Stafford Planning Commission votes unanimously against McLean firm's subdivision plan for wildlife haven

Date published: 1/26/2006

By MEGHANN COTTER

An ongoing duel between activists who want to save Crow's Nest and the landowner that wants to develop it put the Stafford Planning Commission in the line of fire last night.

Letters from both sides urged the panel to decide immediately on K&M Properties' subdivision plan for the environmentally sensitive peninsula, rather than refer it to a committee.

But a last-minute memo from the Planning Department, which noted 10 deficiencies in the plan, gave the seven-member board reason enough to pull the trigger on a unanimous denial.

Commissioner Ken Mitchell, whose Aquia District is home to the peninsula, made the motion to reject the plan, listing the reasons the department had mentioned.

But Stafford lawyer Clark Leming, who represents the McLean firm developing Crow's Nest as Stafford Lakes Limited Partnership, said he thought the department's actions were contradictory.

The Planning Department had said on two previous occasions that the plan, which proposes 688 homes on 3,230 acres of the parcel, met county code requirements. And Leming said the agency had given him the same opinion at 10 a.m. yesterday.

"Obviously, someone has persuaded staff they should think differently," he said. "Our standpoint is that's not a valid approach to reviewing a subdivision plan."

Planning Director Jeff Harvey said his office discovered problems in a subsequent check of the proposal. The deficiencies listed in his memo include improper lot sizes, lack of information on maps and inaccurate dimensions in the subdivision's design.

Harvey declined to comment on why the department's staff did not identify those issues earlier.

The Planning Commission is the final authority on subdivision plans, which the Board of Supervisors does not review.

Before last night's vote, Leming said K&M would have no choice but to appeal the issue to the county Circuit Court if the commission rejected the plan.

The subdivision plan is the largest in acreage the county has ever reviewed. Most applications of such complexity are studied by a committee before the Planning Commission votes.

The commission's opportunity to review the Crow's Nest plan came after a nearly two-month squabble in court. It originally was scheduled to hear the issue Dec. 7.

Date published: 1/26/2006