The owner of Mimosa Farm in Waynesboro has been holding events on her property in violation of the city zoning law for years, needs a conditional use permit from the city to be able to continue doing so – and it’s not supposed to be a given that the city is going to approve the permit.
Right?
Explain, then, how the venue has events on the schedule – including at least one wedding in 2027, confirmed by the “bride” in a comment on our AFP Facebook page, in which the bride defended Mimosa Farm owner Jill Wallace, saying Wallace’s neighbors who have raised issue with the issue with the zoning law “have nothing else to do with there (sic) energy and time.”
“From what I have seen from the events I have attended (and have planned next year.) Besides a zoning the snafu their (sic) are no real issues here,” was the comment from Candice Randolph, the self-ID’d “2027 Bride.”
ICYMI
The issue that I’ve raised here isn’t whether or not the city should ultimately approve the request of Wallace for the permit to be able to run her events business in a residentially zoned neighborhood.
It was that, the city planner, Alisande Tombarge, didn’t reach out to even a single neighbor as she worked on the staff report that will help guide the Waynesboro Planning Commission and, ultimately, Waynesboro City Council, as city leaders decide the permit’s fate.
As a result, the staff recommendation comes across as one-sided, with input from Wallace, from the city building and zoning administrator, who questioned, per Tombarge’s staff report, whether Wallace even needed a conditional use permit, from the city’s fire and emergency services departments, but, again, not one resident of the surrounding neighborhood.
Those folks only get their say via public comment at the Planning Commission meeting on July 21 – this coming Tuesday, at this writing – and at a public hearing in front of the City Council on Aug. 10.
This is local government malpractice.
Because of this botched process, residents, who have noted to me years of concerns with parking overflow clogging their quiet street and issues with noise into the night, will be fighting a stacked deck, with the city having invested staff time in presenting the case for Wallace to get the permit better than she could have done so for herself.
It’s to a point where you have to wonder, given how Wallace is booking weddings into 2027 – and an event schedule on the Mimosa Farm website includes a weekly Monday “recurring event” for The Donation Station, and the Oct. 25 Mimosa Farm Annual Fall Festival, which the website describes as “held annually on the Sunday closest to Halloween, our famous Fall Festival is a beloved tradition at Mimosa Farm” – if she’s already been given the indication by city officials that the permit is in the bag, and that this approval process is just a formality.
That had better not be the case, but there’s a way we can find out – the Freedom of Information Act is our friend here.
Oh, yeah, the FOIA request to the city is already in, before I hit the publish button on this story.
Zoning laws are on the books for a reason – we put businesses in business districts, we put homes and apartments in residential districts.
The conditional use permit process is there to allow officials to decide, on a case-by-case basis, if a particular use doesn’t conflict with the rights of others.
The comments to the effect of, Nobody has a right to tell people what they can do with their property, couldn’t be more wrong here.
The very existence of zoning laws is a tacit agreement on all of our parts that we do have a right to tell other people what they can do with their property.
Companies that own strip malls can’t just up and decide to rent out space in the back as apartments because they think they can make a quick buck.
For god’s sake, if a hair stylist wants to do her thing out of her kitchen, he or she needs a permit – I’ve seen plenty of those type permit requests on planning agendas over the years, and saw neighbors lined up at the public hearings to say their piece.
This Mimosa Farm thing isn’t either of those; we’re talking 100 events per year, up to 100 invited guests, not including event staffing, from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The absolute least the city planner should have done here is talked to even a single damn neighbor before writing up a lengthy report recommending approval.
It’s almost like the city was just going through the motions.
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Chris Graham
