AGENDA DATE: 9/4/2024
TITLE:
Title
Ragged Mountain Farm RPD
BODY
SUBJECT/PROPOSAL/REQUEST: Request for new driveway access for two RPD preservation tracts under conservation easements jointly held by the County and the Albemarle Conservation Easement Authority.
ITEM TYPE: Consent Action Item
STAFF CONTACT(S): Richardson, Wall, DeLoria, Filardo, Barnes, Maliszewski, Clark
PRESENTER (S): Scott Clark
LEGAL REVIEW: Yes
REVIEWED BY: Jeffrey B. Richardson
BACKGROUND: In 2006, the County approved a subdivision plat for two adjacent Rural Preservation Developments (RPDs), known collectively as Ragged Mountain Farm. Each RPD had two preservation tracts, meaning that the County and the Albemarle Conservation Easement Authority (ACEA) co-hold four conservation easements in total for the preservation tracts in this subdivision (Attachment A).
Two of the preservation tracts (lots A19 and B20) were expected to take access from the internal subdivision roads of Ragged Mountain Farm. A contract purchaser for lot B20 (Tax Map 74 Parcel 5D9) proposes to provide access to that lot from Taylors Gap Road instead, via a new, shared access easement over lot A19 (Tax Map 74 Parcel 5B8). A spur driveway from the new access easement would provide access to the building site on lot A19. As this new access easement would overlay existing conservation easements held by the County and by the ACEA, approval from both bodies is needed to verify that the proposed access is consistent with the conservation easements.
STRATEGIC PLAN: Safety & Well-Being - Nurture a safe and healthy community.
DISCUSSION: Accessing the required building sites from the internal roads would require the driveways to cross significant areas of critical slopes, as well as some stream buffers on lot B20. However, the proposed access would take advantage of existing terrain to provide access with fewer impacts to the conservation values The applicant's engineer calculated that the proposed acces...
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