I’m told that police and a member of Waynesboro City Council were called out to a weekend wedding at Mimosa Farm in Waynesboro, which has been the focus of a controversial request to city leaders to codify an existing event business that has been operating illegally, for years, in a residentially zoned neighborhood.
The owner of the business, Jill Wallace, was informed this past spring about the zoning issue, and told that she would need to apply for a conditional use permit to allow the event business to continue to operate at the location, at 601 Alphin Ave., at the end of a narrow street in the northwestern part of the city.
What would make it hard for me, if I was a sitting member of the City Council, to vote yes on her permit request, would be, the continued weddings – like the one that got people called out to the scene over the weekend – and other outside events being held there in the meantime.
It should have been a given that the events would cease to go on as planned until the city would move to approve the request to get Ms. Wallace into compliance with the law.
That should have been a matter of good faith on the part of Ms. Wallace, given what the city is being asked to do here.
Think about the nature of a conditional use permit – the city, after a staff review, laid out several conditions that Wallace would have to abide by, 14 in total, limiting the number of events that she can hold per year, the number of guests at events, requirements involving noise and start and end times, parking.
There’s also a condition requiring Wallace to “work with qualified professionals to design and build an entrance to the property” from the Mosley Street right-of-way that “is to be completed within two (2) years of the issuance of the conditional use permit.”
The big problem that I see here: the conditions laid out in the conditional use permit are worth no more than the paper that they’re printed on once the City Council would vote to approve the permit request, if Ms. Wallace continues with her policy of just ignoring what she was already required to do under the zoning ordinance as she operated her business illegally the past few years.
This is why we have zoning ordinances, folks – so that a person who apparently thinks she’s above the law isn’t able to run roughshod over her neighbors, with whatever small fine she may end up having to pay for violating the law, and after the pending approval of her permit, that additional piece of paper, being something she can roll into the cost of doing business.
If I’m sitting on that City Council, this request for a permit is a non-starter, because, how could we trust Ms. Wallace to live up to her end of the bargain?
ICYMI: Mimosa Farm
- 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
- Waynesboro citizens group prepared for fight with city over Mimosa Farm
- Waynesboro: Handling of Mimosa Farm shows what’s wrong with city government
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Chris Graham
