Residents in the Alphin Avenue/Hopeman Station/Charleston Park area already impacted by the event business that grew up illegally in their neighborhood are readying themselves for a fight with the City of Waynesboro.
“Civic apathy is at the core of our current leadership problems. This is not unique to Waynesboro. Still, we can turn the shop around with a concerted, unified effort. I believe our neighborhood has proven that the constituents can still be a force to be reckoned with,” said Jack Belcher, an Alphin Avenue resident who reached out to me this week in hopes of getting help for the ad hoc citizens group that is trying to protect its residential neighborhood from further development.
One of their neighbors, Jill Wallace, who bought the 601 Alphin Ave. property that she now markets nationally as a wedding and events venue back in 2020, has been working with city officials to legalize her operation via a conditional use permit that would allow her to continue doing business at the end of a tiny street in a residentially zoned neighborhood.
In addition to getting the city’s Community Development office to sign off on a recommendation of approval for the venture, the Waynesboro Planning Commission voted last month to recommend to Waynesboro City Council that it grant the permit request.
ICYMI
- Waynesboro: City siding with venue that has been violating zoning laws for years
- Waynesboro: Is the city review of the Mimosa Farm permit request just a formality?
- Waynesboro: Mayor tips city’s hand on where things are going on Mimosa Farm request
- Waynesboro: Mimosa Farm neighbors note ‘hardship’ caused by residential business
- Waynesboro City Council takes step toward approving Mimosa Farm permit
The City Council held a two and a half-hour public hearing on Monday night in which it heard from two dozen neighbors opposed to the permit, and a smattering of family members and part-time employees of Wallace’s Mimosa Farm operation who, shockingly, spoke in favor.
Belcher noted to me that the neighbor group popped up organically, and quickly.
“We had only 19 days between the mayor-led rubber stamping of the Planning Department recommendation and last evening’s City Council public hearing. We grew the support exponentially over a very short period of time,” Belcher wrote to me on Tuesday.
“But more importantly, we kept the light on. Evil thrives in the darkness. They work behind the scenes. We now have 32 days to grow the resistance even more. And we will.”
The “32 days” reference is to the Sept. 14 date at which the City Council is scheduled to vote on the fate of the permit request, yay or nay.
Belcher said the citizen group wants to grow its members to include residents from across the city.
“Our core group went from six neighbors to around a dozen leading up to the July 21st public hearing. And today that core group is over 30 neighbors with significant representation from all three of the neighborhoods surrounding Mimosa Farms. We need to grow our core to at least 60 members with representation from neighbors citywide. And I am targeting at least 200 people packing the Sept. 14 meeting,” Belcher told me.
“The precedent being set by the City Council tells every homeowner in every neighborhood in the city that zoning doesn’t matter,” Belcher said. “You can’t trust the leadership to protect the citizenry. You used the word ‘corruption’ in a prior article. I say if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, there is a good chance it’s a duck. The citizens of Waynesboro still have the power. They just need to consciously decide to use it.”
City residents interested in working with the Alphin Avenue/Hopeman Station/Charleston Park group can contact Jack Belcher at [email protected].
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Chris Graham
