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Rural sidewalk goes to Board of Zoning Appeals
Warren and Carmen Howell expected to be packing up to move into their new home by this winter.
Instead, they are appearing before the county Board of Zoning Appeals Nov. 19 in a last-ditch attempt to be freed of a requirement to build a 600-foot cement or asphalt sidewalk along Allder School Road.
The Howells are subdividing their property, and building an environmentally friendly home for their retirement.
The sidewalk the county wants, the Howells contend, will connect one corner of their lot to the other, will destroy their privacy and will send polluted stormwater gushing into the South Fork Catoctin Creek. Worse yet, building the “sidewalk to nowhere” will mean cutting down a row of 60-foot-tall blue spruces planted by Warren’s parents in 1973 as a housewarming gift.
“To me, cutting down those trees would be like killing friends,” Warren Howell said. “I just can’t do that.”
To add insult to injury, the Howells said, the house they are planning to build is “green” in every aspect, and the driveway they will put in is permeable – a substructure of gravel and plastic cubes covered with a layer of dirt. This would allow grass to grow on the surface, water to soak through rather than run into the nearby stream, and keep car tires from sinking in mud. It would be, they insist, the antithesis of the concrete or asphalt structure the county requires.
The Howells’ lot and 100-year old farmhouse are on the far northern fringe of Purcellville's Joint Land Management Area. Lots on the other side of Allder School are not subject to JLMA section of the Zoning Ordinance. Lots on either side of his, Warren said, are too small to be subdivided, and if their owners build on them, no sidewalk will be required. But Zoning Administrator Dan Schardein has ruled, Warren Howell said, that his subdivision – dividing one 8.5 acre lot into two lots, one 7 acres and the existing house on 1.5 acres – must include the 600-foot sidewalk required by the Zoning Ordinance for development in the Joint Land Management Area.
The Zoning Ordinance requires sidewalks and trails in new subdivisions “to provide pedestrian access to the town or neighborhood center, public buildings, schools, parks, and other destinations.”
“Here they can walk from one corner of the property to the other," Howell said.
The Howells tried reserving a 12-foot right of way for a sidewalk if and when it makes sense.
The zoning administrator rejected that plan as well, and the Howells’ appeal of the sidewalk requirement will go to the Board of Zoning Appeals.
Supervisor Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge) said that whatever the Zoning Ordinance says, “There comes a time when you have to apply common sense. There should be a way short of an appeal to the BZA for common sense to prevail, in my opinion.”
This is asinine. The Zoning ordinance should be required only if you have a PAVED road and somewhere to go! I can see requiring them to grant an easement for future projects if needed. Purcellville needs to get their head out of their butt! And the mayor out of office! I refuse to even do business in the town because of all the crap that goes on in the city hallways.
Posted by ValleyMom
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The property is subject to the County's zoning in this matter, not the town's. And why is it a bad idea to provide a pedestrian sidewalk on a narrow dirt road with ditches on both sides? It seems like a GOOD idea to provide somewhere for a walker to go that is out of the (albeit, historically) already narrower-than-normal road. The rub is that the sidewalk requirement only kicks in when someone subdivides their land, and it's probable that the other large rural land owners on the road will not do what this couple is trying to do...but it is a good thing to have such a provision in place...and going for the appeal is the means in which you go about getting around the requirement when it makes very little sense, as in this instance.
Posted by xyz123
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True to form of the "Purcellville Haters" cult, reading comprehension is not their strongest attribute. This issue has absolutely nothing to do with Purcellville!! The issue is before the COUNTY BZA! If you recall ValleyMom, you and Jim Burton rejoiced over the VA Supreme Court ruling that determined the Town of Purcellville has no jurisdiction in "zoning matters outside the Town borders", who's sole authority is within the County.
Posted by BillDruhan
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