Albemarle County has several rules intended to limit commercial development in the vast majority of its 726 square miles, including large stretches of highway. For instance, you can’t have a country store that’s more than 4,000 square feet in total size.
In 2024, the owners of Greenwood Grocery on Rockfish Gap Turnpike learned that the hard way when they had to stop work on an expansion that would have exceeded the limit.
“The grocery itself was built as a hut for fruit sales around 1957,” says Leah Brumfield, a planner with Albemarle County. “The hut was expanded into a country store between 1960 and 1990 with regular changes and updates and expansions.”
The original owners sold the property and a house next door to Nina Promisel and David Atwell in September 1999, but the existing hut burned down a month later due to faulty wiring. The store was rebuilt in 2003, even though the zoning code did not allow for it.
“In order to rebuild and continue our livelihood, we began a lengthy process to demonstrate to the county officials’ and board of representatives’ satisfaction that the business had existed and had been operated out of both structures for nearly 50 years at that point,” reads the couple’s application for a special exception to allow the house to be used as a business.
That effort pushed the county to amend the zoning code in 2008 to define country stores.
On March 5, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to grant the exception, which requires the two parcels to be combined into a single property. One supervisor noted that the cost involved to obtain approval is a regulatory burden for other would-be applicants.
“This does make everything more expensive for those involved and ultimately for the people that end up purchasing from them,” said Ned Gallaway of the Rio District.
Another supervisor thanked Brumfield for assisting with the application to ensure a long-standing business can grow and continue to serve as a gathering place for the community.
“It’s complicated from a civilian’s point of view, including me, to get it right,” said White Hall District’s Ann Mallek. “It is a gem, and I’m very glad to have them continue in operation.”
Other examples of country stores in Albemarle include The Batesville Market, Wyant’s Store, Hunt Country Market & Deli, and Earlysville General Store. Efforts were underway to restore the Purvis Store in Esmont but that project was dealt a blow after the roof recently collapsed.
“Plan B is to make the whole area into a historic park and that design is being worked on as we speak,” says Peggy Denby of the group Friends of Esmont.
The ongoing update of the county’s Comprehensive Plan could one day lead to further changes in the rules for country stores. One objective in the draft rural land use chapter calls for ways to “increase the adaptive reuse of existing structures in rural communities that provide essential services and daily need for rural residents.”
Greenwood Grocery currently operates out of this structure, which was built following a fire in the early 2000s. The approved special exception will allow expansion into an existing house on the property. Photo by Sean Tubbs.
