 which also serves the existing facility; this should be discussed. The applicant may also consider to what extent site access, circulation and transportation impacts may be mitigated through the proffer statement. 3. Proffers. The applicant may consider the following changes to the proffer statement:  Further restricting use of the property (Proffer 1.1) to only to those uses outlined in the Impact Analysis Statement, storage of finished pre-cast product awaiting delivery, tractor truck trailer parking and miscellaneous outdoor storage.  Expansion of the proposed 75-foot (FT) vegetative buffer adjoining the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation property (Star Fort) to a100-FT buffer consistent with the proposed buffer along the property line with adjoining residential uses. 4. Agency Comments. Please provide appropriate agency comments from the following agencies:  Frederick County Department of Public Works  Frederick County Fire Marshal  Frederick County Historic Resources Advisory Board (HRAB)  Frederick Water  Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT)  County Attorney  City of Winchester 5. Application Materials & Fees. The following documents should be provided to ensure application completeness at time of acceptance for public hearing: a completed special limited power of attorney form which authorizes Greenway to represent the owner during the application process and tax verification documents. Based on the fees adopted by the Board of Supervisors on December 11, 2019, the rezoning fee for this application would be $14,472 based upon 44.72-acres. Metromont Preliminary Rezoning Comments August 10, 2022 Page 3 All of the above comments and reviewing agency comments should be appropriately addressed before staff can accept this rezoning application. Please feel free to contact me with questions regarding this application. Sincerely, M. Tyler Klein, AICP Senior Planner MTK/pd Cc: Metromont LLC (via email to: ksolenberger17@gmail.com) Thomas Moore Lawson, PC (via email to: tlawson@lsplc.com) COUNTY OF FREDERICK Roderick B. Williams County Attorney 540/722-8383 Fax 540/667-0370 E-mail rwillia@fcva.us August 22, 2022 VIA E-MAIL Mr. Christopher Mohn Greenway Engineering 151 Windy Hill Lane Winchester, Virginia 22602 Re: Rezoning Application – KSS LC and Metromont LLC Tax Parcel Numbers 43-A-22 and 54-A-11 (the “Property”) Dear Chris: You have submitted to Frederick County for review a proposed proffer statement (the “Proffer Statement”) for the proposed rezoning of the Property, 44.74± acres in the Stonewall Magisterial District, from the RA (Rural Areas) and B2 (General Business) Zoning Districts to the M2 (Industrial General) Zoning District, with proffers. I have now reviewed the Proffer Statement and it is my opinion that the Proffer Statement would be in a form to meet the requirements of the Frederick County Zoning Ordinance and the Code of Virginia, and would be legally sufficient as a proffer statement, subject to the following comments:  Introduction, paragraph 2 – The provision – “Any proffered conditions that would prevent the Owner from conforming with State and/or Federal regulations shall be considered null and void.” – impermissibly reverses the land use approval process in that, by the Owner obtaining a rezoning subject to this provision, the Owner would automatically receive currently undisclosed exceptions from the proffer conditions, without the knowing approval of the Board of Supervisors. This would also violate the stated purpose of conditional zoning: “whereby a zoning reclassification may be allowed subject to certain conditions proffered by the zoning applicant for the protection of the community that are not generally applicable to land similarly zoned.” Va. Code § 15.2- 2296. If an activity cannot take place in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and ordinances, it cannot take place, and a rezoning application would be necessary, for the Board to consider possible amendments to the zoning classification and/or the proffers. Mr. Christopher Mohn August 22, 2022 Page 2  Proffer 1.1 – If the intent of the proffer is to limit use of the Property to accessory uses to support the existing manufacturing facility, then it should so state that directly as a limitation, e.g., “Use of the Property shall be limited to accessory uses to support the existing manufacturing facility.” Along the same lines, staff should be aware that, notwithstanding the assertions in the impact statement regarding transportation, the proffer does not limit potential expansion, on the Property, of the existing manufacturing facility and, therefore, nothing in the proffer prevents potential increased transportation impacts. Only if the proffer were to limit use of the Property to accessory uses to support the existing manufacturing facility on the adjoining properties might the impact statement support the proffer, with respect to just activities on the Property.  Proffers 2.1 and 2.2 – The proffers should use parallel language. At present, the proffers use differing terms – “preserve” in 2.1 and “mature” in 2.2, “buffer” in 2.1 and no similar term in 2.2. Also, the railroad line adjacent to parcel 54-A-11 is the Winchester & Western and not CSX. I have not reviewed the substance of the proffers as to whether the proffers are suitable and appropriate for this specific development, as my understanding is that review will be done by staff and the Planning Commission. Sincerely, Roderick B. Williams County Attorney cc: Wyatt Pearson, Director, Planning & Development, Frederick County (via email) John Bishop, Assistant Director of Planning & Development, Frederick County (via e- mail) COUNTY of FREDERICK Department of Planning and Development 540/ 665-5651 Fax: 540/ 665-6395 107 North Kent Street, Suite 202 • Winchester, Virginia 22601-5000 July 25, 2022 Thomas Moore Lawson Thomas Moore