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Commission recommends approval for adaptive reuse of New Baltimore Fire Hall as contractor office and trade school, with conditions
Summary
After hearing applicant testimony and neighborhood concerns, the planning commission recommended approval (4–1) of a special exception to adapt the former New Baltimore Fire Hall for a contractor’s office and the Virginia Mechanical Trade Institute, subject to conditions limiting hours, staff, student numbers and removing outdoor storage.
Fauquier County Planning Commission voted 4–1 to recommend approval of a special exception (SPEX‑23019905) to allow adaptive reuse of the former New Baltimore Fire Hall at 5303 and 5317 Lee Highway for a contractor’s office and an indoor/outdoor technical school operated by the Virginia Mechanical Trade Institute, with amended conditions adopted at the meeting.
County staff described the two‑parcel, 3.68‑acre site in the R‑1 residential zoning district and summarized the applicant’s plan: a contractor’s office on the first floor facing Lee Highway, and a technical school in the lower level facing Grays Mill Road. The application proposed hours for the contractor’s office of 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday–Saturday and the technical school operating up to 10 p.m. daily in two class sessions; staff recommended limiting staffing and attendance and requiring screening, landscaping and compliance with VDOT and zoning standards.
Applicant representative Marianne Harders told the commission the Virginia Mechanical Trade Institute aims to address a regional shortage of HVAC technicians and described a hands‑on program of lectures and lab work. Harders said the applicants would remove the previously requested outdoor storage and training areas from the plan. “The applicant believes that the open basement floor plan would be useful as a training classroom space,” Harders said.
Commission discussion focused on traffic and safety because VDOT staff had recommended closing the Lee Highway entrance; that closure would leave a single access on Grays Mill Road and the application estimated an increase of about 51 daily trips (a 23 percent increase) on that local road. The commissioner representing the Scott District moved to deny the application citing concerns about hours, traffic on Grays Mill Road and neighborhood impacts; that motion failed for lack of a second. A later motion to recommend approval, with amended conditions to allow up to six employees for the contractor’s office and to remove outdoor storage, passed 4–1.
Conditions the commission adopted for its recommendation include limiting the contractor’s office to the first floor, restricting hours to those requested by the applicant, limiting the technical school to the fire hall basement with two sessions and specified instructor/student caps, requiring screening and landscaping per the comprehensive plan, closure and revegetation of the unsafe Lee Highway entrance per VDOT guidance, and obtaining all required VDOT, Fire and Rescue and Fauquier County Water and Sanitation Authority approvals before site plan approval. The commission also required that the applicant provide parking and transportation measures (including proposed passenger vans) to reduce on‑site parking demand.
The commission’s recommendation advances the matter to the Board of Supervisors for final action; commissioners asked staff to reflect the amended conditions in the recommendation package.
