Chessapeake – Cisabek leaders are concerned with anxiety about the growth of sub -divisions in the city’s rural parts with a limited infrastructure, Cisabik leaders have taken a series of measures to close the “loophole” that allowed decades to unwanted development.
The procedures aim to stop some uncontrolled residential development by addressing by addressing the division of areas that allowed developers to coordinate the usual level of city scrutiny and construction in historical rural areas with greater intensity than it is permitted.
The city’s leaders discussed the treatment of this issue at least the nineties, but it has become blatant in recent years, as hundreds of new homes have appeared in southern Cispick. Rapid development caused anxiety about the city’s cost to expand infrastructure and city services.
“Go ahead, I definitely think that you will see a slowdown in development, especially the right things,” said Cissapic Planning Director Jimmy McKinara from the recent changes made by the city to preserve rural and agricultural lands.
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Changes in the use of lands
Display of the loophole was allowed to move, which means that it was allowed according to the laws of the division of the current areas and was dealt with administratively without any general or legislative hearing required by the Planning Committee or the city council.
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Under the rules for dividing the regions and the use of lands, land owners can divide their lands over time. For example, the landowner can divide a property into three parcels to create an agricultural branch department, which must be used for “agricultural intention” for one year, such as the production and harvesting of animals or crops.
After a year has passed, the landowner can divide each of these parcels into five pieces, which leads to 15 total pieces – which effectively creates a “major” sub -division in an area mainly intended for agricultural use.
In June, the City Council approved a series of decree amendments aimed at addressing the issue, including those that remove the ability to form agricultural sub -divisions, and replace them with preservation areas.
The goal of establishing memorization areas is to allow land owners to maintain their lands while restricting residential development on a large scale. McKinama said that the sub -divisions of the governorate can maintain open spaces and wetlands, but they also allow agriculture and other agricultural uses through importance. The change also requires the approval of the city council to remove the easement.
While looking at the changes, the city heard from stakeholders and worked to balance concerns, including those of real estate owners who are concerned about their rights in the lands.
(One) is one of the things we said through this process is a way to develop. It is just a process of re -delivery. ” “And when we are going through a redistribution process, it allows us to take a look at the effects, to look at the shortcomings.”
McKinama said that those who have already divided the lands to obtain an agricultural division will be grandfather.
Another change is that simple sub -divisions now allow the gradual development so that not all the pieces should be divided simultaneously. This gives landowners and farmers flexibility if they want to develop some lands now and others later.
The regions division law has also been updated to allow more opportunities and activities of agricultural tourism.
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Targeted development
Another major change that the city explores is to create a development rights program, or TDR. This would allow land owners to have more options for their property while stimulating development in areas that already have infrastructure and resources to support them. City leaders will give more control of this development.
McKinama said that the city is working with industry expert Tom Daniels, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, to reach a program. McKinama said places like Friedrich County C and Stafford have similar programs, as well as Montgomery, Maryland.
He said: “You take a density from an area where you do not want the density to occur, and you move to another area where you want the density to occur.” “Therefore, this association in directing the development to the place where you want to be, but keep the areas as well.”
The city is currently investing the money in the agricultural conservation program for open spaces, which allows the city to buy development rights and put it to prevent future development on that land. McKinama said it was costly.
“So what will this do this is that it will open a market,” he said. “So it will be the developers who will buy development rights. So they will deal with real estate owners who want to sell their development rights.
“They have an incentive to buy these development rights because they can turn it into more development rights in the appropriate areas. So we let this transaction occur.”
It takes advantage of the city because it allows them to make investments by developers in areas that are preparing for this growth. Developing residential housing may be restricted, but it is still possible to use the land in agriculture and other agricultural purposes.
“We are still really early with the recommendations of the TDR program, so there is a long way to cut it.” “But from a rural perspective, this is really exciting because it creates a new market that they may be able to compensate for their rights to develop without necessarily the need to develop their property.”
All of these changes are part of the efforts made to update the comprehensive land use plan for Chessapeake for strategic planning for additional 50,000 by 2045.
McKenma said that one of the perfect reasons for development in urban areas is that infrastructure investments are more cost -effective in the long term. It costs more infrastructure across large areas of land in rural and rural areas.
As part of the city’s comprehensive Chessake plan in the city, the city leaders have already adopted the industrial waterfront plan and the communication plan. They are about to finish others including the Greenbrier region plan, the main transport plan and the Deep Creek region.
Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiadia.com
