By Right or By Wrong?
The Page County Planning Commission is ready to consider changes to the zoning ordinance called the “By Right Subdivision” laws. On August 28, the Planning Commission watched a presentation by our county planner, Kevin Henry, about the consequences of our current By Right subdivision ordinance (county code 100). The problem, according to Mr. Henry’s presentation, is that the county’s code has a loophole. Some time ago, the county passed laws that you could only subdivide your land a limited number of times per so many years. The intention of that law, I can only infer from the presentation, was to slow growth and chase away developers. But there are two loopholes in the county code.
The first loophole is that after you subdivide once, the newly platted land becomes its own “parent tract” and it can subdivide again. This allows the land to be divided into more and more pieces, more quickly than the county intended.
The second loophole is that families can subdivide the land for their own use, and then the new family member can sell off the land.
I’m somewhat confused about what the rules are. As I get more into this, I’ll look up the codes and figure out the point better. As soon as I do, I’ll post them here.
Why is this a problem? Mr. Henry showed that a plot of land could then be fully developed within, say, a ten year period, but the streets would be all private roads, not state roads, and they wouldn’t follow the rules of the Virginia Dept of Transportation, and they wouldn’t be well maintained. Plus, the lot sizes would be all different, and in many cases there would be problems with septic fields for one piece of land actually being on somebody else’s property . The privately owned roads would then cause problems for snow removal, emergency services, fire trucks, etc. Plus, the county would not get a chance to get a developer to offer “proffers” for the development, and services required by the people who live there would not get paid for by the developers of the property.
On top of all that, when a person gets permission for the new plat (and these permission requests are coming into the county office about 1 every 3 days), they don’t have to show the surrounding land on their plat. That means they can get permission for a plat, but when the new owner tries to get a building permit, the county might have to say, “no, this is not a buildable lot because it’s next to a chicken farm and you need a 300 foot setback”. And then the new owner would be mad at the county instead of being mad at the person who sold him an unbuildable lot.
The Board of Supervisors has asked the Planning Commission to take an action to “fix” this ordinance within 100 days.
The Planning Commission set up a subcommittee to look into this and report back. The subcommittee consists of Planning Commissioners: Hammel, Short, DeSerio and one private citizen, Mr. John Sylvester. Another private citizen will be asked to join the committee.
My opinion:
On the one hand, we say we “don’t want developers”.
On the other hand, our County Planner points out that developers bring proffers for payment for roads, new schools, and other payments for services the county needs. Without them, we get development with scraggly roads, people stuck with no access, people with no septic fields on their land, etc. And, the county is left having to raise property taxes because they couldn’t squeeze some bucks out of the developers.
My personal opinion is:
Page County people LIKE scraggly roads with no access.
I personally see absolutely nothing wrong with a development where all the lots are different sizes, all the houses are different styles, and some people have to expect that if it snows, they’re stuck inside until it melts.
And if you lived where I live (and I know many of you do live in places like I live) you have absolutely no expectation that a fire truck or an Emergency Medical Technician would ever be able to show up in time when you need them. Not due to any fault of theirs, but just because they can’t get here that easily. An example: I tried to get somebody to deliver firewood, and they told me there was a $10 surcharge per truckload, just for the inconvenience of driving down my road.
So on the one hand, we have a Board of Supervisors who turns down Danny Comer’s request to build a duplex on his own land, because it’s “spot zoning”, considers giving the airplane owners a break and letting the airport grow so that the Learjets can come in, and wants to change the By Right subdivision ordinance so we won’t have all these unmaintained dirt roads.
And on the other hand, we have nearly universal agreement in the county that nobody wants the Big Bad Developers (hereafter referred to as The Wolves) to come in and turn our beautiful land into Warrenton.
I have to say, I think if you asked the citizens of the county if we should pass laws to prevent people from cutting up their land and selling it whatever way they want, to whomever they want, so that there would be better emergency access for services, the chances are the vote would come out to say, “Keep your emergency services. Let us alone.”
