Virginia Supreme Court Voids Part of Chesterfield County's Subdivision Ordinance
While the basis of last week's ruling is a 7-acre property, the decision temporarily opens the door for all agriculturally zoned properties in the county to be subdivided into 1-acre parcels.
Voided code:
Subsection (a) of Chesterfield County’s subdivision ordinance was voided last week by the Virginia Supreme Court along with two definitions.
The subsection affected : Sec. 17-36. Recordation of subdivision plat prior to compliance with zoning ordinance prohibited. (a) Except as noted in subsection (b), no plat for a lot subdivision shall be recorded unless the land is included within a residential, or townhouse residential zoning district, or is a residential use in a commercial zoning district as defined by Chapter 19 of this Code.
Previously, with any new split or division of an agricultural parcel, the parcels involved had to be at least 5 acres and have 300 feet of state maintained road frontage.
The result is that people will be able to buy up cheap ag land and subdivide it into 1 acre parcels which are much more home-buyer friendly in this housing market.
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Terrible decision
Here we go again, another large development corporation taking a county or municipal government to court to overthrow their local laws.
This isn't a matter of being "homebuyer friendly", but friendly to the developers who lobby our state legislatures.
Larger lot zoning exists to preserve opportunities for small farms to operate and also to preserve rural character. 1 acre zoning suburbanizes everything, leading to the destruction of existing natural resources on the site, and contributes to increased stormwater runoff/problems.
People should have the option to live in a zone with larger lots, not be forced to have subdivisions built within an acre around them.