Lynchburg planning commission recommends denial of draft zoning rules for abortion clinics

The Lynchburg Planning Commission voted to recommend denial of a proposed zoning amendment that would create a definition for "abortion clinic" and tightly restrict where such facilities could locate in the city.

Tom Martin, Lynchburg’s director of community development, told the commission the draft ordinance would add a definition for abortion clinics, amend hospital and medical/dental clinic definitions to exclude abortion clinics, and permit abortion clinics in B3 (Community Business), B5 (General Business) and IN2 (Institutional 2) districts only by conditional use permit. The draft also would add location standards and a list of uses from which clinics would have to be set back, including residential districts, historic districts, the James River Arts and Cultural District, churches, libraries, K–12 schools, public parks, children’s museums, day-care centers and hotels, using a 1,000-foot buffer in the staff-drafted text presented to the commission.

"Our role was purely...looking at the ordinance from an enforcement standpoint and also defensible," Martin said, urging the commission…