Staunton council approves mass rezoning of Uniontown
STAUNTON – Uniontown residents no longer have to wait.
The Staunton City Council took up the mass rezoning of 55 Uniontown properties on May 9. The councilors opened public comment before the vote.
“I grew up in Uniontown,” said Robert Stuart. “For the last 35 years, I've been trying to go back to my hometown to build a house. They wouldn’t let me. My son has a house down there. They wouldn't let him put a roof and construct his house down there. This is something that I've been waiting for this long. I still want to go back down and build on my grandparents’ land that I have down there.”
“I love my home,” said Angela Lyman. “I was led to believe by the realtors that it was going to be rezoned to residential. I mean, I can't even put a deck on because of the zoning problem.”
“This is basically residents of a place that want to live their lives, that were trying as best they could in the 50s and 60s to do the right thing,” said Stephen Poulson. “That got pushed aside by people who didn't listen to them.”
“These folks have been locked out from the city services for 75 years,” said Zach Lewis. “If you don't pass it tonight, then they'll be locked out forever.”
“I was born and raised in Uniontown,” said Stuart. “I'm just trying to get back to Uniontown to finish out the rest of my life down in Uniontown. Hopefully, we continue and pass this because it's a long time coming.”
City Council did not delay – the mass rezoning unanimously passed. The list of properties can be found in council's agenda packet. Echoing his State of the City speech, Mayor Stephen Claffey celebrated the passage.
“We have been working on this nonstop for two years,” said Claffey. “Let's appreciate the fact that we are making progress. City government is not as fast as we would always like it to be, but we are working our way towards this noble goal.”
Uniontown considered
Uniontown has been in the headlines many times over the past six months.
Since 2021, it has appeared in many headlines, bringing the racial discrimination and unnecessary building limitations experienced by the residents to the forefront. The city turned its attention to the neighborhood, holding meetings and forming committees. The Uniontown Action Plan was the result, which was added to Staunton Comprehensive Plan in December.
The action plan adoption led to the creation of the Traditional Residential Development District (TRD-1) zoning. According to the Feb. 8 agenda packet, the many in the community “preferred” being zoned as R-2, a low-density residential district. However, many of the surveyed lots would not meet several requirements for R-2 zoning, such as the 8,750-square-feet minimum lot area or the 70-feet minimum lot width.
“If there's a house on one of these lots, it's considered non-conforming,” said Director of Community Development Rodney Rhodes. “You’re very restricted with what you can do with a non-conforming structure on a lot. For one, it's very hard to get financing to make improvements to your property, or to acquire the property. You cannot add on to a non-conforming structure. You could not add an addition to one of these houses, you couldn't add a porch. You couldn't add an accessory structure either, such as a detached garage or a shed, so there are benefits to this rezoning.”
The result was homeowners stuck in limbo, selling to industrial developers being one of the few viable options available. The new zoning matches many of the R-2 zoning features but drops the minimum lot size to 5,000 square feet and the minimum lot width down to 50 feet.
“I would note that rezoning of this area, known as Uniontown, has been in the works for several years,” Rhodes said. “I know the residents and property owners would say it's many decades overdue.”
Some properties were removed from the rezoning
Jason Arehart, one of the owners of Staunton Machine Works, read a letter from his uncle Steve Arehart and Allen Dahl.
“Between Staunton Machine Works and various Dahl Family partnerships, we control all but one property of the area on the west end of Patton Street and south of Jones Street that you are proposing to rezone,” read Arehart. “While we understand and agree with returning the plotted lots on Patton Street and the eastern portion of Jones Street to single family residential, we do not think that this is an appropriate use for the properties that we own.”
The letter ends with a request to remove properties on Richmond Avenue and Jones Street from the mass rezoning. Arehart was also concerned about having to drive commercial vehicles through the newly rezoned residential neighborhood, but the new zoning would not explicitly limit this type of traffic.
“We bought this property specifically because of the zoning if it was any of this stuff was own residential, we weren't interested,” Arehart said. “We just wanted industry or business properties. My thought is the city needs to refocus the rezoning efforts just on the residential, where the houses are.”
According to Rhodes, another request to remove properties on National Avenue came in the day of the rezoning. All of the properties were removed. Of the initial properties up for rezoning, the following opted out:
803, 813, and 1813 Richmond Avenue.
880, 884, 886 Jones Street.
204 and 208 National Avenue.
“Owners of these properties can always come back and request a rezoning to this district if they see fit,” Rhodes said. “They would have to go through the established process and pay the fees associated with that, but that is still an option for these other parcels.”
This left 55 properties throughout Uniontown changing from light or heavy industrial use to the new traditional residential zoning.
Lyra Bordelon (she/her) is the public transparency and justice reporter at The News Leader. Do you have a story tip or feedback? It’s welcome through email to lbordelon@gannett.com. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.
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