Charlottesville Tomorrow Blog

Boyd discusses rural area ordinances on WINA

Ken Boyd, the Chairman of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, appeared this afternoon on the Schilling Show with host Rob Schilling on WINA AM 1070.  Schilling asked Boyd to respond to the decision made last week, during a meeting which Boyd missed while traveling out of town, that put on the Supervisors' agenda for action tomorrow three changes to rural area ordinances related to holding periods on family sub-divisions, stream buffers, and driveways across steep slopes.

Podcast produced by Charlottesville Tomorrow * Player by Odeo

Listen using player above or download the podcast:Download 20080122-Boyd-WINA.mp3

Boyd said he was surprised by the Board's action which came on a 5-0 vote which Supervisor Lindsay Dorrier (Scottsville) unsuccessfully tried to have reconsidered.  The agenda item for rural area ordinances was added to the end of a previously scheduled work session which does not have time allocated for public comment. 

"It is my full intention...as chair, if I can exercise my prerogative as chair, I’m going to open up [this item] to public input if there are people who want to speak about this, because I don’t think that we can ever hear too much from the public, and I think it would be an injustice not to listen to them one more time," said Boyd on Schilling's radio program.  "I guess there are some parliamentary procedures that my colleagues could take to prevent that from happening, but I have intention of taking public input on this tomorrow."

Boyd expressed his preference for additional review of each ordinance individually with separate opportunities for additional public comment.  The following changes are under consideration [all details are available on the Albemarle County website]:

• Family sub-divisions
  • Currently: No waiting period to create a new lot for a family member.  A two-year holding period exists today for the lot after it is created (aka a '0/2' holding period).
  • Proposed: A four-year waiting period before a new lot can be created followed by another four-year holding period afterwards (aka a '4/4' holding period).
• Stream buffers (non development areas)
  
  • Currently: 100' buffers are in place on perennial and intermittent streams in roughly half of Albemarle County that is part of the water supply protection area (i.e. the watershed for public water supply).
  • Proposed: To add 100' buffers to perennial and intermittent streams in the remaining portions of the County's rural area.
• Lot access requirements (driveways across steep slopes)
  
  • Currently: Driveways may cross critical slopes (which are otherwise protected from disturbance) if the owner shows that no reasonable alternative exists.  Waivers to disturb critical slopes are available.
  • Proposed: In order to provide safe and reasonable access for public safety vehicles, driveway grades shall not exceed 16% in the County's rural areas and should provide turn around area for public safety vehicles.  Waivers are available.  Lots already on record will be exempt if property owner is establishing the first dwelling on property and the lot cannot be developed without a driveway with a grade in excess of 16%. [Note: Other zoning text amendments related to critical slopes were withdrawn from consideration in the Board's action last week]

Brian Wheeler

County planners consider waiver process as a way to streamline development

At their meeting on November 20, 2007, the Albemarle County Planning Commission held a work session to consider proposals for streamlining the development review process.  A series of six recommendations were presented by staff which, if approved, would empower them to administratively review certain issues currently requiring waivers without bringing the requests before the Planning Commission.  According to the staff report, they had “considered which issues may be taking unnecessary agenda time,” and they focused on the goal of “streamlining the review of minor issues in the Development Areas and consequently allowing the Commission to have more time to focus on policy issues.”

In early 2006, Supervisor Ken Boyd (Rivanna) initiated the formation of a County task force to review the County’s development process.  The goal at the time was to eliminate obstacles and inefficiencies leading to developer frustration and to facilitate new development inside the designated growth areas instead of in the rural countryside.  The task force recommendations were received by the Board of Supervisors in May 2007 and there was consensus to have staff move forward with the highest priority recommendations to improve the review process in the areas of private roads, critical slopes, and buffers. 

Of the six recommendations brought to the Planning Commission, three were proposed by staff and three by the task force.  All apply primarily to development in the designated growth areas.

Administrative waivers under review include the following:

1. Buffer disturbances (task force recommendation)
2. Separate driveway access for split properties (staff recommendation)
3. Site plan waivers (staff recommendation)
4. Open space dedications (staff recommendation)
5. Critical slope disturbances (task force recommendation)
6. Private roads (task force recommendation)

In their presentation, staff took the matter of private road waivers off the table since it is not an issue generating recurring waiver requests.  That left five recommendations for consideration by the commission.

An increase in staff authority to approve waivers means these matters would not be discussed at a public hearing before the Planning Commission.  To address a concern raised by the Board of Supervisors related to this diminished opportunity for public input, staff recommended that adjacent property owners continue to be mailed a written notice that a waiver request for one of these issues was under review.  The public would have an opportunity to provide feedback to staff in advance of their decision, but not in public before the Planning Commission. 

