Campground Pursues Expansion

SNOW HILL – The Worcester County Planning Commission provided a favorable recommendation to a growth allocation request that could allow a local campground to expand.

The commission last week voted unanimously to provide a favorable recommendation to a request to reclassify 33 acres from Resource Conservation Area (RCA) to Limited Development Area (LDA). The critical area designation change, which still needs to be approved by the county commissioners, would allow Island Resort Campground to pursue expansion.

“It doesn’t make my skin crawl as it would if this were a new use,” commission member Phyllis Wimbrow said.

Island Resort Campground, which is on land that was previously home to a surface mine (borrow pit), got a special exception approval that allowed it to open as a campground in 2005, according to attorney Mark Cropper. When the zoning code got changed in 2009, the campground became a legal non-conforming use.

“It’s only by virtue of a change in the code it’s no longer a conforming use,” he said.

Cropper said the campground was consistent with the comprehensive plan when Island Resort was developed. He said the growth allocation request would allow the facility to add 62 more campsites. Cropper pointed out, however, that the request was not a rezoning.

“It puts no burden on public facilities,” he said.

Wimbrow said she agreed as far as the comprehensive plan but was concerned that the county had used more than half its growth allocation already. Commission member Marlene Ott said she was concerned about additional traffic associated with the proposed expansion.

“It is a residential, a very residential, area,” she said.

Wimbrow said the growth allocation was for an expansion of something that had been a permitted use when it was built.

“It was a use permitted by the zoning code that was in effect when Mr. Ewell began this development,” she said. “It became a legal nonconformity by action of the government so it’s not as though it is a new use it is an expanded use.”

David Bradford, the county’s deputy director of environmental programs, said the county had 370 acres of growth allocation.

“We would say this would be a good fit for the use of some of that where it is an expanded use, it’s not like it’s a brand new campground in another area of the county,” he said.

The commission voted 7-0 to give the growth allocation request a favorable recommendation.

About The Author: Charlene Sharpe

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Charlene Sharpe has been with The Dispatch since 2014. A graduate of Stephen Decatur High School and the University of Richmond, she spent seven years with the Delmarva Media Group before joining the team at The Dispatch.