Commissioners find 1992 "mistake" and approve rezoning for Market Street property, 5–2

Five Worcester County commissioners voted to approve a rezoning request for a 0.78-acre parcel on East Market Street in Snow Hill after an hours-long public hearing on June 16.

The board voted 5–2 to grant Blackwater Relics LLC’s petition (Case 444) to change the parcel from A1 (agricultural) to C2 (general commercial). Commissioner Fiore moved to grant the rezoning and Commissioner Metresick seconded; the motion was amended to adopt the Planning Commission’s findings of fact and passed on the record. The commissioners directed staff to draft written findings of fact and return them for formal signature, which the board said will make the decision final.

The hearing record included an amended staff report, sworn testimony from neighbors and experts, and argument from the applicant’s attorney, Hugh Cropper. Planning staff told the board the 1992 rezoning followed the 1989 comprehensive plan and that the 2006 growth-area classification does not, by itself, require rezoning. Staff also outlined potential permitted uses, special-exception pathways and nonconformity provisions, and noted practical constraints tied to lot size and utilities.

Cropper told the board the 1992 downzoning had swept a small, built parcel into a broader agricultural designation and that the parcel’s existing improvements and long history of being taxed commercially make many A1 uses impracticable. He urged the commissioners to treat the remand from the appellate court as an opportunity to reopen the 1992 record and correct a ‘‘mistake of fact.’’

Multiple witnesses supported the petition. Tom Eidler, who lived adjacent to the parcel from 1979 to 2009, said the building was used as a distribution and wholesale storage center for World War II airplane parts in the period around 1992. Licensed surveyor Gregory P. Wilkins testified the parcel has a 1,000-gallon septic tank and is identified S1W1 (scheduled for sewer in the county plan), and said many A1 uses would be infeasible on a 0.78-acre lot. Environmental consultant Chris McCabe testified that soils and septic limit large development but that limited commercial reuse is consistent with the current comprehensive plan’s growth-area designation.

Opponents argued about whether the historical evidence proved an active commercial enterprise at the moment of the 1992 rezoning and flagged septic and dimensional constraints for many A1 special exceptions and variances. Commissioners debated the legal standard for a ‘‘mistake of fact’’ versus a policy judgment and whether the record showed erroneous factual assumptions in 1992. Several commissioners said the testimony and documents presented changed their view and supported finding a mistake.

The vote was 5 in favor, 2 opposed. The commissioners noted the vote establishes a disposition in principle but that the county must adopt written findings of fact that incorporate the record before the decision is final.

The commissioners also noted related procedural points: the Planning Commission’s unanimous favorable recommendation from the earlier proceeding is available to be adopted in whole by the county commission, and the county will include any additional exhibits offered into the record before drafting final findings.

The board moved on to the next agenda items after the vote; staff will prepare the written findings of fact and return them to the board for signature at a future meeting.