Because, you see, that’s what makes Page Page. We have our Supervisors saying, “we want to maintain the rural nature of the county.”
That’s what the rural nature is. Dirt roads. Poor access. Nothing standard.
I don’t think we can have both. What will it be, Supervisors? Learjets and Planned Subdivisions? Or Country Living?
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17 comments:
please forgive me, I only skimmed your personal comments. But I take the opposite view, I believe our BOS need to balance the issues here...yes, we want to keep the County rural, but their is also the need and DUTY to maintian the orderly development of the County AND maintain the safety/wellfare for its citizenry...therfore simply allowing for unchecked development on dirt roads with poor access is very, very unwise...go to West-by-God sometime, you will see what I mean..
First of all the there are no developers that are using the so called by -right subdivision loop hole never have never will, developers come in and want to build most of the houses in a timely fashion, not strung out over years for just a few houses , I hope the county is not looking at sticking there hands any further down in private citizens pockets for any type of proffers.The only issue that I feel the county has a valid point on is the fact that the septic should be on the property with the house and not on someone else through an easement, other wise leave us alone.
Anonymous, I don't know what West-by-God is. Is it a place? Kevin Henry was concerned because there are a lot of people putting in requests for these by right subdivisions. I think it's most likely just people who have heard there is this big zoning rewrite coming, so they're putting in their requests to make sure they don't miss the deadline.
I know one guy who is subdividing his land, but he doesn't intend to do anything with it. He's just subdividing it while he still can, in anticipation of zoning changes.
Alice
OH -- also, anybody who is interested in this, please be sure to go to one of the public meetings that Kevin Henry is running. One will be on Sep 5 at Luray Elementary school at 7 p.m. and another one (the same thing) will be at Shenandoah Elementary School on Sep 6 at 7 p.m.
There was a small ad in the classified section of the paper. I don't know why the local paper can't run articles about things like this so people can know to show up.
West-by-God is local vernacular for West Virginia...
There is a balance that's needed. And that makes it a really hard thing to do. On the one hand, we'd like to think that if someone needs an ambulance, that one will be coming. On the other hand, that shouldn't mean we all have to live in planned subdivisions. Some of us like the unplanned nature of a rural environment. So what middle ground can be struck that would allow us to have emergency services, but not at the price of freedom to live "off the reservation" so to speak.
I think your are confusing "planned subdivisions" with the subdivision ordinance..
also, Frank Desario is punk...sorry for the personal attack, but he deserves it...
love the blog
This will be brought up at the community meetings, but one thing that needs to be considered is the fact that many of these private roads cross the property of others. Easements-of-way are nothing more than permission to cross ones property. This may be fine if there is a summer cottage or 50 acres of farm land being accessed. However, when this land becomes broken into lots and built on, the servient property owner(s) bear a significant burden. Before one cries "property rights, property rights" they should remember there are property owners who are negatively affected by the creation of these de-facto housing developments. Without a hearing process, as in a rezoning, the grantor of the easement may end up with much more use than he bargained for when he first granted the easement (if he even had a choice in the matter). While he could possibly win an injunction for inconsistent use, this would be yet another burden on the owner of the property.
DARREL I dont think what your saying is an issue, I would put this to a challenge to you to provide me with one example where this has happened since the by -right subdivision came to be a couple years ago, any easements that were given before that were probably not 50 feet so there for woulnd't be able to be used as an easement for additional subdividing.Anyone that has done it in the past couple years I think they are fully aware of the results it could or does have, RESPECTIVELY YOURS- JIM TURNER
Riverbend Rd in the Newport area. 50 foot ROW to land which just recently began to be developed. The 50' ROW was put in place in the early '80s. I can provide instrument numbers if you wish. Granted, there are only a few homes there now but the lots are designated. The assumption is this is about hundred home developments, but this can be, and usually is, about four or five lots. This may not seem like a big deal, but having a road running through your yard that is basically open for public use can be a burden on the landowner.
