Planning commission recommends denial of Beaver Hill mobile-home park expansion over watershed, plan conflicts

The Albemarle County Planning Commission on April 28 recommended the denial of a rezoning and special-use permit that would expand the Beaver Hill Mobile Home Park near Crozet, citing conflicts with the county’s rural-area policies and risks to the Beaver Creek Reservoir watershed.

Senior planner Tate presented staff’s report, saying the 47.38-acre parcel north of 3 Notched Road includes an existing nonconforming manufactured-home park and that the applicant seeks to rezone about 23.23 acres from rural-area zoning to R-4 residential to add approximately 49 manufactured homes. Tate told commissioners that while the proposal includes an affordable component, staff concluded the rezoning and special-use permit are inconsistent with the comprehensive plan’s rural-area and growth-management policies and raised water-supply and riparian-buffer concerns; staff therefore recommended denial. "The proposal is inconsistent with the county's growth-management policy," Tate said, and noted the property lies within the Beaver Creek Reservoir watershed.

The applicant, Justin Schimp of Schimp Engineering, framed the project as an expansion of an existing community and a source of naturally occurring…