Nelson County officials set key thresholds in zoning and subdivision update work session

Rebecca Cobb, deputy director of the planning department for Berkeley Group, and Cecille Gaines, senior planner with Berkeley Group, led a joint Nelson County Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission work session on Aug. 27 to review draft updates to the county’s zoning and subdivision ordinances.

Gaines said Article 8 is “mostly new, except for parking and loading and signs,” and walked officials through proposed lighting standards that draw on recommendations from the International Dark-Sky Association. The draft would require shielding to reduce glare and light trespass, limit hours of illumination, and cap fixture heights at 30 feet in industrial districts and 20 feet in other districts; exemptions would include FAA and other state or federal lighting, agricultural and temporary or holiday lighting, official flags and athletic fields. Gaines said lighting plans would be required for site plans and zoning use permits for new developments and subdivisions.

The draft also creates new landscaping and screening standards intended to protect visual character, preserve existing trees where feasible, provide buffers between districts of differing intensity, and help mitigate stormwater runoff. Gaines read language that materials “should be sustainable, biologically diverse, and tolerant of an urban environment with emphasis on trees and plants native to Virginia and the region.” Board and commission members debated whether that language should be…