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Oak Spring Foundation seeks annual two‑day Rokeby festival; commission reviews conditions for buffering, parking and emergency services
Summary
Oak Spring Garden Foundation asked for a one‑2‑day Class B event on about 440 acres to host the Rokeby Community Festival with up to 3,000 attendees (1,500/day). Staff recommended conditions on parking, traffic planning, sanitation and crowd management; one adjacent neighbor wrote in opposition.
Planning staff presented a request from the Oak Spring Garden Foundation for a Category 9 special exception to permit an annual Rokeby Community Festival on approximately 440 acres near Mill Reef Road. The foundation asked for the option to hold one two‑day Class B event per year with a maximum of 3,000 cumulative attendees (no more than 1,500 per day) and event hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Staff said the event would be staged within an approximately 18‑acre event area, parking would use the existing paved airstrip, and proposed activities included food trucks, local vendors, live music, educational walks, and a pickleball tournament.
Why it matters: the proposal raises traffic, safety and land‑use compatibility questions because the property is held in a Virginia Outdoors Foundation permanent conservation easement and lies within the Upperville Agricultural and Forestal District; staff said VOF has concurred the proposed use is consistent with the easement terms but the Board of Supervisors must still make the required agricultural‑district findings.
Conditions and mitigation: staff proposed an approval term of five years with two subsequent five‑year administrative renewals, a required maintenance‑of‑traffic plan reviewed by VDOT, coordination with the sheriff’s office for traffic control, temporary sanitation facilities and EMS/security on site, and a limit on parking to the paved airstrip with screening and preservation of wooded buffers.
Next steps: the commission discussed a shorter initial term as a way to observe operations and road impacts; staff will include recommended safety, traffic and buffering conditions in the public‑hearing record forwarded to the Board of Supervisors.