So, Darrell, please clarify for me. Is the problem that a Right of Way is granted to what seems like an isolated single plat of land at one time, and then later, maybe even twenty years later, that ROW is no longer going to just one house, but to a group of 4 or 5 or 100 houses, and now suddenly the person who granted the ROW discovers that there is a road passing through their land? So the problem in that case is that a ROW can seem like a small inconvenience when it's one house, but can turn into a nightmare when the By Right laws allow it to be developed?
Alice
That is the potential. I don't know if this is a huge problem in the county, just one of the issues that needs to be considered as it affects property rights on both sides. Usually one can argue "this is my land and I can do with it as I please", but when what one does with his property directly affects another in a negative manner, there is a rights issue there. I would like to see issues like this brought out and the pros and cons discussed rather starting off with two sides with their heels dug in.
After I read the the comments on this blog I found myself thinking, he has a point, she has point, he has point, etc.
Mr. Short is right on the money with his comment about everyone carefully considering and discussing the pros and cons of not only by-right subdivision issues but all of the issues that will be forthcoming as the evolution of the zoning ordinance begins. My guess is there is a solution out there somewhere that will satify most if not all concerns. The trick will be to address the issues openly and work together as problem-solvers and not adversaries.
I have grubbed up copies of the comprehensive plans, zoning ordinances and subdivision ordinances for Rockingham and Warren County. I realize that neither is a perfect fit for Page. But, I thought it might be helpful to use them as points of departure in looking for solutions. I will ask Alice to post them. Unfortunately, a lot of the documents are in .PDF format so the files are huge and it may not be possible. I would be more than willing to put them on CD-ROM and get them to those who are dial-up challenged and might find them useful. If there is enough interest, I will try to get copies in native format (MS WORD)from Warren and Rockingham.
If anyone knows of other counites whose Comp Plan, zoning ordinances and zubdivision rrdinances might be of use, let me know and I'll see if they are available on-line.
Surely anyone purchasing property has to have due diligence to understand what implications there are with purchasing propert with an existing right of way, and if a realtor sells the property under the code of virginia these things by law have to be disclosed, I can am sure as with most issues there are improvements that can be made with out being to harsh, but I could say the same thing about the flood plain issue , just look at the route it was about to take , in which I would remind you Mr. Short that you were on the sub-committee and that you along with the rest of the commission voted to approve it, and send it to the B.O.S..
I think government, local, state, or federal, is not responsible to protect people from themselves. If people buy land that is hard to access, has bad roads, whatever . . that's their problem. They can't look to the government to keep them from doing things that may turn out to be dumb. Why? Because one man's junk is another man's treasure. A lot of people LIKE dirt roads and difficult access and isolation. Who is the government to tell people they can't have it because it's hard for the fire trucks to get there? The government can say, "Hey, pal, the fire trucks not coming if you buy that." but they shouldn't say, "you can't buy it".
I think government, local, state, or federal, is not responsible to protect people from themselves. If people buy land that is hard to access, has bad roads, whatever . . that's their problem. They can't look to the government to keep them from doing things that may turn out to be dumb. Why? Because one man's junk is another man's treasure. A lot of people LIKE dirt roads and difficult access and isolation. Who is the government to tell people they can't have it because it's hard for the fire trucks to get there? The government can say, "Hey, pal, the fire trucks not coming if you buy that." but they shouldn't say, "you can't buy it".
Don't get me wrong I am all for keeping Page county rural to a certain point, but it seems to me that the govement that is supposedly working on behalf of the people is willing to keep it rural at any cost, what ever that might mean to average joe and jane tax payer, I am still committed to my hopes that something special has to happen this election in order to save our fair county,I would cation all voters be aware of stragers bearing gifts.
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