Lawson, P.C. P.O Box 2740 Winchester, VA 22604 RE: Request for Historic Resources Advisory Board (HRAB) Comments Metromont Rezoning Application Zoning: RA (Rural Areas) District Property Identification Numbers (PINs): 54-A-11 & 43-A-22 Magisterial District: Stonewall Dear Mr. Lawson: The Frederick County Historic Resources Advisory Board (HRAB) considered the above referenced rezoning application during their meeting on July 19, 2022. This application seeks to rezone two parcels of land totaling 44.74 acres with the south parcel located northeast of North Frederick Pike (Route 522) and West of the City of Winchester, and the north parcel is adjacent and south of VA Route 37 and north of Stine Lane. The parcels are currently zoned as RA (Rural Areas) and B2 (General Business) and the proposed rezoning is to M2 (Industrial General District) to allow for the expansion of the existing Metromont pre-cast concrete facility. Following their review of this application, the HRAB recommended the applicant leave buffers along the edge of the parcels to minimize disturbance to neighboring developments. Specifically, the HRAB recommended the applicant consider leaving buffers along the northwestern edge of the southern parcel (54 A 11) to provide further protections to the adjacent property and in turn Star Fort as a historic resource. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this application. Please call if you have any questions or concerns. Sincerely, Wyatt Pearson, AICP Director of Planning & Development WGP/pd cc: Gary Crawford, HRAB Chairman Tyler Klein, Frederick County Senior Planner From:Eric R. Lawrence To:Chris Mohn Subject:Metromont Rezoning agency review comment Date:Friday, August 19, 2022 1:57:16 PM Chris, Thank you for providing Frederick Water the opportunity to provide comment on the Metromont Rezoning application, received at Frederick Water on August 11, 2022. The application seeks to rezone two properties (PIM #43-A-22 and 54-A-11) to the Industrial General (M2) Zoning District. The properties are located within the Sewer and Water Service Area (SWSA), and therefore by policy may utilize Frederick Water’s public water and sewer services. The application states that connection to and use of the water and sewer services is not required, and similarly does not provide any water and sewer demand projections. Because the application does not require, nor propose to, use the water and sewer services, Frederick Water provides no guarantees nor assurances that public water and sewer services and its capacities are available for use on the property. Should the properties elect in the future to connect to Frederick Water’s water and sewer services, the property owner, at their costs, will need to demonstrate that adequate capacities are available and facilitate the extension of water and sewer services to the site. Thank you. Eric Lawrence 1 Chris Mohn From:Timothy Youmans <Timothy.Youmans@winchesterva.gov> Sent:Friday, August 26, 2022 1:10 PM To:Chris Mohn Cc:David Stewart; Tyler Klein; Wyatt Pearson Subject:RE: Metromont Rezoning - Frederick County Chris, I did receive the rezoning application on August 10th for City commenting and did conduct a brief review of the proposal. I do have concerns with the rezoning given the close proximity of some low, medium and high density residentially zoned and developed City neighborhoods in relatively close proximity to the subject tract. I noticed in the Impact Analysis Statement that it states on p. 2 that “Metromont intends to use the parcel for trailer parking and miscellaneous outdoor storage.” On p.3 it states that the intended activities include trailer parking and storage of finished pre‐cast concrete product…” I also noticed that, in the Proffer Statement, it states in 1.1 “The Properties shall be developed with industrial general land uses consistent with the existing precast concrete manufacturing facility located on the adjoining properties.” I don’t believe that the statements of intent contained in the Impact Analysis provide much assurance as to what could occur on the property long term versus what the current owner intends to do. Further, the statement of land use contained in the Proffer Statement does not appear to limit the use of the conditionally rezoned properties to just trailer storage and outdoor storage. In that case, it would seem that there could be unmitigated light, noise, dust and vibration impacts directly attributable to more intensive permissible precast concrete manufacturing operations arising from this rezoning. I believe that the proffered 100’ wide dimensional buffer and obligation to preserve the mature existing deciduous trees within that area is a fairly effective mitigation measure if the use is limited to just trailer parking and finished product storage (assuming that spillage of site lighting is mitigated with year‐round screening). I do not believe that it would be a sufficient mitigation measure, especially in the months when the leaves are off of the mature deciduous trees if noisier and perhaps taller manufacturing operations such as what appears in the two images below could be allowed. 2 3 I would also note that mature trees do eventually die off or get destroyed during natural weather events despite best efforts to preserve them. What mitigation measures such as installing a new evergreen buffer adjacent to the mature deciduous buffer are proposed to ensure a perpetual qualitative buffer adjacent to the City residential neighborhoods? One other observation with regard to the 100’ wide buffer adjacent to the CSX RR right‐of‐way that I would bring to your attention is that there are not many mature trees within the 100’ wide swath as scaled out from GIS mapping in the scanned map image below for the portion of the tract adjoining the homes ranging from 909‐1007 Pennsylvania Avenue in the City. This is where an existing unimproved roadway traverses the site approximately 50’ away from the RR right‐ of‐way and thus few or no existing matures trees within about half of the proposed 100’ wide buffer area. Some of the existing matures trees appear to be within the 60’ wide CSX right‐of‐way where Metromont would have no authority to preserve the trees. Lastly, I would note that the rezoning tract has extensive frontage along U.S. Rte 522 as close at 0.10 (approx. 