Secrecy Shrouds County Government
Note: This article was originally published in the Shepherdstown Chronicle on October 3, 2025 under the title Secrecy Shrouds County Government
The Jefferson County Commission recently took up a proposal to eliminate the requirement that a “concept plan” be required for commercial development under our county’s zoning ordinance.
Many spoke against this proposal. It would seriously gut the zoning ordinance, as the concept plan is critical to understanding what’s to be built. The concept plan is one of the pillars of the zoning ordinance, and removing one of the pillars runs the risk of the plan collapsing.
This isn’t the first time that a proposal to weaken that ordinance has emerged. I recall that some county commissioners had supported an idea in the Legislature a few years ago that would have exempted large solar arrays from any zoning rules.
I suspect that someone wants to do away with zoning in Jefferson County. I cannot prove it, but I suspect it.
If anyone does want to do away with zoning, I urge reconsideration. I’m convinced that the vast majority of residents of our county want reasonable and effective zoning. There certainly may be periodic disagreements about particular aspects of the zoning plan, but I think most folks want zoning.
A curious aspect of this proposal is that Sidewinder LLC, the company wishing to build a bottling plant in Middleway, is arguing in court that a proposal cannot be denied at the “concept plan stage.” I think that’s hooey, but that’s Sidewinder’s argument.
The County Commission, to its credit, decided to not approve the proposal to eliminate the concept plan from the zoning ordinance, deciding instead to “streamline” the process. But one idea for streamlining the commissioners came up with appears unworkable. They want to combine the “concept” plan with the “site” plan. I don’t think a developer can come up with a sensible concept plan without an approved site plan.
Bracketing this County Commission meeting were two meetings of the Jefferson County Planning Commission at which the lawsuit filed by Sidewinder LLC against the Planning Commission was to be discussed. The Planning Commission had denied Sidewinder’s concept plan back in March, and Sidewinder argues in this lawsuit that such action by the Planning Commission was illegal. At both meetings the Planning Commission went into executive (private) session for at least an hour, and announced nothing after emerging from privacy. I have no problem with executive sessions, as long as the only things discussed in them are topics permitted by state law. Legal questions are a permitted topic for discussion in executive session.
At one of those Planning Commission meetings, the developer of the BirdHill subdivision (720 homes near Kearneysville) obtained approval for Phase 1 of the project. Critical to this project is a road connecting with Northport Avenue, so that traffic from the development doesn’t clog the Kearneysville railroad underpass on Route 480. Even though the BirdHill concept plan included the road, the Planning Commission approved Phase #1 without requiring it.
These actions, plus the County Commission’s abrupt dissolution of the Development Authority, have suggested to many a serious lack of transparency in our county government.
