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Rural vision for Rt. 3?
Board wants to change county's land-use plan to limit business, housing growth on State Route 3
By GEORGE WHITEHURST
Date published: 7/14/2004 -- Free Lance-Star
Spotsylvania County supervisors are revisiting the past as they plan for the future of State Route 3 west of Five-Mile Fork.
The Board of Supervisors voted 4-3 yesterday to direct the Planning Department to draw up plans for removing a chunk of land along Route 3 from the county's designated growth area, which it calls the Primary Settlement District. The owners of the affected properties would not be allowed to hook up to county water and sewer.
The properties would be put in the county's Rural Development District, which calls for sparser growth.
The land between Spotswood Furnace Road and Route 3--which includes the Mullins farm--was moved from the rural district to the growth area in 2002 when supervisors amended zoning laws in hopes of better managing residential development.
The Mullins farm of nearly 800 acres was added because 55 acres of it had been zoned for commercial use and because the state planned to bring the Outer Connector--a proposed beltway around Fredericksburg--through the property. County planners had envisioned corporate offices popping up in the area.
Supervisor Hap Connors said he sees the change as "righting past wrongs." The reasons for rezoning the land to commercial and putting the farm in the growth area disappeared with the demise of the Outer Connector, he said in an interview yesterday. Supervisors withdrew support for the controversial project last year, and the regional transportation planning board followed suit.
When the Outer Connector seemed like at least a distant possibility, a Northern Virginia developer, Dogwood Development Group, wanted to build nearly 2,000 homes and up to 2.2 million square feet of businesses on the Mullins farm. Supervisors rejected that plan and since then some of the land has been sold to luxury home-builder Toll Brothers Inc., which plans to construct 225 houses there.
The farm's owner, John Mullins, who also owns Covenant Funeral Service, could not be reached for comment yesterday. He has not announced specific plans for his 55 acres of commercial land, but said in April 2003 that he planned to give the county some of it--acreage that saw fighting on the first day of the Battle of Chancellorsville during the Civil War.
Preservationists opposed the new-town project and have expressed interest in buying some of the farm from Mullins.
A joint public hearing on the supervisors' proposed boundary change will be held Aug. 10 before supervisors and the Planning Commission. Commissioners will make a recommendation to the board, and the supervisors will make the final decision.
Supervisor Gary Jackson, who along with Supervisors Emmitt Marshall and T.C. Waddy voted against the resolution yesterday, said he would prefer the commission hold its own hearing. "They don't need us breathing down their necks," Jackson said, suggesting the commissioners might simply parrot the opinions of a majority of supervisors.
Jackson, who said he did not want the Mullins tract added to the growth area in the first place, also suggested the board is rushing into a policy change without adequately studying the matter.
Marshall said he is "concerned" and "disturbed" that commercial developers are having the rug jerked out from under them. "I think it would be terrible to have 55 acres of commercial property, and you can't get water and sewer.
"To come along now and amend the comp plan and tell the owner of 55 acres of commercial property that, 'You won't be able to have the water and sewer to serve your property,' is quite a shock." he said.
At Marshall's urging, the supervisors amended the resolution to include language calling for study of the effect the change will have on commercial development between Route 3 and Spotswood Furnace Road.
But Board Chairman Bob Hagan suggested lack of water and sewer wouldn't necessarily choke off all commercial development.
"We even have schools that are on well and septic, and certainly schools are high-density uses of space," he said before yesterday's meeting.
Mullins' 55 acres was rezoned to commercial in December 1999. Critics complained that a lame-duck board approved the rezoning as a favor to Mullins.
Hagan and Connors said yesterday the proposed boundary change isn't intended to penalize Mullins or any other developers.
"I would not do something that I thought was going to tamper in any way with John Mullins' by-right ability," Hagan said. "Mr. Mullins will still have the right to proceed with the by-right development with the developer of his choice."
The proposal thrilled Caroline Hayden, a Spotsylvania preservation activist who wants to limit growth near the Chancellorsville battlefield.
"[Mullins farm] should not have been rezoned and placed in the Primary Settlement District because it brought further developmental pressure toward the battlefields," she said. "All of the battlefields are our primary tourism draw, and they are a great deal of what brings tourists to the area.
"We need to develop a preservation plan as part of our comprehensive plan."
Hagan stressed repeatedly that the board is acting on the wishes of Spotsylvania voters.
"It's a response to the fact that we do not want the growth to continue out Route 3," he said. "It's a response to the fact that in following the wishes of our constituents, we removed the Outer Connector from the VDOT plan. Once we removed that, it helped to back up the process to where we're able to prevent development from growing by leaps and bounds in that area."
