Minutes - 10-10-2000 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

4 1. The type of subdivisions that have the ability to ask for a private road. Over the years, the private road justifications have become less specific. 2. The number of lots that~could be on a private road. The present standard is up to 25 lots on a private road. The staff is suggesting that this be reduced to 10 lots. 3. The width of the roadways. The staff is suggesting to only have class A and class B roads and not class C roads. 4. The condition of private roads. The staff is suggesting that the roads be certified by an engineer. Craig Benedict explained the suggested private road standards. If there were flexible development there would have to be a two-acre minimum requirement, plus the 33 percent open space. Building setbacks would be from 20 feet to 40 feet instead of "significantly greater." If there were some historic areas on the site, 50 percent of that resource would be dedicated. Within protected watersheds, stream buffers would be increased by 25 percent above the County's code. Impervious surface areas would be decreased 15 percent. Glass B roads would be for one to five lots and class A would be for six to ten lots. After ten lots, a public road would be required. One of the biggest issues is how to determine which projects have to adhere to these regulations and which do not. These standards do not affect any major subdivisions. There are no projects in the pipeline with 20 lots on private roads. There are a lot of minor subdivisions that have been submitted over the last nine or ten months that are affected to a certain degree by these new regulations. There are roughly 60 minor subdivisions with five lots or less that are in various stages of approval. Of those 60, 33 of them would not be affected by these new regulations. There are 12 minor subdivisions where the applicant would have to start over with the approval process. There are seven subdivisions that could proceed using the old regulations because they were submitted before the public hearing. Craig Benedict said that the Commissioners could also decide not to grandfather in these subdivisions. There are eight subdivisions that would have to change the width of the road on their plans. Private road justification would not be required for subdivisions with three or fewer lots. Commissioner Brown verified that one driveway could service two lots and that there were no standards for the driveways on the private roads. Commissioner Jacobs thinks in some ways this is an improvement to the private road standards. He said that it was important to make it clear that private roads are not by right. He asked if the private roads that were for three or fewer lots had to have a professional engineer certify them. Craig Benedict said yes. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to page six and the stream buffers for subdivisions in protected watersheds. He asked how the Rural Buffer was treated in these standards because there was no reference to the Rural Buffer in the document. Craig Benedict said that the density in the Rural Buffer for the subdivision requirements needed to be addressed. This can be addressed with the joint planning area process. Commissioner Jacobs pointed out that there was no provision for averaging lot size. One of his overall criticisms of this is that flexibility is legislated out. He said that it would make more sense to limit the length of the road rather than the number of lots. He said that until we change our standards, if someone has aone-acre lot and is willing to go 50 percent above the required open space in a flexible design, it seems to be an attempt to preserve rural character and some consideration should be given. Commissioner Jacobs suggested having a declarative sentence on page 18 in the second paragraph that says, "There is no right to a private road in any subdivision larger than three lots." He thinks there is a contradiction between this effort where we are saying that private roads help preserve rural character and one of the justificafions is that rural character is not preserved through private roads and that it is going to be the same right-of-way anyway. He thinks that private roads do preserve rural character and it is important to have the flexibility to allow private roads. Commissioner Jacobs thinks there should be more of a distinction between the subdivisions with three and fewer lots and larger subdivisions. He does not think that subdivisions with three or fewer lots should have to have an engineer. He also does not think that there should be a one-year expiration on the approval of minor subdivisions with three or fewer lots. He would argue that the private road should be capped by length and not by number of lots.