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Ivan Petersheim will get the discussion he’s been asking for. During their Monday, July 8 meeting, Buckingham County supervisors agreed to give him a public hearing next month on his duplex proposal for the property at 5516 Ridge Road. 

The project, which spent the last two months being discussed by the planning commission, involves the building on the property, what used to be the old Whitworth Country Store. Petersheim wants to take it and turn it into a duplex. In his application paperwork, Petersheim said he was doing this to help provide affordable housing. During the planning commission discussions, neighbors raised concerns about turning that one building, which sits on 0.95 of an acre, into a multi-family home. 

One of those neighbors, Michael McCraig, spoke at Monday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. He pointed out the results of the comprehensive plan survey from earlier this year, which said a majority of those who responded live in Buckingham for its rural way of life, peace and quiet, sense of community and small-town feel. He also pointed out the survey found a majority said urban sprawl would make them leave. And while McCraig said he wasn’t condemning one project as urban sprawl, he didn’t believe an agricultural area like Ridge Road was the right place for this. 

“In my opinion, multi-family housing is something that should be in a village,” McCraig said. He believes the proposal would increase traffic in the area and reduce property values. 

Is Petersheim proposal a duplex? 

The main issue previously with the planning commission wasn’t the renovation request specifically. Instead, commissioners had concerns with the zoning amendment that came along with the request. 

Petersheim’s property and the area around it for several miles, is zoned Agricultural A1. Currently, duplexes aren’t allowed in the A1 district, hence the request for a special use permit. But Petersheim also put in a request to change Buckingham County zoning, so that a multi-family housing duplex would be allowed as a special use in any Agricultural A1 Zoning District throughout the county. In talking earlier this week with The Herald, Petersheim said he was asked by Buckingham County planning staff to request the zoning amendment, since nobody had applied for a duplex by special use permit before in the county’s agricultural area. 

It was that text amendment request that caused the planning commission members to recommend against approval, pointing out there’s nothing in the wording about limiting the number of families allowed. Commission members also raised concerns about doing something like this that would affect the entire county without a more specific, detailed example of what is or isn’t allowed. 

But during Monday’s meeting, Supervisor Danny Allen questioned if any of that was needed at all. Allen said he didn’t see a duplex when he went to the property to take a look. 

“If you look up a duplex, it’s a big building with two doors on it,” Allen said. “It used to be an old store years ago. So now he’s gonna put a wall in between the front and the back, and have one bedroom in the back and two bedrooms in the front and just rent it out. To me it’s just a rental house.” 

And requirements for a rental house are fairly different, not requiring a text amendment that would affect the whole county. Instead, it was pointed out, Petersheim would be able to apply for a special use permit on its own. But to do that, the building would have to be defined. Is it a duplex? Or a rental house? 

That’s one of the questions which would be up for discussion during the public hearing. Supervisors agreed to set it for their Monday, Aug. 12 meeting. The meeting itself begins at 6 p.m.