Board gives scrap‑metal operator 90 days to show progress after compliance hearing

The Washington County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to table a revocation and give the operator of a scrap‑metal recycling business 90 days to make progress on conditions tied to a special‑exception permit.

Planning and code enforcement staff told the board a special exception issued Nov. 8, 2022, required three conditions: an approved commercial‑traffic plan, required APO permits and screening to block visibility from U.S. Route 58. Mr. Richardson (Speaker 5) told the board none of those items have been fully satisfied and that the original complaint came from the sheriff’s office because of safety concerns, including vehicles crossing the median and parking on the VDOT right of way.

“I think there’s just not gonna be a compliance with the conditions that you all asked for in that special exception,” Mr. Richardson said during his presentation.

Operator Mary Lawson (Speaker 6) spoke at the public hearing and said the site is her only income, that she has been in business there for 29 years and that recent health problems have impeded her ability to complete the required work. “This is my only income,” Lawson said. She told the board she hired Bundy’s Engineering, described attempts to work with VDOT and said she was told some proposals would require work she cannot afford: “it would cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars to do the plan that they gave me.”

Dan Bundy (Speaker 8), an engineering consultant who prepared a traffic study for the operator, said he submitted plans to VDOT and was told that the limited set of fixes the consultant proposed would not be sufficient. Bundy said VDOT representatives indicated the site would require extensive mitigation, including what he characterized as a long stretch of guardrail in the median and a 24‑foot driveway apron, and that those measures would likely be the operator’s expense. “We submitted that information to VDOT, and they said that, ‘Absolutely not,’” Bundy told the board.

The board members asked technical questions about the on‑site drainage and whether the site’s creek crossing is a culvert or a bridge and whether less‑costly mitigation (posts and cable, paving the entrance) might be possible. Bundy said the crossing is overgrown and that any work to widen the driveway or place culverts would likely require coordination with DEQ or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

After public comment, supervisors said they recognized the community benefit of local recycling services but noted that none of the three permit conditions had been satisfied in three years. Supervisor (Speaker 2) moved for a compliance deadline — ultimately amended to 90 days — and the motion carried 7‑0. The matter will return to a future agenda for review of the operator’s plan and progress.

The board did not revoke the special exception at the meeting. Instead it required the operator to demonstrate progress toward VDOT approval and the other conditions within 90 days or face further action.