Critical slope waivers were the focus of the majority of the discussion. Albemarle’s zoning ordinance requires Planning Commission approval to disturb critical slopes in the County’s designated growth areas.  Staff recommended codifying the existing practice of allowing man made critical slopes to be disturbed when requested by a developer.  However, they sought additional feedback from the Commission as to how to approach all other critical slope disturbances.

Three critical slope options were suggested:

A) Remove the prohibition on critical slope disturbances altogether in the growth areas and rely on measures detailed in the water protection ordinance.
B) Allow disturbance of critical slopes within a specified area limit (e.g. not to exceed 10,000 sq.ft.).  Disturbances above that limit would require Commission review.
C)  Develop very specific criteria in new regulations which would be used by staff assessing critical slope disturbance requests and mitigation measures.

In the discussion, Commissioners expressed reservations about the approaches in options A & B and they asked for staff to return with more information about the specific criteria to be used in option C.

Next, staff will prepare a resolution of intent for the commission to consider at an upcoming meeting that puts in motion staff’s work developing new ordinance language for all five of the administrative waiver proposals.  Before ordinance changes receive a public hearing, the commission will hold another work session to review the staff’s final recommendations in a summary form as opposed to in the legal language of a draft ordinance.

Next month the Planning Commission is also expected to receive staff recommendations on improving the submission process for rezoning requests that would set limits on the number of deferrals a developer could receive for each of their projects.  Staff believes the development review process can be improved with clearer guidelines about when a project will be scheduled for a public hearing and when a deferral will be an option.  Today, developers can repeatedly seek a deferral, and avoid having their plan rejected, in an effort to refine their plan after receiving staff, public and Commission feedback. Staff would prefer to use work sessions and a more flexible public hearing schedule to make efficient use of staff resources and to ensure only complete plans which address matters brought up by staff or in a work session reach a public hearing for action.

Brian Wheeler

Supervisor Sally Thomas encourages Board to improve public input process

At the start of their meeting on October 3, 2007, Supervisor Sally Thomas (Samuel Miller) encouraged her colleagues to give some thought as to how the public input process could be improved for matters before the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. 

Thomas said that, in response to recent public hearings, she thought it was unfortunate that changes in state law that had taken effect July 1st have created obstacles for the board to respond to public comment and to making adjustments to developer proffers after a public hearing had been opened.  If material changes are made, the law requires a new public hearing to be scheduled.  Thomas later specified to Charlottesville Tomorrow that she was thinking of the recent public hearings for both Biscuit Run and Wendell Wood’s NGIC expansion project. 

Thomas suggested that the Board consider taking public comment during work sessions so as to provide an earlier opportunity to receive feedback.  This has been a practice adopted by the Albemarle County Planning Commission in recent years.  Thomas said such participation would be one approach to allow for meaningful public input at the point in time when the Supervisors could still respond and make changes to a proposal before the Board.  “I have some fond memories of times when we were very responsive to the public, on sometimes small things,” said Thomas.

Chairman Ken Boyd (Rivanna) agreed.  “I think that’s an excellent idea.”  He asked the County Attorney for more detailed information on the legal restrictions placed on the Board with respect to what constitutes a material change to a proffer.

“I think that the legislation that has passed has actually backfired,” said Supervisor Dennis Rooker (Jack Jouett). “We ought to talk to our legislators about amending that legislation because no matter how many work sessions you have…the most people are going to show up at the public hearing when you are supposed to make your decision.”  Rooker said it was “ridiculous” that the Board was now put in a position of being unable to act on public comment without starting the review process over by advertising another public hearing. “The idea of the legislation was to protect the public, but in effect what it is doing is hurting the public,” said Rooker.

Albemarle County’s existing proffer policy was also intended to protect the public and set clear expectations for the developers.  The policy states:

“It is the Board’s preference that a public hearing should not be advertised until all of the final materials for a zoning application have been received by the County and are available for public review….Final signed proffers shall be submitted to the County no later than nine days prior to the date of the advertised public hearing.” 

Ideally, the County envisions a process that allows the staff and the public adequate time to review a developer’s complete proposal.  The new state law now puts a premium on everyone doing their homework and surfacing the big questions in advance of a public hearing.

In Albemarle County, this law change has lead to last minute proffer changes unseen by the public before public hearings.  Ensuring timely submission of complete developer applications, as well as the addition of more time for public input at a work session, could ensure major proffer questions are resolved by the applicant, staff, and public before a public hearing.

For example, the final proffers for the 3,100 home Biscuit Run development were prepared just two days before the rezoning was approved.  The final NGIC proffers were prepared in the hour before the Board’s vote.  In neither case were the final proffers available to the public in advance of the public hearing.  The challenge for the Board is to provide enough information to the public to allow for informed feedback at a hearing (and perhaps in the future at work sessions), but not make last minute material changes to the proffers that will delay a project’s review. 

With this initiative by Supervisor Thomas, the Board seems interested in finding a new approach that accommodates the state law, allows for an improved public input process, and avoids last minute material changes to developer proffers.

Brian Wheeler