Warren County Report

Following the Warren County decision, Madison Development Corporation attorney Clifford L. Athey Jr. called the citizen and grass-root organization, Voice of Strasburg’s, ongoing legal challenge of the rezoning on flawed procedural grounds “a farce” and threatened legal action over an alleged conspiracy to sabotage the former council’s approval process.

However, contacted later that day about Athey’s remarks, Strasburg Planning Commission Chairman Leon Smith denied allegations of a conspiracy, which he said were initially made by sitting Strasburg Councilmen Steve W. Nicholson and Edith R. Wallace following their early departure from a recent council meeting.

“Mr. Athey has been threatening law suits through this whole process, ‘If we don’t get what we want we’ll sue,’ but there is not a bit of truth to these allegations and Mr. Athey better start checking his facts,” Smith said.

Athey confirmed the allegations of possible sabotage of the review process by opponents of the rezoning in and out of the Strasburg town government have been brought forth “by sitting town council members” who voted with the 5-3 majority to approve the rezoning in June. Those allegations include meetings at Strasburg Planning Commission Chairman Leon Smith’s house “in which incoming town council members illegally attended . . . and developed a strategy to try to overturn this particular decision in violation of Virginia law,” Athey said.

Smith said that while opponents of the rezoning had met at his house to discuss the approval process situation, neither he nor any councilmen, incumbent or incoming, attended. Smith said that meeting was hosted by his wife and had been attended by citizens, who opposed the rezoning.

But Tuesday morning, Athey indicated his client is prepared to pick up the legal apple thrown its way by sitting Strasburg Council supporters of the rezoning.

“If [the Strasburg Council] decides to take the unusual step of saying that somehow we’re going to use this spurious argument about notice to try to revoke [the rezoning] then they’re opening themselves up to a number of causative actions that will go to whether or not they had any involvement with the problems with the notice requirements when they were initially published. That would involve the town planning staff, the town manager, the incoming council members, the chairman of the planning commission,” Athey said of a potential suit by the developer. “In discovery we’ll find out who attended what meetings, who did what and to whom.”

Last month members of Voice of Strasburg urged the Warren board to follow through on its challenge of the rezoning due to a being left out of the pre-vote review process. While the Voice of Strasburg contingent said they believed notification omissions by the Strasburg government may have been inadvertent, they reflected a pattern of arrogance by the former council majority.

Warren County filed its challenge of the rezoning on July 13, one day before the deadline to do so. At that time Warren Board Chairman Richard Traczyk said the suit was filed to give Warren County staff time to review the proposed development.

Following the Warren board’s decision to withdraw the suit Tuesday, Traczyk said that in the wake of a county planning staff evaluation of the project it was concluded there would be “no appreciable adverse impacts on Warren County” from the planned 180-home residential development to be phased in at 18 homes per year over 10 years on 61 acres of the property’s 135 acres on the northside of the counties’ border.

Opponents have centered criticism of the project on potential environmental impacts to nearby Ox Bow and Cedar Creeks, two feeder streams to the already environmentally challenged Shenandoah River.

The Strasburg Planning Commission unanimously recommended denial of the Island Farm proposal, which has been on the drawing board since 2002. Athey said his client stood to lose about $10 million if the rezoning was reversed.

Three councilmen who voted with the majority that approved the rezoning on June 14 did not seek re-election in May and another was defeated. It is believed if the rezoning were revisited the new council majority would oppose approval.

At an Aug. 8 meeting of the Strasburg Town Council two citizens, Kim Bishop and Joyce Gary, lambasted Councilmen Nicholson and Wallace for their early departure from the July meeting to prevent a Closed Session revisiting of the Island Farm legal issues. Strasburg Mayor Timothy S. Crisman also read a prepared statement outlining what he believes are elected officials responsibilities of office and suggested the creation of a Vision Committee of public and private individuals to develop a statement of principal dealing with future growth issues.

One new councilman, Donald M. LeVine, said he had had what he termed “fruitful” conversations with both Nicholson and Wallace about the situation since the July incident and believed the council could move constructively forward. Neither Nicholson or Wallace commented on the situation.