Background
The proposed change would reduce the number of
administrative cuts from three to two, including the remaining
residue lot. Such a
change applies to all Zoning Ordinance district categories.
Any further subdivision would require a preliminary
subdivision, large lot (50 acres or greater), or a family
division. The proposed revision is detailed in the Requested Action
and Analysis sections below.
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Adopt Subdivision Ordinance text amendment
as reflected in either Attachments 1 or 2.
Attachment 1 reduces the number of administrative divisions
allowed for all zoning districts; while Attachment 2 restricts the
change to just the Rural Agriculture (RA), Rural Conservation (RC)
and Rural Residential (RR-2) zoning districts.
It is also recommended that the text amendment have an
effective date clause, which allows any administrative subdivision
filed prior to ordinance adoption to be subject to the
requirements at the time of their official filing.
Official filing means that the application has been
accepted for review and approval processing, and has met the
requisite technical submission requirements.
The Planning
Commission conducted its public hearing on this amendment on June
25th, and recommended in a 4 to 1 vote adoption of the
subdivision text amendment reflected in Attachment 1.
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Administrative
subdivisions have been permitted since 1968 with the enactment of
the Subdivision Ordinance for all zoning district categories.
The Zoning Ordinance’s sliding scale provisions for RA
and RC Districts went into affect in 1986.
At that time, it was established that the May 9, 1968
enactment date of the Subdivision Ordinance was the key date for
identifying the number of administrative cuts available for any
designated parcel of record in Fauquier County.
In addition, the residential density for RA and RC parcels
is based on the parent parcel of record’s size as of May 21,
1981.
The proposed change still
permits administrative subdivision cuts in all zoning district
categories (residential and non-residential), but it restricts
that division to one, plus the residue, if none have been
completed since the referenced 1968 date (refer to Attachment 1).
This proposal represents the text amendment submitted to
the Planning Commission for public hearing and comment. Note that
the current provision allows three lots, which includes the
residue; therefore this revision reduces the administrative
division by one lot. Note that the administrative practice for RA and RC
properties has been that, when the residue parcel is over fifty
(50) acres, it does not count as one of the three administrative
divisions.
Attachment 2 proposes to
change the number of authorized administrative cuts in just the
RA, RC and RR-2 (Rural Residential) districts, while the number of
administrative subdivision cuts for all other zoning districts
remains unchanged.
The proposed change will
allow the County to encourage more effective management and
protection of agricultural lands, steep slopes, and other key
environmental resources contained in the Rural Agriculture (RA)
and Rural Conservation (RC) and other zoning district
classifications, and limit the number administrative divisions,
which are not subject to stormwater, erosion and sediment control
management and other engineering requirements, and do not require
public streets in rural and service district areas.
From the staff’s
perspective, the principal focus of the amendment should be in the
rural areas (e.g., the RA, RC, and RR-2).
As a result of that emphasis, the Board of Supervisors may
want to consider limiting this change to only the RA, RC and RR-2
districts, which is reflected in Attachment 2.
As currently proposed through the Board of Supervisors’
referral, the proposed amendment affects all existing residential
and non-residential Zoning District categories, and is represented
as Attachment 1. This
text amendment does not affect family transfer divisions or the
preliminary subdivision process available to property owners.
The Planning Commission
requested that its June 27th public hearing comments
for this proposed text amendment be included for Board of
Supervisors’ reference. The
rough draft minutes for portion of the public hearing are included
as Attachment 4.
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