Work is under way on O'Gara's security-training center, but foes are appealing Westmoreland's approval of the facility. Visit the Photo Place

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Foes challenge Westmoreland permits for O'Gara

O'Gara opponents challenge Westmoreland approval of security-training project, supervisors move to close zoning loophole

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Date published: 9/22/2009

BY FRANK DELANO

Opponents of an O'Gara security-training base now under construction near Montross have challenged Westmoreland County's issuance of zoning and building permits for the project.

In another response to the uproar over the O'Gara operation, county supervisors have also asked the Planning Commission to eliminate schools as a by-right use of agriculturally zoned land.

A bare majority of three supervisors--Lynn C. Brownley, Russell Culver and Lawrence Roberson--voted Sept. 14 in favor of referring the change to the planners. W.W. Hynson voted against it. Chairman Darryl E. Fisher abstained.

In the appeal filed Thursday to the Westmoreland Board of Zoning Appeals, neighbors of the O'Gara project said that the county's former Zoning Administrator, the late Gary Ziegler, erred last year when he ruled that an unnamed security-training facility was allowed by county zoning ordinances both in the county's industrial park and on adjacent agricultural land.

"The Ziegler opinion is not a proper zoning administrator's decision with regard to The O'Gara Group [because it] never mentions The O'Gara Group by name and does not render a decision specific to The O'Gara Group," the appeal says.

The appeal says that Ziegler's ruling and errors have been improperly adopted and used by current Zoning Administrator Robert Fink in approving O'Gara plans and permits.

"No proper, legal, zoning administrator decision has ever been rendered with respect to The O'Gara Group project, and the current zoning administrator has refused to render a new or proper land-use decision, yet continues to approve O'Gara applications," the appeal alleges.

Ziegler's memo of Sept. 17, 2008, was not publicly known until January, when the county's Industrial Development Authority approved a $679,178 contract to sell O'Gara a 50,000-square-foot building and 25 acres at the industrial park.

In July, O'Gara purchased 351 adjacent agricultural acres for $2.5 million from S. Bryan Chandler of Montross. O'Gara is now constructing three firing ranges and a cluster of modular administrative and classroom buildings totaling 10,730 square feet on the Chandler tract.

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Date published: 9/22/2009