• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Venango County Tea Party Patriots

A non-partisan, non-profit, non-member, association dedicated to educating the public and promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free market economics, and all other lawful activities.

  • Home
  • Events
  • Alerts
  • Resources
    • Resources – National
    • Resources – Pennsylvania
    • Resources – Venango County
    • Election Voter Registration Resources for Churches
    • Voter Resources
    • Resources – Other Organizations
  • Voter Registration Tools
  • Get Email Alerts
  • Contact Us

Jane Richey / July 12, 2012

Farmers in Virginia County Being Regulated to Death!

If you own a farm here in Fauquier you are “special”. If you own a farm here in Fauquier you are now, after July 14, 2011, being treated in a “special” way.  You are now so “special” that if you have a working farm that is being farmed by you to make a living, before you can sell a tomato from your garden or an egg from your chicken or a bale of hay from your field over your fence, you must obtain an Administrative Special Permit. Without this special permit you run the risk if being cited and fined up to $5,000.00 for that tomato sale. This is what makes you so “special” here in the beautiful farming country of Fauquier.

Last Thursday the Fauquier County Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) conducted a hearing to enforce several “violations” committed by a farm in Paris Virginia. If you are a farmer, if you are attempting to make a living from your farm and if you conduct retail sales or tours on your own farm, this is a hearing that you need to be aware of. It would appear farmer-friendly Fauquier ain’t so friendly anymore.

For those who were not watching, the “Farm Sales” use category identified by Section 3-318.21 of the Fauquier County Zoning Ordinance was added to the Fauquier County Zoning Ordinance through approval of a text amendment by the Board of Supervisors on July 14, 2011. This means if you sell ANYTHING on your farm to an “end user”, you must obtain an Administrative Special Permit. Evidently any prior permit or license you had to sell the hard work produced on your farm now means nothing. You have to start over. That is what this Paris farmer is being told. You see, they obtained a business license issued by Fauquier County for a “retail farm shop” use in June of 2011.  If you have a business license to sell your tomatoes, etc., issued before July 14th, it will mean nothing if the ruling of the Zoning Commissioner against this Paris farmer is allowed to stand.

If you think this does not exactly feel right and there “ought to be a law” to protect farmers from this kind of Big Brother overstep, you are correct.  Virginia’s Right to Farm laws, Va. Code Ann. § 3.2-300 et. seq., preclude the enactment of any ordinance which would require a special exception or special permit for production agriculture activities in agriculturally zoned areas.  Kimberly Johnson, Zoning Administrator, judge and jury for zoning matters in the county, disagrees. She has stated that it is her belief that state farm laws do not apply here in Fauquier farm country.

Read more.

Share this:

  • Telegram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pocket
  • WhatsApp
  • Print
  • Email

Filed Under: Constitutionally Limited Goverment, Free Markets Tagged With: Administrative Special Permit, Fauquier County Board of Zoning Appeals, Virginia's Right to Farm laws

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • So, what’s VCTPP doing to bring Election Integrity back?
  • April 23, 2022 – VCTPP Monthly Meeting
  • VCTPP Meeting – July 22, 2021

Archives

Footer

Contact Us

Venango County Tea Party Patriots
155 Summit Drive
Franklin, PA 16323

Phone
814-671-7110

Email
jane@vctpp.org

Frequently Searched Terms

Agenda 21 Barack Obama Ben Bernanke budget climate change Congress Congressional Budget Office debt deficit Department of Energy Department of Health and Human Services economy environment Environmental Protection Agency EPA Federal Reserve fiscal cliff food stamps fracking gas prices global warming Government Accountability Office Governor Corbett green energy Internal Revenue Service IRS Keystone Pipeline marcellus shale Medicaid Medicare natural gas Obamacare President Obama recession regulations sequestration small businesses Social Security spending cuts stimulus taxes TEA Party unemployment United Nations voter ID

Facebook has been “fact-checking,” blocking and removing conservative posts. Follow us on Telegram.org for unedited access.

Click Here

Follow Us

Follow Us

Copyright © 2022 Venango County Tea Party Patriots · Web Design by OptimusMedia.com · Log in