VERONA — The haunts will happen for another year for a Crimora couple, now that the county zoning board approved a permit request for Halloween events at their home to raise money for a charity camp for kids.
Charles Scott and Cathy Balsley had been staging a haunted forest on their Rock Mountain Lane property for a decade and managed to raise thousands of dollars for charity with the gate money.
But last year, the attraction got big a little too fast — which turned into lots of money for things like cancer care, but in doing so turned into a nuisance for the couple's neighbors.
Backed-up car traffic caused complaints and, eventually, a better acquaintance for the Balsleys with the county's permitting laws.
The couple this year asked the Board of Zoning Appeals for a special use permit to run the events once more on their four-acre property. Afterward, they plan to hold them on a much larger parcel they acquired nearby for the children's camp.
The back-ups at their home last year happened because the couple ran out of parking space for the much-larger crowds, Scott Balsley told board members at their monthly meeting Thursday.
"It was a good flow — there was no issue there," Balsley said of the traffic during a public hearing for their special use permit. "There was just no room."
The couple will make three more acres available for parking, and board members were convinced that the extra space and efficient signaling from volunteer college students will prevent any more
Article source: http://www.newsleader.com/article/20120504/NEWS01/205040314
