Historic ruins on the grounds of Barboursville Vineyards outside Charlottesville, Va., one of the state's 100 wineries (Barboursville Vineyards)

Virginia lawmakers are considering passing a law that would exempt wineries from local zoning laws—and some Virginians say the bill opens the door to developers under the guise of winemaking.

"This gives an opportunity for entities that are not wineries to establish themselves as wineries and then open anything they want—floor shows, rock concerts," says Brenda Moorman, a member of the Piedmont Environmental Council who lives near a winery. "It's an enormous loophole."

The state's house of representatives passed the bill, known as HP-1435, last month, and next week a 15-member senate committee will vote on the issue. (Preservation editor James Conaway is scheduled to testify before the committee.) If the committee approves the bill, it will move to the state senate for a final vote.

Some Virginia farm bureaus hope the bill doesn't get that far. "We think it's a license for a special-interest group—wineries—to do whatever they want to do," says Christ Bates, legislative chairman of the Clark County Farm Bureau. "My farm could very well be surrounded by little unregulated alcohol-based amusement parks."

Introduced on Feb. 6 by Delegate David Albo (R-Fairfax), the bill says that "localities may not require a special use permit for certain agricultural activities." It arose from a debate over a party at Oasis Winery in Fauquier County on June 25, 2005. The county fined Oasis for blasting amplified music at the event without first obtaining a special-use permit.

There are more than 100 wineries in Virginia, which rejected the Walt Disney Company's plan to build a theme park in rural Haymarket in 1993.

"It doesn't take a lot of acres to grow grapes. Disney could have planted a couple of acres of grapes and had a winery theme and not had to go through local control," says Jolly DeGive, planning director at the Piedmont Environmental Council, which she says has spent the past month "getting the word out about the real effects of this bill."

Read more about Virginia wineries on Preservation Online >>

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