Shenandoah.com | Stories

Fairgrounds caught in 'Catch-22' situation as public hearing nears

Last month traffic safety issues at the main entrance to the Warren County Fairgrounds split the Warren County Planning Commission by a 3-2 margin in forwarding a conditional use permit request to allow a 4-H horse show ring and improved stable facility to be added to the fairgrounds property.

After authorizing the fairgrounds request for public hearing on Tuesday, the Warren County Board of Supervisors will soon tackle those same issues.

A narrow planning commission majority (Krum, McDaniel, Smelser) forwarded the request to the supervisors with a recommendation of approval following a Feb. 9 public hearing. Planning Commission Chairman Mark Bower and North River Commissioner Ron Mabry opposed the request despite assurances from the fairground association and 4-H supporters that the proposal would not increase existing county fair traffic patterns and that changes are being made at the current fairground main entrance that will at least temporarily accommodate safety concerns.

Despite those assurances Bower and Mabry sought a specific deadline from the fair association for moving the main entrance further away from the Fairgrounds Road/U.S. 340/522 North intersection. It was deadline they did not get.

Fairground association officers addressing the planners on Feb. 9 cited costs estimated at $50,000 to $60,000, fundraising issues, and a "Catch-22" on losing the preferred county location of a new entrance should the fair association be forced to move too quickly on entrance relocation.

"We could probably present a plan in 30 days to relocate the main entrance to Gate C but both VDOT (Virginia Department of Transportation) and the county would rather see it located at the rear of the property. It is a Catch-22," fair association president Tom Eshelman told the planners.

A great deal of tension surfaced last year between the Warren County Fair Association and the county over failed attempts to reach an agreement on placing a partially paved, partially graveled access road straddling the eastern boundary of the fairgrounds property and property owned by Walker-Brugh & Associates.

Walker-Brugh planned to put a commercial storage facility on its property and county staff saw the proposed access road between the two properties as a potential connector road between Fairgrounds Road and anticipated future commercial and industrial development in that area. However, Eshelman told the planners last month that Walker-Brugh's development plans are now on hold.

"This is a good example of why our board was being a little stubborn [about the eastern boundary access road right of way]. If a gravel road had been put in then, who'd be there to maintain it now?" Eshelman asked the planners.

Eshelman has been critical of the county for publicly deriding the fair association over the impasse while failing to step forward with any assurances about maintenance or construction costs associated with the proposed access road.

"We agree our entrance is not in the best place and VDOT recognizes that eventually we'll need to relocate further down Fairgrounds Road, but . . . we would encourage the planning commission to have a little bit of faith and come and see our existing traffic patterns," Eshelman told the planners in the wake of early February meetings with VDOT officials.

Eshelman told the planners the fair association has always worked closely with both the state police and the county sheriff's department to maintain as safe a county fair entry situation as possible. He added that this year the ticket gate at the main entrance will be moved about 300 feet further down the property, past the Quonset hut flea-market building, to allow more cars to enter the area before having to stop and pay.

"We are on the threshold of adding to our property's service to the community and to our youth," Warren County Fair Association past-president Joye Wood told the planners on Feb. 9. "We know there has been a lot of talk about traffic safety and we can relate to that and I can say after the [Feb. 8] meeting we have a good working relationship with VDOT."

On Tuesday, VDOT engineer Richard Childress said that during the Feb. 8 meeting he encouraged the fair association to have a comprehensive plan of future development, which includes changes to entrances.

Fair association representatives and supporters told the planning commission the current proposal will have little if any impact on county fair-associated traffic patterns, so could be approved without a future entrance plan. Speaking in favor of the request, Have Ballou pointed out that equestrian events often kick off area county fairs several days prior to official openings, so do not create additional traffic congestion to other fair activities. "I think it would be a boon to Warren County's children if they didn't have to go to other counties to engage in equestrian activities," Ballou told the planners.

"I don't think anybody should be held hostage to this but I would like to see some firm commitment to get away from the present entrance," Bower told the fairground representatives. The commission chairman said such a commitment two to four years down the road would win his support.

"One of my concerns is that two years is too long," Mabry said, citing a VDOT letter indicating the current entrance is a safety hazard "now".
"To put it off two years is not something I could support," Mabry said.
"I wish we had a boatload of money to do that," Wood said of guaranteeing a timeframe on moving the entrance.

"If you put conditions in, we'll meet them," Wood added of making the necessary entrance changes prior to the future addition of a main activities building that fair representatives agree would add to traffic congestion when in use.

In the end the lack of a firm date for relocation of the main fairground entrance led to the split recommendation of approval by the planners.
The proposed location of the horse ring and improved stable is between Gate C and the eastern boundary of the 20-acre fairgrounds property.

Now the supervisors face the task of finding a balance between the current proposal's apparent lack of traffic impacts, future fair association expansion plans and the problem of imposing deadlines that would sabotage the potential of placing a new main fair entrance at a location preferred by both VDOT and the county government.