Splitting hairs

 

Mount Bernard

Preserving Goochland’s rural character while enhancing its commercial tax base is challenging. Event venues offer a way to do this. Holding celebrations in rural areas seems to be a trend.

The county has a wealth of “places of public assembly” that host events ranging from modest barn weddings to lavish nuptials with price tags that range well into six figures.

Dover Hall on Manakin Road, and the Estate at River Run, on Rt. 6 east of Courthouse Village have national reputations that attract high dollar clients.

Goochland County requires property owners who wish to operate an event venue to obtain a conditional use permit. The CUP process involves holding community meetings to let neighbors know what is planned and filing a detailed application to address many facets of the operation including adherence to fire codes, number of events allowed in a given period, limits on number of attendees, security if alcohol is involved and parking.

At their February 4 meeting, Goochland supervisors wrestled with a CUP application filed by Mary Elizabeth and Jimmy Ortuno to operate two unhosted rentals and an event venue on 58.3 of their 130 acres at Mount Bernard, whose iconic and historic white home is a landmark on River Road West in Maidens. The Ortunos explained that they are actively farming the Mount Bernard property and want to add the proposed uses to maximize their revenue generation opportunities.

The CUP application requested approval for the Mount Bernard event venue to host outdoor, weekend events from 1 to 10 p.m. for no more than 150 people in tents, 12 times per year from March to November, but not on Easter, Memorial or Labor Day. No mention was made of July Fourth. Amplified music would stop by 9 p.m. The CUP application stated that catering, tents, port-a-potties and other equipment for the events would be transported to the site. A three year rather than the customary five-year, initial tenure of a first time CUP was requested to allow the Ortunos to prove that they could successfully operate the event venue without being a burden to their neighbors.

A condition stated that the Mount Bernard venue would retain the services of a professional event planner to ensure that all rules were followed.

The subject property adjoins the Estate at River Run whose exquisite mansion was essentially built as a party house years ago. The current owners, who had a “track record” of event planning made a significant investment transforming the property into a commercial venue, also going through the CUP process, right before Covid hit.

During the public hearing, concerns about the lack of limits on noise generated by the event venue as measured by wattage or decibels were raised. One speaker said, “their right to rock their world ends at my property line”. Traffic, over commercialization of a historic site and River Road West, which is a Virginia scene highway, were other objections raised. Speakers also pointed out that Mount Bernard is much closer to River Road West than the Estate at River Run, which overlooks the James River, making it easier for noise and traffic to impact neighbors.

The supervisors concurred about the noise issue. The application prohibited “subwoofers” but placed no other limits on sound. Charlie Vaughters, District 4, said that he lives close to Dover Hall and is able to hear music emanating from inside tents there.

The issue of amplified music from Mount Bernard being audible at the Estate at River Run and the Ortuno’s lack experience operating an event venue led to the board voting to deny the portions of the CUP dealing with the event venue but approving those for the unhosted short term rental.

Supervisors and speakers contended that unhosted short term rentals are beneficial to Goochland because they provide badly need lodging. However, the county needs to do a better job of monitoring them and ensuring that all property owners obtain CUPs to legally operate short-term rentals unhosted. (See https://www.goochlandva.us/966/Short-term-rental for details.)

 Most people who rent these are considerate visitors to our county. However, for everyone’s protection, we need to know who these people are, and the owners must pay occupancy tax on revenue derived from these rentals.