Stanardsville contemplates nuisance code

By April Taylor, Record Editor
Published: July 17, 2008

Stanardsville’s Town Council is looking into establishing a possible “nuisance code” in Stanardsville.
The decision partly is in reaction to ongoing complaints by shop owners on Main Street of rowdy behavior, obscenities, drinking, loitering and other questionable activities by nearby residents that they say affect their businesses there.
Speaking at a town council meeting last month, Linda Morris, owner of Stargazer Floral on Main Street, said: “On three different occasions, I’ve had deputies knocking on my door. It doesn’t look good for my business.”
At the town council meeting on Monday, Morris said: “I hear (expletives uttered) … isn’t there (something that can be done) about the filth that we listen to every single day?”
Any establishment of a nuisance code would first require a public hearing.
Discussion of a nuisance measure here in Greene comes at a time when nearby Albemarle County has cracked down on public annoyances such as dog barking.
Last month, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors approved a measure that potentially fines dog owners up to $500 if barking is deemed a nuisance to neighbors. With the Albemarle County code, annoyed neighbors can go to the magistrate’s office and obtain a warrant.
The County of Greene is currently mulling over the possibility of some type of nuisance ordinance.
At a town council meeting on Monday evening, Stanardsville Mayor Gary Lowe asked town attorney Michael Powell to research the town’s options in terms of such an ordinance. 
In the meantime, Lillian Baird, owner of The Little Shop on Main Street, said something must be done.
Baird wrote the following in a letter to the town council back in June: “Having opened a retail shop on Main Street in March 2007, I have seen first-hand… aggressive fighting by women (causing traffic to stop); very loud verbal abuse from one tenant to another, drugs being passed and public intoxication on more than one occasion.”
In the same letter, Baird asked leaders to rescind a “rezoning” change that allowed for multi-family dwellings to be created among commercial and retail. The move back in 2002 paved the way for a number of low-income, multi-family units existing on Main Street.
In response to Baird’s request, Lowe said at the town council meeting on Monday that the area’s mixed-use zoning did not change in 2002; a special use permit was granted, without conditions, in order to make way for multi-family housing.
Back in August 2002, landowner Roddie Kibler was granted the special use permit.
Zoning Administrator Bart Svoboda explained to town leaders on Monday that there was nothing that could be rescinded.
“It would be hard to revoke it,” said Svoboda at the meeting on Monday evening. “Without any conditions to violate, it’s hard to have a reason to (reverse) it.” He added: “That’s the power of the special permit.”
Shop owners are also complaining of inadequate parking for customers and unsafe practices in those areas, such as children playing wildly among cars—particularly within the parking lot situated behind the buildings at the corner of Main Street and Celt Road (next to the Town Hall) The parking lot is owned partly by the town and partly by the owners of the three Main Street buildings.
Building owner Richard Lamb agrees “parking is a problem.”
He also says there’s no quick solution to the issues being raised.
“It’s going to take awhile,” said Lamb. He added: “We had two residential places, and we converted to commercial, and that seemed to solve the problem.”
In response to concerns, town council members last night said they would look into painting lines in the parking lot to designate parking spaces.
“One of the solutions is that we stripe the lot to allot parking spaces,” offered town council member Richard Early.
“We’re addressing the issues,” added Lowe.
But Baird questions if enough action is being taken.
During the public comment portion of the town council meeting, Baird said:  “I don’t think you’ve really addressed the problem. Trucks and cars are coming out; it’s a dangerous situation. It’s not going to improve until something is done.”
She added: “It should be a parking lot, not a playground.”
The concerns from shop owners come at a time when local leaders continue to make efforts to revitalize the town - and wish to attract new businesses to Main Street.
“It is a serious problem for the revitalization of Stanardsville,” said Baird.
In her letter, Baird remarked: “Retail/commercial cannot co-exist with multi-family zoning. At least not in Stanardsville.”
Shop owners have also said that they have asked for help from the Sheriff’s Office but with mixed success.
“I was told when I went to the Sheriff’s department that they would do routine surveillance,” said Morris. “Nobody has seen anything.”
According to Baird, information that she received from the Sheriff’s Office indicates that there were 293 calls for service for Stanardsville—including Main Street, Blakey Avenue, Krystal Court, Ford Avenue, and Village Road—between January and May of this year.
Greene County Sheriff Scott Haas was unavailable for comment for this article.
In the meantime, it appears that town leaders are looking to a nuisance ordinance as one possible solution to concerns.
“We might want to consider that,” said Mayor Gary Lowe. “That just gives us a little more leverage to try to enforce some of these issues.”
Town leaders did not discuss the details of what a potential nuisance code would entail.
Several areas have such measures in place.
In Loudoun County, for example, “nuisance” is defined as the following: “anything unwholesome, dangerous, offensive or unhealthy, which constitutes a menace to the health and safety of the public, or any structure which, due to a structural defect or dilapidation, has become dangerous to life or property.”
Crystal Delancey, who lives in one of the low-income apartment units off Main Street, says she doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.
She says the Main Street corridor in question has actually improved since “when I first moved in last year.”
“Somebody threw a lawn chair through my window when I first moved here,” she said. “But now it’s very quiet, usually.”
As for a nuisance code, Delancey said she didn’t think the area needed one.
“What we really need,” Delancey remarked earnestly, “is a Laundromat.”