Timberville changes zoning regulations and permit requirements

TIMBERVILLE, Va. (WHSV) – The Timberville City Council voted to approve a series of amendments to the Land Development Regulation at its meeting Thursday. The city’s LDRs are updated every few years as needed.

“As the city continues to grow and develop, we come across a lot of issues that haven’t been discussed before that may need to be discussed or changed to make sure we’re headed in the right direction for a number of reasons: safety, aesthetics, just different things like that,” said Austin Garber, Timberville City Manager. “We may be able to change some things to better regulate, help with the appearance of the city, the overall goal is to improve the quality of life in Timberville.”

One change the city made Thursday night was requiring a conditional use permit for parking lots and parking garages that are proposed in Timberville. Conditional use permits require a public hearing before they can be approved.

“It gives the council more information, not only from someone who might be looking at that use, but also from residents who might be impacted by that use,” Garber said. “Overall, it’s a better process to get more comprehensive information.”

The city council also passed an amendment banning the use of large shipping containers as storage buildings in residential areas.

“We’ve tried to be proactive about it. I’ve heard from a couple of our towns in our pretty immediate area that they’re starting to get an influx of requests to bring in these shipping containers to be used as storage buildings,” Garber said. “It kind of plays into the aesthetics of the development. We want to make sure that we’re moving toward our goals in the comprehensive plan to beautify the town and give it a certain look.”

Another amendment was to remove the private street designation from the LDR.

“That puts all the roads on a level playing field. If there’s new development, we want all of them to have streets designed to VDOT standards that can be incorporated into the VDOT road system,” Garber said. “If we have streets that are private, that would never be incorporated into VDOT roads, that the city would never have any maintenance responsibility for, that’s up to the homeowners’ association. Homeowners’ associations have different responsibilities that they can delegate to their development agreements. By removing the private street designation, it’s treated the same as a VDOT street.”

Garber said Timberville tries to stay within certain boundaries when it comes to regulating development while protecting the integrity of the city, its residents and businesses.

“The most important thing to remember is that everything we do is to improve the quality of life in Timberville,” Garber said. “Our efforts are always directed toward improving Timberville for the entire population.”