MEMORANDUM

TO:                 Fauquier County Planning Commission

FROM:           Deirdre Clark, Senior Planner

DATE:            May 30, 2002

SUBJECT:     Preliminary Plat #PP02-CR-10, Shipe’s Ridge

BACKGROUND:

The applicant is seeking approval of a preliminary subdivision plat to divide ±150.5 acres zoned RA (Rural Agricultural) into three (3) residential lots and a residue parcel.  The lots range in size from 2 acres to ±3 acres.  A companion administrative division will create an additional 3 lots from the residue parcel. 

The property is located on the south side of Elk Run Road (State Route 806), between its intersection with Ensors Shop Road (State Route 637) and Roselawn Lane.

At its April 25, 2002 meeting, at the request of the applicant, the Planning Commission postponed action on this application for 30 days to allow the applicant time to make revisions to the preliminary plan and to respond to outstanding concerns.  At the April Planning Commission meeting, the following issues were noted:

1.       A new private street is proposed to provide access to the administrative lots and the residue parcel.

2.       Access with a minimum of three-hundred (300) feet frontage along a public street is required for the residue parcel.

3.       Re-configuration of the preliminary plat is necessary to meet the frontage   requirement unless the applicant applies for, and receives, a special exception to allow access to the residue parcel by way of a private street.

Staff has met with the applicant and/or her representative on two occasions since April 25^th.  A number of solutions were proposed and discussed.  The applicant considered the options of constructing a public road to meet frontage requirements, reducing the number of lots so that the residue lot might have frontage on the existing public street, or creating a family transfer lot to be served by a private street.  However, the questions of whether or not the residue may be served by a private street, or if a pipestem might be used to access a lot in a RA (Rural Agricultural) zone, has yet to be resolved.  Staff suggests that the Planning Commission consider the following options:

1.       Action on this request might be postponed to allow the applicant additional time to resolve the issue; or

2.       The Planning Commission might reject the application and the applicant might submit a revised plan in the future.