|
A.
Background
Information. The entire project area of Brookside Farm and Brookside
encompasses approximately 1,060 acres.
The former Waterfield project (+ 440 acres) is now
named Brookside Farm, while the second project element is called
Brookside (+ 620 acres), and that includes the R.G.
Holdings (Gerber tracts) and all other new property additions.
The applicant has also presented the following
applications to the County in June 2001 for review and action as
a master planned community:
1.
An amendment to the Comprehensive Plan in order to expand
the AB-1 WSA Public Sewer & Water Phase I Area into
Brookside;
2.
Proffer Amendments to the Approved Waterfield Rezoning,
Including Modifications to Neighborhood, Traditional and Village
Alley Lot Dimensions;
3.
Special Exception approval to reduce the required amount
of open space in an R-1 clustered subdivision for Brookside;
4.
Special Exception approval for floodplain uses and to
construct two roadway crossings in the floodplain.
This special exception applies to the Brookside Farm and
Brookside properties;
5.
Special Exception approval to construct utility
structures for sewer, gas and electric for both project areas;
6.
Preliminary Plat approval for the entire combined
residential development of Waterfield and Brookside for a total
of 942 single-family residential lots.
·
Subdivision
Status. Thirty-three
lots have been approved through the final plat process; another
fifty lots were separated from the Brookside preliminary plat. The Board of Supervisors denied the latter plat; however,
the applicant can proceed with final engineering and platting if
the reasons for denial are resolved.
The eighty-three lots range in size from 25,000 square
feet to over one acre in size, and are planned to be served
through individual drainfields.
Including these lots result in a total of 975
single-family lots within the overall project.
·
Preliminary
Plan Action. This
application is not subject to the public hearing.
Its overall design is dependent upon the approval of the
preceding applications outlined in 1-5 being approved.
Master Planned Community Package
The applicant
requested, at the time of their original filing with the County,
that the six previously referenced applications proceed to the
Board of Supervisors as a comprehensive package.
Even though this series of applications had a Planning
Commission public hearing in September of 2001, the applicant
did not initiate any substantive revisions to this package until
early December 2001. Since
September 2001, the Planning Commission considered the entire
package incomplete, and had identified a long list of issues
that needed resolution, along with a series of recommended
refinements.
The
Planning Commission had to act on this series of applications at
its December 2001 meeting. Its allowable review time, under mandatory Zoning Ordinance
and Code of Virginia requirements, had expired.
Relief from the action deadline of ninety-days could
occur only if the applicant granted a postponement.
No postponement request was offered.
As a result, the Planning Commission voted unanimously to
deny all the applications for the reasons cited in the December
20th staff report and in the two denial resolutions.
That information can be provided to the Board of
Supervisors upon request; however, that report is now dated, due
to ongoing project changes filed on March 1, 2002.
B. No-Change
Option v. Proposed Master Planned Community.
At present, the approved 667 residential unit Waterfield
rezoning is not well integrated into the adjoining
neighborhoods, exacerbates traffic problems and provides no
alternative relief from future resident reliance on Lake Drive,
Riley Road and Shepherdstown Road as the principle access
points. The
existing option provides the County with no assured
interconnection between Waterfield and the Vint Hill Parkway.
Note that the
Brookside element (R.G.
Holdings and other properties), which are not part of the
Waterfield project, are currently zoned R-1 (one dwelling
unit/acre) and could yield approximately 175 homes using
drainfields through the conventional (“by-right”)
subdivision approval process.
This process includes Planning Commission and Board of
Supervisors review and action on the preliminary subdivision.
Hence, Waterfield and the referenced properties could
currently yield up to 842 homes by right, subject to meeting all
County ordinance and state permitting requirements.
That is +133 homes less than the current proposal
before the County for approval action.
As
indicated at the Planning Commission sessions, the denial of all
the proposed applications for Brookside Farm and Brookside
eliminates several key opportunities, whose community-wide
benefits need to be weighed carefully.
The combined and pending project proposals have offered a
master plan which presents prospects for improved distribution
of traffic and transportation access, open space and parks,
pedestrian trails and linkages to existing neighborhoods,
provision of a middle school site within the neighborhoods
served, expansion and improvements to a dated wastewater
treatment facility at Vint Hill.
There were a
series of unresolved issues at the Planning Commission level,
which need far more thorough review and discussion between the
Board of Supervisors and the applicant.
Those issues are the:
·
Timing and location of all road improvements
needed to meet and resolve the traffic impacts of the entire
master planned community, and not timed to just one project
neighborhood (for example, just Waterfield);
·
Development of a program delivering the Vint Hill
Parkway from the planned Vint Hill traffic circle to Riley Road
much earlier in the overall development program;
·
Solving the construction traffic issue, and
diverting that traffic from using Lake Drive and Sherpherdstown
Road;
·
Retaining the fifty-foot perimeter Brookfield Farm
(Waterfield) project buffer as originally approved. That original buffer was located between the proposed lot
and the project property line, and resulted in a
seventy-five-foot setback and homeowner association maintenance
within the fifty-foot easement, with no lot owner obstructions.
The current proposal included this easement within only
the lot area;
·
Establishment of parks and open space linkages to
this project, Vint Hill and the adjoining and existing
neighborhoods with a system of trails and bikepaths providing
public access;
·
Provision of public access to the lakes in
Brookside Farm;
·
Provision of proper essential repairs for dam
structures, as appropriate, to assure their effective long-term
functions;
·
Reduction in open space for the Brookside
residential subdivision justified clearly;
·
Clear justification of the Brookside Farm
requested modifications, which promote more traditional
neighborhoods, including graphics portraying the lot dimensions,
setbacks, house and garage locations.
The Zoning Ordinance indicates that the applicant must
demonstrate that these modifications “will satisfy public
purposes of the ordinance and regulations to at least an
equivalent degree;” and
·
Submission of the mandatory plans for
architectural controls and design standards, which shall govern
the development and construction of improvements on the
property. Such plans are required through the Zoning Ordinance, and
must be presented and approved as part of the rezoning. No such
plans have been filed.
The Applicant
submitted the revised Proffer Statement and associated Concept
Development Plan on March 1st for County review.
Preliminary staff review regarding the latter issues and
the referenced Proffer Statement revisions is included as
Attachment
|