A small group of Nokesville residents met Jan. 9 to discuss the Special Use Permit zoning plans for Madera Farms during a public meeting at the Nokesville Fire Department station.
During the meeting, the public asked questions of the new landowners, Jake and Celeste Klitenic, who bought the 125 acres proerty on Farmview Road to build landscaping service business.
“We wanted to hold this public meeting, so that people would have the opportunity to ask questions. We want to have the opportunity to differentiate ourselves from, but also to address their concerns,” Celeste Klitenic said, following the meeting.
Specifically, Madera Farms would be processing and mixing mulch, topsoil and woodchips. It is not an industry that deals directly with consumers on the property.
“What we’re doing here is we want to do our landscaping. We make mulch, and we have the mulch blowing trucks. We do top lot chips for the schools---no metal, no asphalt, no concrete, no rock,” Jake Klitenic said.
As per county requirements, such a business requires a "Special Use Permit" to be approved in either agricultural or industrial zones. Farmview Road is zoned as agriculture and estate, thus Madera Farms must request approval from the Board of County Supervisors to establish their business at the location.
The Special Use Permit they have submitted includes conditions above and beyond what is required from By-Right Use businesses. These include limitations on truck traffic, railroad buffers and a 50-feet-wide landscaped berm or strip of land.
During the meeting, Tom Basham, Madera's engineer, spoke on behalf of company. He addressed possible technical and land policy concerns.
Community members voiced their concerns that any deviation in the agricultural designation might provide an opportunity, however small, for other nonagricultural businesses to come into Nokesville. One company the residents sought to exclude was Vulcan, who formerly sought to build a quarry in Nokesville.
“Vulcan is still a great possibility. The phone calls that I received from people in Nokesville ask that with Nokesville throwing its support behind this: does it open this window just a crack for Vulcan?” Everybody out here is going to be on you about it,” one woman told the Klitenics.
However, Basham did not agree that all commercial operations should be treated like the quarry.
Jake Klitenic specified that his business is dissimilar to any industrialized business and more similar to agricultural activities.
Residents’ secondary concern was the additional truck traffic on already congested roads. According to the request for permit, the property would only be allowed 40 heavy-weight vehicles per day, and a maximum of three per hour on the commercial portion of the property.
In addition, those trucks must limit their travels to major roadways, such as Route 28, and their hours.
However, residents also expressed safety concerns with having massive trucks traveling on Farmview Road.
“It’s not Nokesville friendly,” one citizen said. “Six a.m. is peek traffic time. You’re running when we have kids out there, waiting for school buses.”
However, according to the permits, there are fewer restrictions on agricultural businesses, which might produce more truck traffic.
“We got dairy farmers that run trucks all day long,” Basham said.
Jake Klitenic also answered the his products contain no dyes. They are natural wood chips and mulch, and contain no bi-products that could seep into the ground water. Mulch will be stored in a man-made ditch on the property to try to minimize product blown away by high winds.
The Klitenics said they shared the concerns of the Nokesville citizens, since they were considering making Nokesville their home. However, they also felt the site was the ideal location for the agricultural business they were conducting.
Klitenic said the business would preserve much of acreage around it. Although 125 acres have been purchased, the majority of that land would not be used for commercial production. The rest will remain as trees, personal property and a buffer zone.
Jake Klitenic is the owner of J.K. Lumber, the parent company for Gateway Nursery on Route 29. He also owns a junkyard in Culpper. Klitenic said he is dedicated to the community, having grown up in Prince William County and having graduated from Woodbridge Senior High School.
When asked what he would do if the permit was not approved, he said, “Failure is not an option." Klitenic explained that Madera Farms is essential to his other landscape operations. “I’ve wanted a farm my entire life and a junk yard.”
There is currently a petition circulating to prohibit Madera Farms from establishing their business in rural Nokesville, but Bashman warns that the petition does not contain accurate information and mislabels the business a "Stump Dump" to instill fear in residents.
Creator of the petition, Melinda Kenney-Masters said she worries that the limits imposed on truck traffic is insufficient because it only limits the hours of operation for trucks with a gross vehicle weight of 52,000 lbs or greater.
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