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Applicant Request
The two applicants, Premier and Clyde, initially prepared
separate requests that Fauquier County include various
tracts of land in their control in the Warrenton Service
District. Subsequently the requests were combined, refer to
Figure 1. The combined application cites two grounds for a
Comprehensive Review:
1.
Overlooked in the 2002-2003 Comprehensive Plan Update
of the Service District; and that the
2.
Comprehensive Plan Goals would be better met if the
properties were included.
The Planning Commission was requested by Ms. Caroline
Atlee-Timlin, the owner of the adjacent property to Premier,
to have her 47.9 acre property included in the Service
District as well. The letter is included as Attachment 3.
Background
The tracts in question, and adjoining others, were included
within the 1994 Comprehensive Plan’s Warrenton Service
District. The properties were also planned for water
service and were so designated in the Fauquier County Water
and Sanitation Authority’s Water and Wastewater Master
Plan (March 1997), which is part of the County’s
Comprehensive Plan by reference in Chapter 9 – Public
Facilities and Utilities. During the 2003 Planning
Commission and Board Update Review of the Citizen Draft
Plan, the Town of Warrenton informed the County that it
could no longer provide municipal water and sewer service to
new developments in the Service District. Accordingly, the
Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors reduced the
Service District Boundary to those areas served through the
Town/County water and sewer service agreement or existing
WSA water service. The referenced tracts were excluded.
Since Plan adoption, the County has seen the proposed
extension of a public water line from New Baltimore south
(Atlee Road) to the Warrenton Chase subdivision which is
located adjacent to the Village of Frytown. The waterline
extension to Warrenton Chase passes through the area in
question – specifically the Clyde Tract, Figure 2. (This
extension of public water to Warrenton Chase was appropriate
since the Chapter 9 reference to the WSA Water and
Wastewater Master Plan of 1997 had already included
these tracts within an approved WSA ‘franchise area.’)
While it is not accurate to state that the tracts were
overlooked by the Planning Commission and Board of
Supervisors in 2003, the applicants could cite another
ground for review, namely:
Change in Circumstances – specifically a new availability of
public water lines in the Atlee Road and Frytown Road
location.
Considerations
A floodplain map and R-1 Zoning Boundaries (refer to Figure
4) show the Premier/Clyde Tract forms part of a
self-contained area with great utility to the eastern
portion of the Warrenton Service District. These
properties, which are all zoned R-1, connect with the
Warrenton community via the proposed Academy Hill extension,
Comfort Inn extended and a Frytown Road re-routed to
minimize the floodplain crossing. These road links proposed
are part of the adopted Warrenton Service District Plan.
From a community perspective, these road connections are
beneficial because they do much to reduce traffic congestion
in the Fishback and Breezewood neighborhoods in Warrenton
and divert traffic from the Route 29 Eastern Bypass.
Inclusion of the mini-area within the Service District has
certain lot yield advantages to the developer:
1.
Single family detached lots outside of a Service
District are obliged to identify three drainage fields – one
for immediate use and two reserve drainage fields – whereas
lots within the Service District need only two fields, that
for immediate use and one reserve field; and
2.
Provision of public water removes a further density
constraint. Individual wells must be located 20 feet from
basements, 50 feet from drainage fields and 10 feet from
property boundaries.
Meeting all these geometric requirements inevitably ‘costs’
about 15-20% of lot yield. Inclusion within a service
district and provision of public water relieves the
developer of the second reserve drainage field and well
distance requirements, and permits a slightly higher lot
yield of five or six lots.
On the other hand, inclusion of these properties in the
Service District enhances the ability of the County to have
the property developers construct the proposed Plan roads,
which might otherwise not be realized for many years. The
Virginia Department of Transportation currently is facing
significant funding constraints statewide, and cannot be
expected to fund and construct these connecting road links
in the short term.
Conclusion
CPAM05-CT-006 Premier/Clyde reaches the Board of Supervisors
at an opportune time. A new public water line extended
through the Clyde parcel alters the fundamental utility
situation that caused the County to exclude these R-1 zoned
tracts two years ago. Furthermore, a reconstituted
Warrenton Citizen Committee has resolved a transportation
issue by proposing linkages between Comfort Inn / Academy
Hill / Frytown Roads, which occur on and around these
properties. These linkages were included in the adopted
Service District Plan. Given the pivotal Warrenton Service
District infrastructure associated with these tracts, it
would be reasonable to include them in the Service
District. Figures 5 and 6 identify two possible Service
District boundaries. In Figure 5, the boundary merely
‘squares off’ Premier/Clyde with the inclusion of five
single family lots. In Figure 6, the boundary contains all
of the R-1 zoned land north of Cedar Run. The advantage of
this boundary is that road improvements to both Atlee Road
and Frytown Road could become a public-private venture.
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