Rural vision for Rt. 3?
Board wants to change county's land-use plan to limit business, housing growth on State Route 3
By GEORGE WHITEHURST
Date published: 7/14/2004 -- Free Lance-Star
Spotsylvania County supervisors are revisiting the past as they plan for the future of State Route 3 west of Five-Mile Fork.
The Board of Supervisors voted 4-3 yesterday to direct the Planning Department to draw up plans for removing a chunk of land along Route 3 from the county's designated growth area, which it calls the Primary Settlement District. The owners of the affected properties would not be allowed to hook up to county water and sewer.
The properties would be put in the county's Rural Development District, which calls for sparser growth.
The land between Spotswood Furnace Road and Route 3--which includes the Mullins farm--was moved from the rural district to the growth area in 2002 when supervisors amended zoning laws in hopes of better managing residential development.
The Mullins farm of nearly 800 acres was added because 55 acres of it had been zoned for commercial use and because the state planned to bring the Outer Connector--a proposed beltway around Fredericksburg--through the property. County planners had envisioned corporate offices popping up in the area.
Supervisor Hap Connors said he sees the change as "righting past wrongs." The reasons for rezoning the land to commercial and putting the farm in the growth area disappeared with the demise of the Outer Connector, he said in an interview yesterday. Supervisors withdrew support for the controversial project last year, and the regional transportation planning board followed suit.
When the Outer Connector seemed like at least a distant possibility, a Northern Virginia developer, Dogwood Development Group, wanted to build nearly 2,000 homes and up to 2.2 million square feet of businesses on the Mullins farm. Supervisors rejected that plan and since then some of the land has been sold to luxury home-builder Toll Brothers Inc., which plans to construct 225 houses there.
The farm's owner, John Mullins, who also owns Covenant Funeral Service, could not be reached for comment yesterday. He has not announced specific plans for his 55 acres of commercial land, but said in April 2003 that he planned to give the county some of it--acreage that saw fighting on the first day of the Battle of Chancellorsville during the Civil War.
Preservationists opposed the new-town project and have expressed interest in buying some of the farm from Mullins.
A joint public hearing on the supervisors' proposed boundary change will be held Aug. 10 before supervisors and the Planning Commission. Commissioners will make a recommendation to the board, and the supervisors will make the final decision.
Supervisor Gary Jackson, who along with Supervisors Emmitt Marshall and T.C. Waddy voted against the resolution yesterday, said he would prefer the commission hold its own hearing. "They don't need us breathing down their necks," Jackson said, suggesting the commissioners might simply parrot the opinions of a majority of supervisors.
Jackson, who said he did not want the Mullins tract added to the growth area in the first place, also suggested the board is rushing into a policy change without adequately studying the matter.
Marshall said he is "concerned" and "disturbed" that commercial developers are having the rug jerked out from under them. "I think it would be terrible to have 55 acres of commercial property, and you can't get water and sewer.
"To come along now and amend the comp plan and tell the owner of 55 acres of commercial property that, 'You won't be able to have the water and sewer to serve your property,' is quite a shock." he said.
At Marshall's urging, the supervisors amended the resolution to include language calling for study of the effect the change will have on commercial development between Route 3 and Spotswood Furnace Road.
But Board Chairman Bob Hagan suggested lack of water and sewer wouldn't necessarily choke off all commercial development.
"We even have schools that are on well and septic, and certainly schools are high-density uses of space," he said before yesterday's meeting.
Mullins' 55 acres was rezoned to commercial in December 1999. Critics complained that a lame-duck board approved the rezoning as a favor to Mullins.
Hagan and Connors said yesterday the proposed boundary change isn't intended to penalize Mullins or any other developers.
"I would not do something that I thought was going to tamper in any way with John Mullins' by-right ability," Hagan said. "Mr. Mullins will still have the right to proceed with the by-right development with the developer of his choice."
The proposal thrilled Caroline Hayden, a Spotsylvania preservation activist who wants to limit growth near the Chancellorsville battlefield.
"[Mullins farm] should not have been rezoned and placed in the Primary Settlement District because it brought further developmental pressure toward the battlefields," she said. "All of the battlefields are our primary tourism draw, and they are a great deal of what brings tourists to the area.
"We need to develop a preservation plan as part of our comprehensive plan."
Hagan stressed repeatedly that the board is acting on the wishes of Spotsylvania voters.
"It's a response to the fact that we do not want the growth to continue out Route 3," he said. "It's a response to the fact that in following the wishes of our constituents, we removed the Outer Connector from the VDOT plan. Once we removed that, it helped to back up the process to where we're able to prevent development from growing by leaps and bounds in that area."
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