The Gloucester County Board of Zoning Appeals approved a special exception request for a seafood processing operation during a meeting held March 27 in the colonial courthouse.

Property owner Donald A. Perry Jr. was granted permission to raise fish in cages in an existing freshwater pond. The property is located off Northwoods Lane in the Petsworth Magisterial District and is zoned Rural Countryside (RC-1).

Perry wants to raise channel catfish and rainbow trout.

No one spoke against the application during a public hearing, and the applicant spoke only briefly, said Gloucester planner Tripp Little. Staff recommended the special exception be granted.

Little said that the BZA set the following conditions on Perry’s operation:

—The use to be permitted and initiated within 12 months of BZA approval; hours of operation to be limited to daylight hours; no employees other than the owner(s); customers by appointment only, and a maximum of two customers on the premises at any time.

The pond is located well within Perry’s 46-acre property, Little said, and is not close to any other property.

In a staff analysis, Little said that all equipment and machinery shall be operated and maintained to minimize dust, noise, odor and vibration. Also, all outside storage areas must be screened from view on all sides.

"Staff concludes this proposal, as presented, will not be hazardous or disturbing to existing and future neighboring uses," Little said.

Perry already had received a permit to operate an aquaculture facility from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. That permit said the operator of a commercial catfish or trout fishing pond shall be required to furnish a bill of sale to each fisherman taking catfish or trout there.