540 linear feet) north of where the City’s Fairmont Avenue Corridor Enhancement Overlay Zoning district is situated. The intent of the overlay CE district as stated in the Statement of Intent at the beginning of Article 14.2 of the City Zoning Ordinance reads: “This overlay district is intended to protect and promote the aesthetic character and functionality of major tourist access corridors leading into the designated local and national Historic Winchester (HW) District. Such entryways warrant special attention and controls because they promote the general welfare of the community by attracting visitors and generating business through heritage tourism‐based economic development. Enhancement will occur through regulation and guidance of site development including, but not limited to: sidewalks, off‐street parking, signage, landscaping, mechanical unit placement, lighting, as well as building materials and architectural features such as roof pitch, broken 4 wall planes, façade enhancements, and porches, thereby enhancing the overall appearance of the corridor, while improving access along the corridor through increased walkability and interconnectivity.” While the City’s recognizes that there are no extraterritorial provisions associated with City zoning designations that would guide adjoining stretches of these corridors into Frederick County, we would be interested to know if any measures are being pursued to mitigate the visual aspects of the proposed land use arising from the rezoning action as viewed from the Rte 522 public right‐of‐way in conjunction with this request beyond what might otherwise be the minimum requirements of properties zoned M‐2 in Frederick County. I did not see under Section 2 of the proffer statement where any exceptional buffering or enhanced screening would be called for to further mitigate visual impacts along the property frontage. Thanks for letting me know about your shortened timeframe for needing to submit this application to the County. I was hoping to be able to discuss this with our City Planning Commission at the Commission’s work session on September 6th. Given this very short deadline for commenting, I have included Wyatt Pearson and Tyler Klein from the Frederick County Planning Department so that they have benefit of my concerns about this rezoning. I did recently have a brief conversation with one of them about this. I can leave a signed copy of the official Frederick County Rezoning Comment sheet out at the front desk for you to pick up today. I will print out a copy of this email that can be attached to that form to serve as the City of Winchester comments in the absence of time to discuss with the City Planning Commission and possibly City Council. At this point, it is my opinion that there are potential unmitigated impacts on the existing nearby City neighborhood that are directly attributable to the proposed rezoning of these properties. Thank you, Tim Timothy A. Youmans Planning Director City of Winchester 15 N. Cameron Street Winchester, VA 22601 Phone: (540) 667-1815 ext. 1415 Email: timothy.youmans@winchesterva.gov www.winchesterva.gov/planning 1 From:Timothy Rhodes <timothy.rhodes@vdot.virginia.gov> Sent:Thursday, August 25, 2022 9:19 AM To:John Bishop Cc:Rhonda Funkhouser; Chris Mohn; Johnson, Joseph; Lineberry, Jeffery Subject:Metromont Rezoning John, We have completed our review of the rezoning application and associated transportation assessments and traffic impact statement, which were received in this office on August 11, 2022. While we have no major concerns with this rezoning, it is worth pointing out that we recommended the closure of the existing, secondary partial access entrance on Rte. 522 in the June 30th email below. The Traffic Assessment prepared by Kittleson & Associates, dated August 10, 2022, is advising this entrance will remain. Removal of this entrance is our only comment to this rezoning submittal. We encourage the county to take this into consideration as part of this land use decision. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to discuss. Thank you, Timothy Rhodes VDOT~Land Development Engineer Clarke, Frederick, Shenandoah & Warren Counties 14031 Old Valley Pike Edinburg, VA. 22824 (540)-534-3206 From:Timothy Rhodes To:Chris Mohn Cc:Rhonda Funkhouser; John Bishop; Matthew Smith; Lineberry, Jeffery Subject:Metromont Follow-Up Date:Thursday, June 30, 2022 12:44:36 PM Chris, As a follow-up to Tuesday’s meeting, VDOT staff has discussed the proposal and does not feel a full blown TIA would be needed for this rezoning. We believe a limited scope traffic analysis would be appropriate. Some items necessary for review would be as follows: · Please show the difference in trip generation with the proposed rezoning. · Please provide anticipated volumes and graphics to show the movements. · An entrance and safety operations analysis should be provided. · We recommend the secondary access on Rte. 522 be closed. This is the northernmost entrance and is located within the taper limits. This location also currently has large concrete blocks in the area of the guardrail, alongside of the road. These blocks need to be moved away from this area, outside of the clear zone. Please provide this information back to me for review. If you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call. Thanks, Timothy Rhodes VDOT~Land Development Engineer Clarke, Frederick, Shenandoah & Warren Counties 14031 Old Valley Pike Edinburg, VA. 22824 (540)-534-3206