Supports Don Obenshain for supervisor
As a resident of the Fincastle District, I would like to urge my fellow citizens to vote for Don Obenshain for district supervisor.
I am very concerned with the escalating growth in the county, especially the Daleville area. Our current administration doesn’t seem to care about the traffic problems they have created.
I feel Mr. Obenshain will objectively listen to residents’ concerns before approving every new subdivision, apartment complex, and development sent before the board.
Please join me in voting for Don Obenshain for Fincastle District Supervisor on November 7.
Sharon Porter
Troutville
Writer says property rights under attack in Fincastle
I would like to comment about a recent article in The Herald that referenced a Fincastle Town Council meeting that had an unmentioned Fincastle Planning Commission meeting prior to it.
In this Planning Commission meeting, there was a public hearing about the proposal to make an ordinance that made any building over 100 years old an historic structure. While the town is allowed by state code to do this does not mean they have to do it. There are many things that, while legal to do, does not make it right to do.
While this ordinance has been modified regarding the age of structures, it is following a process that is less up front or clear than if it was proposed by the state or national historic societies, mainly notification of any affected property owner in advance of the pending historic designation. There is also the problem and question of what the scoring criteria would be and there is none. So other people will decide what you can do with your property. No one, not even The Herald, has mentioned that it could take you up to a year to get a permit to demolish a structure and they are implementing an arbitration clause in this ordinance. Property rights are under attack in Fincastle.
One item they quickly pointed out was this only applies to demolition of structures, nothing else. Do not be fooled, this is how it starts! Once they have the ordinance in place they will amend and add to it for what kind of roof, siding, fence, or addition you will be able to have if you own one of the affected structures.
There are many voluntary ways to accomplish what the Planning Commission and Town Council wish without passing an ordinance. I don’t think I have seen any public campaign to get property owners to put voluntary preservation covenants on older structures that are deemed as worthy. Do the Planning Commission or Council members have preservation covenants placed on their property? Those would do more than any ordinance that can be changed.
Now again they claim this is only for demolition; however, we really cannot take their word for it. When the town took over the surrounding area to expand, they claimed there would be no changes to the zoning. The town just finally adapted the zoning classification of their annexed property into town code and now they announced at the last meeting their next project to attack property rights in Fincastle will be to do away with A-1 agriculture that it does not fit what they think the town should be. This clearly demonstrates that the Planning Commission has an elitist agenda with no regard to the effects it has on the average town resident, including those who were not in the town to begin with, that they now want to change zoning on so many of them.
I urge the residents of the town to pay attention to your local politics before it’s too and property rights are taken from you.
There is nothing wrong with historic conservation, but it should not be at the expense or rights of others. If people in town really want to be historic maybe they should rip the plumbing and electricity out of their homes put a privy in the back yard and get water from the Big Spring.
Clay Fitzgerald
Fincastle
