The Caroline County Planning Commission voted May 20 to forward text amendment 02-2025 to the Board of Supervisors with a recommendation of approval. The amendment would add civil-penalty provisions and revise multiple zoning ordinance definitions and enforcement sections affecting inoperable vehicles, junkyards, uncontrolled growth and certificates of occupancy.

The change was proposed by county planning staff as a companion to earlier amendments to Article 20 and is intended to give the county additional enforcement tools for repeat violators, county Zoning Administrator Brad Robinson said. "The Planning Commission should recall that at your meeting last month, a public hearing was held for proposed amendments to Article 20 of the zoning ordinance that would add provisions for civil penalties and amend the existing provisions that we have in the ordinance for criminal penalties," Robinson said.

Robinson told commissioners the package before them amends Articles 2, 15 and 17 of the zoning ordinance and will be sent, together with Chapter 77 (property maintenance provisions), to the Board of Supervisors so the county can adopt the changes concurrently. Article 2 updates or adds definitions for "inoperable vehicle," "junkyard," "trash" and a new definition for "uncontrolled growth." Article 15 would add new subsections addressing parking and storage of inoperable vehicles and hazards from trash and uncontrolled growth across zoning districts. Article 17 updates certificate-of-occupancy language to reflect current practice and removes an outdated building-code reference.

At a public hearing on the amendment no members of the public spoke; the commission closed the hearing before deliberations.

Commission questions focused on how the revisions would work in practice. Robinson said the proposed definition for inoperable vehicle would separate three categories: a vehicle not in operating condition, a disassembled vehicle, and a vehicle lacking both valid license plates and a valid inspection decal. Robinson confirmed the commission's direction to remove a county inspection-decal requirement from the definition so that the inoperable standard depends on the remaining elements.

Robinson also addressed how the county would treat vehicles with antique plates: "If it has valid antique plates, then it wouldn't be considered an inoperable vehicle," he said, explaining an antique-plated vehicle remains legally operable for highway use and therefore would not meet the inoperable-vehicle standard as written.

Commissioners asked whether the county's definition of "vehicle" should align with state law. Robinson said the amendment replaces the phrase "motor vehicle, trailer or semi-trailer" with the simpler term "vehicle" to better match the Code of Virginia, and he noted that the state code (Va. Code § 46.2-100) separately defines "personal delivery devices" (automated sidewalk delivery robots) as carved out from vehicle regulation.

On junkyards and recycling or scrap activities, Robinson said enforcement would depend on the property's zoning, any special-exception permits, and whether a use is legally nonconforming. "That type of situation would currently be able to be addressed under the current definition of junkyard," he said, adding that the amendments would keep such activity within the junkyard classification where appropriate.

Commissioner Steve Rollins moved to forward the amendment to the Board of Supervisors, citing public necessity, convenience, general welfare and good zoning practice; Commissioner Richard Williams seconded. Chairman presided over the voice vote; the commission recorded the motion as carried and directed staff to forward the revised language with the noted change removing the county decal requirement.

Robinson and other staff told commissioners the amendments may need later adjustments: the ordinance cannot anticipate every scenario, and the county should evaluate and refine the regulations as enforcement experience accrues. The packet for the commission included full draft text of the proposed amendments, and staff said the intent is for all companion changes and Chapter 77 updates to be considered together by the Board of Supervisors at the commission's next board presentation.

The planning commission also handled noncontroversial procedural items at the meeting, including notifying commissioners about required certified-planning-commissioner training and acknowledging a deferred application for the June 26 meeting. The public hearing record on text amendment 02-2025 closed with no public speakers and the commission's recommendation of approval forwarded to the Board of Supervisors.

The Board of Supervisors will consider adoption; no adoption vote was taken by the Planning Commission on May 20.