Throttle up: Rocketry appeal heats up

STUARTS DRAFT — A rocketry club barred from holding launches on Swoope farmland has appealed to a judge to get a permit that Augusta County officials denied four months ago.

The Board of Zoning Appeals voted 3-1 against permitting the Valley Aerospace Team launches after a stream of opponents said their farm animals were spooked by the blasts and their rural setting disrupted by increased traffic.

Within a month of the September vote, the aerospace team’s Churchville attorney, Francis Chester, had filed an appeal claiming the zoning board’s “arbitrary and capricious” vote disregarded evidence that the launch locale was safe and appropriate.

Augusta County Circuit Court Judge Victor V. Ludwig asked the county to give him records relating to the rocketry club by this week. A hearing will follow.

“It really threw us for a loop,” team President Charles Neff said of the permit denial. “Not one person ever complained to us or the landowner.”

The team had hosted launches for 14 months before Augusta County notified them of permitting requirements. When team officials began the process, they understood it to be a “formality,” Neff said.

By the time the team came before the board, 10 opponents were signed up to speak, launch foes had pulled together a petition claiming they had 100 names and Augusta County staff were recommending that the permit be denied. Another 35 supporting letters had arrived as well. The hearing last more than two hours before board members voted.

In its appeal, the team

emphasizes the safety of rocketry, its ability to bring in agritourists and the number of children involved.

Neff helped form an R.E. Lee High School rocketry team that competes nationally. Club advisor Derek Hanger said the shutdown of the Swoope launches does not necessarily harm his students, who launch small rockets, but that he has supported Neff’s permit efforts.

“My hope is for him to find a compromise with the county,” Hanger wrote in an e-mail.

Neff uses the term “arbitrary” for the board’s decision because board members did not explicitly state their reasons for denying the permit and because he believes the team’s evidence wasn’t fully considered. Neff said his team received the Augusta County staff report shortly before the public hearing and quickly put together evidence about sound levels, launch attendance and National Association of Rocketry safety codes that the team follows.

“It’s apparent that no effort was made by the staff to educate themselves about the hobby’s excellent safety record,” Neff wrote on the team’s Web site, where he summarizes the appeal process. The documentation the team provided the county “was obviously also not reviewed.”

Bill Croft, who owns the Swoope land where the rockets were blasting off, said the team still will have a home if their appeal is successful.

“They’ll be able to continue to be able to do what they do,” Croft said Sunday, adding: “He needs to bring more of his neighbors on board.”

Ten people spoke against the permit in September and Jeanne Hoffman, who lives near the launches, presented a petition of 100 names. Informed of the team’s appeal, Hoffman said she still feels their activities are not compatible to the agricultural area.

“I think it’s a great thing, but this is not the place to do it,” she said.

Neff claims that only about half of the names on the petition were those of residents within 10 miles of the launch site. He said the team also has witnessed firsthand how animals barely react to the launches.

But Neff said he wants to work with neighbors to keep the Swoope site.

“How to go about doing that is difficult,” he said.

The Croft launch site is one of three in the state used by rocketeers, Neff said, and perhaps the best.

“Rocketry needs a lot of space,” he said. “I have looked in every place in Augusta County [for an alternative].”

The team has received some courting interest from Highland County, but Neff’s sights remain on the Croft cow pasture.

“The cows don’t pay no attention to it,” Croft said.