Planning commission backs Virginia Space rezonings for Darby Farm and former seafood plant

The Accomack County Planning Commission on Thursday recommended that the Board of Supervisors approve two rezoning requests from Virginia Space — a roughly 368.98-acre Darby Farm site and a roughly 55.15-acre former seafood-plant site — moving both from agricultural to Industrial I zoning with attached proffers.

Deputy County Administrator for Community and Economic Development Lee Pambda told the commission staff had concluded both requests align with the county’s 2018 comprehensive plan’s economic-development objectives and that the legal proffer statements were sufficient. He noted the Darby Farm site sits adjacent to existing Rocket Lab facilities and that a portion of the Darby Farm lies inside NASA’s 10,000-foot and 20,000-foot hazard arcs used to map potential launch safety zones.

“The staff recommends a finding of substantially in accord with the 2018 comprehensive plan for the reasons into the record,” Pambda said during his presentation. He summarized four proffers on the Darby Farm case: an annual volunteer fire-and-rescue training program, a list of allowed aerospace manufacturing and support uses, a proffer excluding unspecified industrial uses not expressly allowed, and a required survey to split parcels for enterprise-zone accounting.

John Custis, the applicant’s attorney representing Virginia Space, described the rezoning as an economic-development move to support aerospace suppliers and related businesses serving the Wallops/Wallace Island facilities. Custis said Virginia Space has invested “well over $100,000,000” in northern Accomack County and emphasized the company’s near-term plans would occupy only a small portion of the rezoned land. “When we look at the immediacy today, there is only an immediacy today to use approximately 2 acres,” Custis said, adding that the remainder would continue to be farmed under lease arrangements.

Commissioners pressed the applicant and staff on whether hot test-firing, explosives storage or hazardous-materials handling were covered by the proffers. Pambda and Custis explained that hot test firing was not included in the Darby Farm proffers (that activity was proffered out at the seafood-plant case) and that any future proposal requiring hazardous materials or test-firing would trigger separate reviews — conditional-use or special-use permits and site-plan review — and additional agency scrutiny, including the Virginia Department of Health and VDOT for water and access impacts.

Staff reported environmental constraints on the Darby Farm site amount to about 27 acres — a combination of floodplain, wetlands and resource-protection areas — and said those areas would limit developable acreage. Pambda also noted that ANAC/ANEC (the electric cooperative) and VDOT had no technical objections to the rezoning but would require load and access details at the site-plan stage.

A former Accomack County supervisor, Ron Wolf, testified in support of the Darby Farm rezoning and urged Virginia Space to set aside acreage for “rocket tourism,” saying viewing areas for launches could generate day-trip tourism from nearby metropolitan centers. Wolf suggested adding a proffer to reserve a portion of acreage for viewing and tourism support.

On a separate item, staff presented the former seafood-plant rezoning in Mappesville (REZ-000142-2025), about 55.15 acres along Lankford Highway adjacent to Kegotank Elementary School. Pambda said the site has no floodplain, wetlands or RPAs, and the project team proposed adaptive reuse of the existing building for office, storage, education and community uses; the applicant proffered out hot test firing for that site.

Custis said Virginia Space plans to use the seafood-plant building for office and support functions and to develop educational and visitor programming in coordination with local schools. He told the commission the building’s industrial history makes it suitable for adaptive reuse and that tenants would be sought for storage and light manufacturing tied to the aerospace cluster.

After questions and discussion about proffer language, water and possible future hazardous-materials uses, commissioners moved and seconded two separate recommendations that the Board of Supervisors approve the Darby Farm and seafood-plant rezonings with the submitted proffer statements (and asked that the Darby Farm proffer statement be corrected to display accurate acreage before it becomes part of the county zoning ordinance). Both motions carried on voice votes.

The Planning Commission’s recommendations are advisory; the Board of Supervisors will take final action at a future public hearing. The staff packet and proffer statements were entered into the record at the commission’s request.