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Background
At the regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of
Supervisors on May 14, 2009, the Board passed an amendment
to Chapter 13, Article V of the Fauquier County Code
relating to law-enforcement requested towing. The newly
adopted amendment seeks to ensure proper storage,
availability, and service by persons and firms authorized to
provide towing services at the request of the Sheriff's
Office or other law enforcement personnel by establishing
proper regulatory procedures. As a part of these procedures,
Section 13-64.2.e requires that eligible towers be in
compliance with local Zoning Ordinance regulations. While
compliance with the Zoning Ordinance was, of course, also
previously required, the new procedures have resulted in the
Sheriff’s Office checking with Zoning prior to adding a
towing company to the authorized County list.
Following adoption of the amendments to Chapter 13, Zoning
staff received numerous inquiries from existing towing
businesses operating within the County requesting
certification that their companies were in fact in
compliance with zoning regulations. Under the current
regulations, motor vehicle impoundment and towing businesses
are allowed by-right with site plan approval in the I-1 and
I-2 zoning districts, and with Special Permit and site plan
approval by the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) in the C-1 and
C-2 zoning districts. Furthermore, Section 3-314.6 sets
forth that no motor vehicle impoundment or towing business
can have more than ten (10) vehicles stored on-site. The
vehicle limit raised a significant level of concern by
several of the applicants seeking placement on the Sheriff’s
Office authorized list of service providers. In many cases,
vehicles, especially those that are involved in an
automobile accident, can remain on an impoundment lot for
many weeks while insurance and repair related activities are
carried out. By virtue of this type of activity alone, it is
reasonable to consider that an increase in the number of
vehicles allowed on-site may be appropriate.
Furthermore, in one instance, staff discovered that five
separate towing businesses were operating on one parcel.
While there is no expressed prohibition on the number of
actual companies allowed to operate on one parcel, the 10
vehicle storage limit would still apply to the overall
property, thus making it difficult for multiple users to
realistically conduct business on any given site.
Proposed Amendment
This proposed text amendment would allow an increase in the
number of vehicles allowed for impoundment on a parcel,
thereby granting more flexibility to both single occupancy
and multiple occupancy towing businesses. The primary issues
to consider in deciding the amendment include whether it is
appropriate to increase the number of vehicles allowed for a
single operator or for a single property, whether such
increases should be the same for all zoning districts, and
whether such increases should be by-right or by special
permit approval.
This
initiation proposes no specific language for the text
amendment, but rather is the first step in initiating
staff’s study of the issue. As a part of the amendment
process, staff will be looking at similar counties in the
region and determining what limits, if any, are placed on
the number of vehicles allowed for storage by towing
companies. |