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Scott County supervisors approve fees related to zoning

GATE CITY — After some debate and a little bit of tweaking, the Scott County Board of Supervisors adopted a fee schedule at its meeting Wednesday for requests, appeals and amendments related to the county’s upcoming zoning ordinance.

The board kept much of the fee schedule as it was recommended last month by the Scott County Planning Commission but did cut the cost of zoning appeals from the proposed amount of $500 to $250 on a motion by Supervisor Chad Hood.

“I thought the fee was a little steep being $500,” Hood said. “I think if a lot of people felt like they were in the right, they would have a hard time paying $500 if they did want to appeal.”

Hood said he believed the $250 was still enough to discourage frivolous appeal requests.

A motion by Supervisor Buck Kinkead to set the appeals fee at $150 was voted down 3-4 earlier in the meeting.

The average cost of a zoning appeal in Lee, Washington and Wise counties is $58. However, a poll of zoning appeal fees for 10 localities across the state averaged $228.

“We looked to surrounding counties that have zoning and face similar situations and tried to base those fees accordingly with surrounding areas,” Board Chairman David Redwine said. “The higher fees for the zoning appeals will probably be used very rarely, if at all. I don’t think they’ll really come into play, but you still have to put them in place.”

The county doesn’t want to profit from the fees, Redwine said, only cover its costs as much as possible since it takes a minimum of $350 to convene the seven-member appeals board.

The remaining fees were unchanged from their proposed amounts.

Rezoning requests and special use permits will be $200 plus $50 for each adjoining property over four, while text amendments and variance requests will be a flat $200 for each.

Zoning permits will be $35, while subdivision reviews and zoning manuals will run $50 and $25, respectively.

The fee schedule, along with the zoning ordinance, go into effect Jan. 1, 2010.

In other business, the board passed an ordinance that set a timeline for finishing up the 2010 property reassessment.

The board gave the assessor 45 days to complete the work and set Dec. 31 as the date for delivery of the county land books.

The Equalization Board was also given 45 days to finish its work after it begins meeting in mid-January.

Feb. 15 will be the last day to file appeals to the Equalization Board, while April 1 is the board’s deadline for completing its work.

Although those dates are in place, the Board of Supervisors did table nominations for the five-member Equalization Board until December.

Since only one of the nominees was a person knowledgeable with real estate, Redwine said the board delayed its decision until more could be found.

“We need good, fair and honest people with good people skills and a knowledge of real estate to serve on that board,” Redwine said. “We’re also required to have 30 percent of the board be either a Realtor, or people associated with appra ising or auctions.”

Supervisors also elected to provide tax relief to a group of seven county property owners who donated nine parcels of land as conservation easements.

The one-time-only relief measure will provide a 25 percent discount to those property owners on their 2010 real estate property taxes.

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