Isle of Wight County’s Planning Commission is asking to hear from the county’s Economic Development Authority ahead of setting a date for a public hearing on proposed changes to Isle of Wight’s zoning ordinance that would increase the minimum distance required between industrial-zoned properties and residential communities.

The draft ordinance would increase the minimum setback from 100 feet to 300. The EDA, at its Oct. 8 meeting, discussed opposing the change on grounds that it could decrease the maximum square footage that could be built on EDA-owned parcels the county is trying to sell in the Shirley T. Holland Intermodal park on the outskirts of Windsor while also increasing the cost to developers by extending the distance to connect utilities to a site.

“I’d like to hear from Economic Development,” said Commissioner Jennifer Boykin, who urged that the 300-foot setback be measured from the edge of the nearest residential lot rather than a recommendation by county staff to measure from the house itself.

“Some of you may not be concerned about developable area in the Shirley T. Holland area, but that’s important,” said Commissioner James Ford, who also sits on the EDA.

Even if the commissioners had voted on Oct. 22 to proceed with advertising a public hearing, according to County Attorney Bobby Jones the earliest it could legally be scheduled is Dec. 10. That’s due to a change in state law enacted this year that requires a public hearing be advertised in a newspaper with general circulation in the affected locality at least 14 days prior to the date of the hearing, which Jones said would preclude scheduling the hearing for the commission’s Nov. 12 meeting. Previously, the law had allowed the date of the hearing to count as the 14th day.

Dec. 10 would remain the first available date for a hearing if the commission votes Nov. 12, following the requested EDA presentation, to schedule a hearing on the matter. Once the hearing is held, the commissioners can vote on a recommendation to county supervisors, who must hold their own hearing and then have the final say.

Boykin specifically asked to see a map of EDA-owned parcels showing the reduction in marketable square footage on each if the 300-foot setback requirement were adopted.

According to Isle of Wight Community Development Director Amy Ring, the county’s Economic Development Department is already working with an engineer to produce such a document.

The ordinance, if adopted, would impact more than just the Shirley T. Holland park. There’s an undeveloped 10-acre parcel currently zoned as limited industrial located off Carrollton Boulevard in the northern end of the county adjacent to an existing housing development and the proposed 63-home Archer’s Meade development.

The current proposed verbiage would require, in addition to the 300-foot buffer, that developers seeking industrial zoning agree, as a condition of that zoning, to create a minimum 10-foot-high earthen berm between the site and any adjacent residential use and to complete a sound study at the time of the submittal of the rezoning application.

The verbiage also allows for utilities and any required stormwater ponds to be located within the 300-foot buffer and specifies that the required buffer applies only to land where the “principal use is residential.” The latter would allow an exemption for industrial sites located adjacent to farms that may include a house but are zoned as agricultural.

The Planning Commission’s discussion of increased setbacks began after county supervisors in June voted down the proposed Tidewater Logistics Center, a multi-warehouse complex whose developer, The Meridian Group, had planned to build on an EDA-owned parcel adjacent to Windsor’s Lovers Lane and Keaton Avenue neighborhoods. Meridian has drawn updated plans showing four warehouses rather than five but has yet to officially apply for rezoning. To do so within less than a year of the supervisors’ June 13 rejection of the original site plan, the resubmitted plans would need to be deemed sufficiently different by Ring and the supervisors to warrant a waiver of the one-year waiting period.

Each of Meridian’s revised site plans shows a 42-foot-wide, 6-foot-tall berm set back 50 to 250 feet from the nearest house on Keaton Avenue, creating at least a 280-foot buffer between the neighborhood and the closest warehouse.