Board shelves zoning amendments

The Culpeper County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to shelve discussions of proposed zoning ordinance amendments that would allow cluster divisions in agricultural and rural zoning districts pending the result of an Orange County case questioning the constitutionality of similar ordinances.

The proposal was discussed during an afternoon board work session. At a December public hearing, the Planning Commission voted 6-2 to forward the amendments to the board despite several county residents speaking in opposition to the proposal. Tuesday afternoon, county planning director, John Egertson, outlined the amendments for the board.

Although the board thanked the Planning Commission for its hard work in putting the deal together, nearly all members agreed that more tweaking was necessary.

“I think they have the genesis of a good program,” said West Fairfax district supervisor, Steve Nixon. “It’s very much a compromise proposal.”

Jefferson district supervisor, Brad Rosenberger, said that it is too wide open.

‘The best thing for us to do is put this thing on the shelf,” he said.

All other board members also decided that waiting for the result of the Orange case then discussing the issue further at that time is the best approach save for Salem district supervisor, Tom Underwood, who favored reworking the proposal.

“I believe what we’re doing is illegal,” said Underwood. “I would like to see this move forward without the open space provision.”

He said that there currently is a standoff between those that want to preserve property rights and those that want to combat housing density.

Background

Under the current system, two lots can be divided from any parcel once every five years. Agricultural (A-1) lots require a five-acre minimum with 250 feet of state road frontage and rural (RA) lots require a three-acre minimum and 200 feet of road frontage. Behind those, 10-acre lots can be created.

If approved, the cluster option would allow the parcel to be analyzed to determine how many minor division lots could be realized in an 11-year period, which is three cycles with a maximum of 27 lots.

Under the cluster option, for A-1 land, 70 percent of the parcel must be set aside for one building and the remaining portion can be divided into as small as 1.5-acre lots. For RA land, 65 percent of the parcel must be set aside and rest can be divided into 1.25-acre lots. He said that the large lots would not be allowed to further subdivide.

Several Culpeper County officials said they did not have direct knowledge of the Orange County case and Orange County administrator, Julie Jordan, forwarded questions about the case to their lawyer who was unavailable for comment Wednesday.