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Virginia Barbecue owner Rick Ivey rides the fiberglass pig he's been asked to remove from the rooftop of his Stafford eatery.
Rick Ivey had this fiberglass pig shipped from Texas to call attention to his North Stafford restaurant, Virginia Barbecue. Ivey owns two other restaurants, in Fredericksburg and Ashland. |
U.S. 1 through Stafford County is not a pigsty, and county officials say it shouldn't look like one.
That's why they say the gigantic fiberglass Hampshire porker that peers down onto the highway from its perch atop Virginia Barbecue Co. has got to go.
The county has given its owner, Rick Ivey, a month to take it down or face a fine.
But Ivey, who owns the restaurant across the road from Aquia Towne Center and its sister eatery in Fredericksburg, said he plans to appeal.
He likes the pig. His customers like the pig.
And some of them think the county officials are just being pig-headed by asking him to take it down.
"I think there are a lot of worse things to look at on the side of the road than a pig on a roof," said Ed Greiner, a Stafford man who stopped for lunch at the Virginia Barbecue Co. before heading down Interstate 95.
But Stafford Supervisor Kandy Hilliard, who represents the stretch of U.S. 1 that includes Ivey's restaurant, said she thinks the roadside kitsch detracts from the atmosphere of the area, which also includes the historic Aquia Episcopal Church.
It's not personal, she said. She is a Virginia Barbecue Co. customer herself. But she has been trying to spruce up the county since she was elected in 2001, initiating a litter prevention and cleanup campaign and applying for grants to beautify the Stafford Courthouse area. The pig isn't helping her cause.
"I have a real desire to improve the aesthetics of the county, and you have to start somewhere," Hilliard said. "If he wants to have the pig as part of the decor, that's fine. But put it down so it's not the only thing you see when you look up the street."
Ivey said he hoisted the pig, a $1,100 painted fiberglass statue about 41/2 feet tall, a day or two after the U.S. 1 restaurant opened last November. He wanted to attract attention to his new eatery in a building formerly occupied by a Roy Rogers franchise.
"I'm not a big corporation that can afford to spend a lot of money on signs," he said. "This is one way to get a big impact for not much money."
Not long after that, county officials told him that it violated the county's sign ordinance and would have to come down.
He obeyed, but not for long.
"I had so many customers saying, 'Where's the pig? We miss the pig,' so I put it back up," Ivey said. "I don't want to get any trouble with the county, but the customers want it up, and I just felt kind of obligated to put it back up."
In January, he received a formal written notice of violation from the county.
The sign ordinance he is violating doesn't specifically prohibit animals or any other type of sign on roofs, but it does specify that all signs must be compatible with the surroundings.
The county will work with Ivey to bring his pig into compliance, Economic Development Director Tim Baroody said.
His office had been encouraging Ivey to open a branch of his restaurant in Stafford for a couple of years. Ivey said the county even helped him find the right location.
At this point, Baroody said, Ivey can turn to the Board of Zoning Appeals or apply for a conditional-use permit for the pig.
Though the county's sign ordinance is restrictive and enforcement has been getting stricter since the Board of Supervisors hired more code inspectors six months ago, the county can bend the rules if the situation requires, Baroody said.
Just a couple of months ago, supervisors eased the height requirements for signs at the Wingate Inn hotel and conference center near Falmouth because the owner complained that visitors would not be able to find his business without taller signs.
"Stafford County is flexible and able to compromise," Baroody said. "We pride ourselves in being business-friendly, and we work through issues like this every day."
Ivey said he wants to keep the pig on the roof, but he isn't willing to pay a fine for that privilege.
"If they make me take it down, they make me take it down," he said. "But it's going to stay here one way or another, if it has to be inside or on a pole or somewhere else."
To reach RUTH FINCH: 540/720-1622 rfinch@freelancestar.com
