By Heather Michon
Correspondent
The Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors approved a special use permit for a specialty gun and archery shop at its meeting on Wednesday (May 21).
Brecht Sprouse wants to open a retail shop on North Boston Road (Rt. 600), focusing on hunting, fishing, and archery. He has owned a similar business in Albemarle County for many years.
The space will include an indoor archery range, but firearms will not be discharged on the property.
The special use permit was recommended for approval by the Planning Commission in May after a month-long delay.
Commissioners deferred approval in April because no community meeting had been held.
Over a dozen residents attended a meeting on April 23 to address community concerns about firearm safety and traffic.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Chair Chris Fairchild (Cunningham) asked administrators to address some concerns about the county’s transparency surrounding the application that were shared on the county’s My Two Cents portal and in emails.
“One, if you could speak to what our policies are as a county, and two, if we met or surpassed them,” he said.
County Administrator Eric Dahl said the county had met all the legal requirements around advertising the hearings.
“A community meeting is not required under Virginia code or the county code,” he said. They are generally held on the recommendation of the Planning Commission or staff. Sprouse agreed with the recommendation.
For a public hearing, they generally only inform adjacent property owners, but Dalh said here, they had notified everyone within a one-mile radius, sending out about 140 letters to residents.
Another concern was that public hearing notices did not state what type of specialty retail shop was being considered for the site.
County Attorney Daniel Whitten said that here, too, they had met the letter of the law.
Previously, the state code required a descriptive notice for a special use permit, but “they changed the language to ‘notice,’” he said. “So basically, what we provided as the notice met the state code. We say specialty retail shop, because we stated the tax notice. We stated the property address. We stated the voting district. All of that met the requirements of the state code.”
School Funding
Fluvanna County Public Schools Executive Director Donald Stribling requested that the supervisors reallocate the remaining $149,700 from the Fluvanna Middle School track resurfacing project for additional renovations in and around the new track.
While the track is complete, an additional $38,000 would pave around the track edges and grade and resurface pathways around it.
The remaining $111,00 could allow them to start on other upgrades needed to keep the facility up-to-date and up to code. These would include upgrading bleachers to make them ADA-compliant, adding cameras and Wi-Fi to the track areas, updating the concession stand, and re-roofing a storage shed.
During Stribling’s presentation, it became clear that the bleachers could become a significant project. A complete inspection and recommendations for repairs or replacement were estimated at $14,000—and preliminary projections for major repairs up to a full replacement range from $200,000 to $1.5 million.
“My only concern is that there seems to be a little bit up in the air about the bleachers,” said Mike Goad (Fork Union), “and I would hesitate to fund something that we don’t really know what we’re getting into.”
Supervisors decided to hold funding for anything involving the bleachers, but approved $67,000 for paving, roofing, and concession stand upgrades.
School funding was mentioned again during a discussion of the meals tax, which will take effect on August 1.
When approving the four-percent tax in March, supervisors agreed to set aside two percent of the monies collected for a special school construction fund.
County Attorney Daniel Whitten believed supervisors needed to clarify what projects would be eligible for funding.
The group debated whether the fund could be used for major renovations or expansions of existing facilities, or only for new building construction.
They eventually agreed to fund only new construction, with a minimum threshold for distribution of $10 million.
“None of us will be alive when $10 million is in that account,” said Mike Sheridan (Columbia), who had first proposed setting up the fund. “I’m not being pessimistic. We’re talking about $100,000 a year going into this account.”
