Planned Varina wedding venue drawing concerns from some neighbors
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There’s some debate brewing in Varina about a proposed wedding and events venue along the James River.
Jocelyn Senn, who owns the Richmond-based printing company PopMount, is proposing The Virginia Inn – a bed-and-breakfast style venue on about just more than 16 acres at Osborne Turnpike and Battery Hill Drive. It would be the first such venue in Varina and just the third in the county.
A community meeting about the proposal will take place tonight beginning at 6 p.m. at the Dorey Park Recreation Center; citizens also may participate virtually by visiting http://tinyurl.com/varinavenue. Advanced registration is required.
The property is zoned R-2A for residential usage, and Senn is seeking not to rezone it but simply to acquire a provisional use permit for it that would allow her to host as many as 60 events annually at one of the six venues featured at the site. Those include indoor and outdoor venues at a renovated farmhouse on site; outdoor event space at Civil War earthworks and two separate riverfront spots; and a natural habitat area. The venues would have maximum capacities between 50 and 250 guests, according to Senn’s proposal. A Cape Cod-style home on the site also would be available as a bed-and-breakfast.
County planners earlier this fall recommended a deferral of Senn's request, which was scheduled to be heard earlier this month by the Henrico Planning Commission, until Dec. 10 in order for her to provide more details about specific plans and to address several concerns of neighbors, who are worried about traffic, the proximity of the venues to their properties, possible noise and other issues.
On her website – http://www.thevirginiainn.com – Senn wrote that she has assembled the four-parcel site in phases since the 1990s, clearing land, renovating buildings and preparing the site for its ultimate use as an event venue. She lives on the site herself and said her plans are designed to provide a unique place for events and to invite people into Varina while remaining a “good and respectful neighbor while generating revenue and job opportunities.”
Opponents of the proposal created the website http://www.dontvenuevarina.com to express in detail why they are opposed to the plans. They said they’d support a concept similar to the one proposed but at a different Varina site – one with more acreage that “would not have events and roads just feet from people’s bedroom windows” or affect the privacy of neighbors. They also suggested that a site that could accommodate turning lanes would be better suited for the concept.
