BUCKINGHAM — A new zoning district has been created to encourage more businesses to locate in the Buckingham County Industrial Park. County supervisors voted unanimously to create the neighborhood commercial district earlier this month.

According to County Zoning and Planning Administrator Rebecca S. Cobb and county documents, the purpose of the new zone that will encompass the approximately 160-acre park is to “encourage cluster development of residential, commercial, and public uses, thereby helping to discourage random scattering of these uses throughout agricultural and forested areas.” The industrial park, located along Wingo Road and Main Street southwest of Dillwyn, is currently zoned light industrial, or M-1.

While the primary purpose of the district is to permit business uses, the document states that  “some industry which will be unlikely to generate noise, light, odors, smoke or other obnoxious influences may be allowed.” Some of the permitted uses include golf courses, greenhouses, day-care centers, hotels, assisted-living facilities, restaurants, beauty shops and emergency service facilities.

Some of the identified special uses, which would require a county special use permit, are apartments, townhouses, private and public schools, auction barns, amusement centers, mini-storage facilities and drive-in theaters. Special use permit requests require public hearings and must be approved by the county board of supervisors to take effect.