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Staff Report:
The proposed
text amendment will change the approval process for a
recreational firing range, skeet or trap shooting facility
by requiring special exception approval from the Board of
Supervisors rather than special permit approval from the
Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA). In addition, the amendment
creates a provision allowing accessory training and/or
instruction for all other category uses.
Currently,
the existing Zoning Ordinance regulations allow a firing
range, skeet or trap shooting facility, indoor or outdoor,
in the RC, RA, C-2 and I-1 Districts with special permit
approval by the BZA. As set forth in the Zoning Ordinance,
the issues considered by the BZA when granting a special
permit involve primarily the immediate neighborhood to be
affected. However, the issues considered by the Board of
Supervisors when granting a special exception involve issues
concerning not just the neighborhood but potential impacts
on the general area, the Comprehensive Plan and, in some
cases, the County as a whole. It is staff’s opinion that
firing ranges, skeet, or trap shooting facilities, whether
indoor or outdoor, are clearly more intensive land uses that
should require more extensive review in the public process.
This is based on the far reaching impacts of such facilities
with respect to noise generation, safety concerns and the
negative impact, whether real or perceptual, that these
facilities often have on adjacent properties and the general
vicinity in which they are located. For this reason, staff
believes it is appropriate to amend Section 3-309 of the
existing Ordinance provisions to require special exception
approval for these facilities by the Board of Supervisors
rather than special permit approval from the BZA.
In addition,
the existing Ordinance does not currently allow training
and/or instruction activity as an accessory activity to
other uses which might typically have some level of
accessory training, such as Category 9 and 10 recreation
uses or Category 12 retail uses. Therefore, if a
non-technical school use includes any element, however
small, of training or instruction, then a separate special
permit or special exception for a Category 5, Technical
School use is required. Many recreational uses include
ancillary activities that constitute technical training
and/or instruction. For example, the teaching of swimming
lessons is a customary activity associated with many swim
clubs. Other non-recreational uses may also have such
accessory instruction activities; for example, a bead shop,
a retail use, might offer classes in jewelry making, or a
hardware store might offer classes or seminars for home
improvement projects. Although it may be appropriate to
evaluate such activity as a special exception when it is a
unique use in and of itself, staff believes it is
appropriate to allow these kinds of activities by-right for
other uses when they truly are accessory in nature. The
proposed text amendment seeks to establish this philosophy
by clarifying the definition of technical schools in Section
15-300. Furthermore, in doing so, staff is also proposing to
eliminate Section 3-309.1, which identifies a Golf Practice
Facility as an allowable Category 9 use, since this activity
would clearly be categorized as a Category 5, Technical
School under the proposed Ordinance amendment.
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