Advance Mills Supply was a prime example of the country stores within Albemarle County, but its fate typifies a recent trend. The store—listed as “threatened” by a 2003 report from the Albemarle County Historic Preservation Committee—was demolished this past spring, and other country stores face fire, demolition and neglect.
 Albemarle County is working on ways to shore up country stores, like this one in Batesville, so that county residents don’t have to drive all the way into town for a gallon of milk. |
Following the Historic Preservation Committee’s report in 2003, the Board of Supervisors directed staff to draw up amendments to zoning ordinances that could help stop this tendency and maintain Albemarle’s country store tradition. Staff drafted a proposal that would, among other things, allow for mixed residential and store use on country store sites and scale back required setbacks and paved parking. These changes create incentives for country store owners to preserve their shops by making it easier for them to operate.
Even with new amendments, there is no guarantee that the stores would not end up like Advance Mills Supply. “The proposed changes in the ordinance don’t really protect the stores from anything—but the proposed amendments would create a more favorable environment for the stores to succeed,” says Amy Arnold, the staff planner working on the amendments, in an e-mail.
In a June 26 work session, the Planning Commission met the draft proposal with mixed feelings. “There’s a benefit of having stores out there [so] that you don’t have to drive to major shopping centers,” said Commissioner Jon Cannon, though he expressed concern over the impact additional country stores would have on the rural area. While these amendments would not include new store sites, they would apply to all of the roughly 150 country store locations known to have existed within the county.
A public hearing at the Planning Commission will be set as soon as the county attorney drafts ordinance language.
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