Isle of Wight County supervisors voted 3-2 on June 5 to approve a landlord’s request to subdivide the former Knox Automotive property off Brewers Neck Boulevard. Star Caviar LLC, which last year purchased the property from John and Ann Knox for $1.7 million, had filed an application seeking a waiver of a provision of the county’s subdivision ordinance to split what is now Classic Collision, a national automotive chain, from an adjoining self-storage business on the 3.5-acre parcel. Doing so would create two conditional, limited industrial-zoned parcels, one measuring 1.8 acres that would house Classic Collision and a 1.7-acre parcel for the self-storage business.
Board Chairman Don Rosie and Supervisor Thomas Distefano joined Supervisor Renee Rountree in supporting her motion to approve the subdivision over dissenting votes by Supervisors Rudolph Jefferson and Joel Acree. Though county staff had recommended against the creation of what they termed a “non-conforming” lot, the vote upheld a 7-2 recommendation by the county’s Planning Commission in May to approve the request. The requested waiver, according to Community Development Planner Caleb Kitchen, would waive requirements of the subdivision ordinance that cap the buildable area of a lot at 60% of its size and require a minimum 25% open space ratio. The self-storage business would comply with the requirements, but Classic Collision would have 88% coverage and only 12% open space, Kitchen said. Attorney Bill Riddick represented Star Caviar, which, according to State Corporation Commission records, is based out of a private residence in Orlando, Florida.
“They’re just asking to put an imaginary line between the two facilities,” Riddick said. Riddick said the self-storage business is being managed separately from Classic Collision by a 24/7 management company, and that his client “would very much like to sell these properties to two separate entities that one company does storage and one company does auto repair.”
