By Jeff Poole
Review Managing Editor
Published: April 24, 2008

Virginia Tractor will have a permanent home in Orange County.
May 18, 2007, John Deere awarded Virginia Tractor a dealership in Orange County. The next day, Ann Lawrence Grasty, one of Virginia Tractor’s owners started looking for a home for the dealership. 
For the last 11 months, the dealership has operated on land adjacent to the Orange-Madison Co-op on Route 15. While the Co-op has accommodated their tenants longer than expected, they’ve given Virginia Tractor a drop-dead date to be off their lot by June 30.
With a unanimous vote Tuesday night, the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved a special use permit for Virginia Tractor to construct a sales, service and repair facility on 11 acres on Route 15 near the Thomas E. Lee Industrial Park.
The property was previously part of a larger tract owned by the Sanford family and Kenwood Ltd., a large family dairy farm on Route 15 south of Orange.
The land is zoned agricultural and the applicants requested a special use permit to establish an agricultural equipment and implement dealership on the land just south of Litchfield Drive leading into the industrial park.
Virginia Tractor is owned by eight people, five of whom are from Orange. It employs 29 people at its Orange location.
“We have a vested interest in keeping Orange agricultural and rural,” Lawrence told the board.  She said Virginia Tractor is a critical component of the agricultural infrastructure to maintain that rural way of life.
Additionally, she pledged the new Virginia Tractor facility would employ “green” technology as much as was practical and set the tone for future commercial development on Route 15. She likened the new facility’s design to “a rural, albeit commercial, grange.”
Phase I of the project would be a temporary facility that would allow business to continue while construction on Phase II—the brick-front, green-roofed building—was underway.
“It’s in our best interests to build a facility that benefits all our stakeholders,” Grasty said, suggesting the building would have meeting space for 4-H and chamber of commerce activities, would sell locally-produced products and could serve as a hub for tourism activities like the Orange County Farm Tour.
Last week, the applicants appeared before the Orange County Planning Commission, where they received a favorable recommendation. More than a dozen advocates spoke up in favor of the project, while two spoke against it, citing concerns about lighting and the dealership’s expected impact on the scenic corridor.
At Tuesday’s public hearing, eight citizens spoke in favor of the project. No one spoke against it.
“Agriculture is a big segment of our county,” farmer and former supervisor Rea Jones said. “They’re offering sales, service and parts—not just for Orange County, but other counties too.”
“We need infrastructure to support agriculture in this county,” Jack Snyder added.
Orange County Chamber of Commerce Director Barbara Bannar agreed.
“We need agriculture-based businesses that support our rural lifestyle and bring other people into the county to shop,” she said.
Monk and Carolyn Sanford petitioned the board to support the project as well.
They said it was a difficult decision to sell this piece of their property, but they did so to help keep a John Deere dealership in the county and said the sale of the land enabled them to purchase additional land to strengthen their dairy operation in the long run.
Even Dan Holmes of the Piedmont Environmental Council endorsed the project, suggesting it could be a model for future construction. 
After lengthy discussions about signage and lighting on the site, the board ultimately agreed to approve the special use permit with a 5-0 vote.
“This is a no-brainer,” District 2 Supervisor Zack Burkett said. “It’s something we need and the design will set the standard. This is a positive for the county.”
“Orange County needs to be open for business,” District 3 Supervisor Teel Goodwin said succinctly.
While he expressed concerns about lighting issues in general, District 5 Supervisor Lee Frame said a special use permit application was not the place to establish a county-wide lighting policy.