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June 14, 2008
County rejects workers' housing
EASTVILLE -- The Northampton County Board of Supervisors rejected a
proposal for a large-scale tomato grower to house families of year round
farm workers -- about two dozen people in all -- at the site of the
former Candlelight Motel in Birdsnest.
Supervisors unanimously denied the application for a special-use permit
by Byrd Foods and Batista and Evelyn Madonia of East Coast Growers and
Packers in Plant City, Fla., at a public hearing Tuesday night that was
continued from a May hearing.
The Madonia family purchased Byrd Foods in Parksley last year and have
continued to expand their presence on the Shore, both in terms of
business and personal real-estate investment.
Their family-run business --the Madonias relocated from Pennsylvania to
Florida in 1980 -- includes year-round tomato distribution as well as a
Florida hotel and popular entertainment venue.
"I find this incredibly troubling," said Supervisor Spencer Murray of
the conflict raised by the application.
Murray said he would vote against the permit and listed four concerns,
including public safety, a perceived contradiction of migrant housing
for year-round residents, the county's ability to enforce voluntary
residence restrictions, and public opposition.
State and federal programs address the needs of both migrant and
seasonal farm workers. The former move with the demand for farm work
while seasonal workers stay in the area.
He also addressed public sentiment. "Public opposition is a time-honored
consideration," he said, recognizing critical comments from some
residents of nearby neighborhoods.
Supervisor Bill Hughes said he would also vote against the permit,
citing safety issues, the highway location and his responsibility to the
citizens of the county. "It is almost like a mandate for those who came
up and spoke of their concerns," he said. "The plan is wrong."
"What is at issue is this specific site," Supervisor Richard Tankard
said. "A special-use permit applies in this case when there is an
agricultural use proposed in a residential area."
The close proximity to the highway was also an issue for Tankard, as was
the proximity of six to eight farm worker families to neighbors --
"specifically the Claytons."
The Claytons live next door and have been some of the most vocal
opponents. Nancy Clayton last month asked supervisors, "Who is going to
control the problems of drinking, domestic violence and noise?"
She and her family, friends and neighbors, along with adjacent community
residents succeeded in railroading the plan to provide safe, clean,
decent housing for fellow residents by raising concerns that other
families who live on the Shore year-round and work on farms would hurt
nearby property values and create public safety issues.
Tankard also voiced a sentiment prevalent among opponents that the
applicant could afford to find another location. "I think it is well
within the means of this company," he said.
"My primary concern is the folks who live in the area," said Chairman
Jeff Walker.
He said the applicant has spent a lot of money on real estate on the
Shore and should put the farm worker housing on some of that land.
"These people deserve nothing less."
The location is zoned Rural Village-Commercial and allows for numerous
high-traffic uses by right.
Under current zoning the owner could operate any one of a long list of
potentially high-traffic businesses without necessarily closing two of
three existing entrances to the highway as was planned for the housing.
Some of the uses allowed under the commercial zoning include a bank,
automotive service station, antique shop, Laundromat or dry cleaner,
restaurant, health club, veterinary clinic, nursing home or many other
businesses.
It could also be -- without the need for a permit -- an animal shelter,
church, hospital, bus or rail terminal, clinic, library, museum, post
office, school, mental residential care facility, among other community
service entities.
Gary Stewart of Byrd Foods disputed a statement that a fire last year at
the Owl Motel, owned by the Madonias, was caused by farm workers who
overloaded the electrical system with kitchen appliances in order to
cook in their hotel rooms.
The fire occurred in November, Stewart said, long after migrant workers
had left the Shore. There was limited damage, not the 75 percent claimed
earlier, and the fire was "caused by a local person who rented the room
nightly falling asleep with a cigarette," he said.
Stewart also addressed extensive comments made about crime concerns with
a letter from Accomack County Sheriff Larry Giddens.
"Calls for service documentation reveals that the incidence of crime
generated by the population in question is less than the general local
population and based on the percentage of the farm worker population in
comparison to the general local population, the farm workers are more
often classified as the victims of crime than offenders," Giddens
stated.
Kenneth Annis of Exmore, chairman of the governor's Migrant and Seasonal
Farmworkers Board, said there is a need for farm worker housing. "It is
vital," he said. The impact on the economy of the Eastern Shore is
unbelievable."
Annis quoted a Virginia Tech study that found $460 million more is
generated annually by migrant- and seasonal-farm worker dependent crops
than the production of grain crops in the state.
The report identified several options to encourage continued such
high-value crop production, including "an understanding of the magnitude
of the economic contribution of (migrant and seasonal farm workers) to
the economy so that a lack of housing permits does not limit the number
of workers that can be housed."
"The governor's board on migrant and seasonal farm workers supports
housing for seasonal farm workers," he said.
Stewart presented six other letters, including one from the department
of health stating Byrd Foods historically has provided safe and
healthful migrant housing.
Other letters of support were submitted from Kellam Energy, the owner of
adjacent property and Charles E. West Produce Farms.
Soraya Buckner, regional manager for Telemon Corporation --an
organization that provides assistance to farm workers -- addressed the
board at last month's public hearing in support of the housing and this
month submitted a letter.
"There is a lack of housing -- especially for families, and much of the
existing housing is in deplorable condition," she stated. "Byrd Foods is
to be commended for attempting to provide their employees with safe,
sanitary, and adequate housing."
Ruth Brown, who has worked with migrant workers for years as a local
rural health services specialist with the Virginia Council of Churches,
also submitted a letter of support.
James Albright of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond local migrant
ministry also supported the plan.
"Many who opposed the application seemed to use their fear as a
justification for their attitudes opposing housing farm workers in the
old Candlelight Motel and former transitional shelter," he stated in a
letter. "Did these same people feel the same towards the old motel
clients or the transitional shelter residents?"
Stewart said he was not allowed to speak at a planning commission
meeting when planners reconsidered the application and approved it last
week on a 6-3 vote -- it had previously tabled the issue in order to
determine a legal definition of "migrant."
Planning Director Sandra Benson told the commission at its June 4
meeting that while the county's zoning ordinance does not include a
definition, it does provide that in such cases "words shall be given the
generic meaning provided by the current edition of the Webster
Collegiate Dictionary," which defines migrant as "one who moves
regularly in order to find work esp. in harvesting crops."
Benson said in a telephone interview Wednesday that the original
application indicated seasonal workers, but the applicant later changed
that to year-round farm worker families (no singles) in order to make it
more acceptable to the neighboring community.
In order to meet the health department definition of migrant housing,
however, Stewart said Byrd Foods would house one migrant couple on site
part of the year to meet those requirements.
Harry Parker of H.W. Drummond said his company delivers oil and provides
other services to Madonia properties -- about 5,000 acres in the two
counties. "I have seen 80 to 90 percent of their properties...It is just
incredible how clean they keep them," he said.
"I think you'll be proud if you allow them to do what they are asking to
do," Parker said, adding that it would be good for the tax base.
"Somebody's got to dig your potatoes and pick your tomatoes."
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