Strasburg VA underground: "Pa! a gas station is a-comin!"

**** UPDATE ****

https://www.nvdaily.com/nvdaily/mixed-reactions-from-strasburg-council-on-pifer-house-renovations/article_2921ba05-1983-5189-addf-b8d70006440b.html

They all seem to miss the point.

What's the point of having zoning if a property (located between the I-81/US 55 interchange and an established residential development, which is zoned "Agricultural/Rural Residential"), is rezoned for a gas station and an office building?

answer: no point

what is it about town council et al that they don't understand that it's a betrayal of the people who live in the Cedar Spring community, to allow a gas station, that will service some of I-81's heavy volume of interstate tractor trailer trucks, to invade their residential community? The residents of Cedar Spring certainly didn't expect that when they chose to live in strasburg. is it callousness? is it arrogance? is it stupidity? or is it something far more sinister? whatever it is, it's strasburg.

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"right over yonder! between I-81 and Cedar Spring Drive!"

"Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit!"

https://www.whsv.com/2024/06/05/strasburg-considering-gas-station-other-commercial-development-near-edge-town/

https://www.nvdaily.com/nvdaily/developer-says-hes-made-significant-repairs-to-elijah-pifer-house-in-strasburg/article_d2d467d4-31df-58a0-8c2e-0a64a1e02a8c.html

https://flickr.com/photos/upnorthmemories/5243245263

attribution: Don...The UpNorth Memories Guy and flickr

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

here's the point. the subject property is a relatively small out-parcel bounded by an interstate highway interchange and a relatively new, but established, residential community. it's zoned "agriculture/rural residential".

https://www.strasburgva.com/media/18321

what sense does it make to allow a gas station to be built on this site, leaving the shack as a "historical monument"?

answer: it makes about as much sense as allowing residential and commercial development around a smelly and dangerous (https://strasburgunderground.blogspot.com/2021/07/explosion-and-ammonia-leak-at-milk-plant.html) milk processing plant--with huge tractor-trailers navigating the historical district's narrow streets--fouling traffic while getting to and from it. or, allowing residential and commercial development around a huge, noisy industrial complex in the middle of town. or, allowing townhouses to be built next to the town's other interstate interchange at route 11.

granting an exception for a property immediately adjacent to an I-81 interchange (zoned "agricultural/rural residential") to allow a gas station COMPLETELY changes the development intended for the property. why was the exception even considered? why have zoning laws if such HUGE exceptions are granted?

it's unlikely that we'll ever know the REAL answers as to who is/are responsible for this egregious zoning exception--and why. in short, it makes NO sense at all--and, it doesn't pass the smell test.

that's strasburg.