STAFFORD — A lawsuit filed in Stafford County court aims to have a controversial land-use decision that limited “cluster” subdivisions tossed out.
The suit claims a March 20 decision by the Stafford County Board of Supervisors to limit the development of cluster subdivisions — where homes are built on smaller lots, closer together to preserve open space, in an effort to save developers money and drive up profits — devalued their land.
The plaintiffs in the case, Susan Small Godfrey, Nancy Small Godfrey, Selden Small say they agreed to sell their properties to developer Poplar Junior, LLC, which is managed by Robert Gallahon, who is also named as a plaintiff in the suit.
Gallahon aimed to build 49 homes on 166 acres of land on a property known as Holly Corner, at the end of Holly Corner Road on the bend of the Rappahannock River in the Hartwood section of Stafford County.
The property now falls outside of a newly defined cluster development area approved by the Stafford County Board of Supervisors on March 20. And now the Smalls must accept an offer of $1.82 million, a total of $77,551 less than what the developer would have paid before the new rules passed, restricting the developer to now building only about half those number of homes.
Gallahon was also in the process of developing two other properties that now fall outside the newly defined cluster area, to include a property he purchased for nearly $1 million called “Roberts Run’ at the intersection of Poplar and Tacketts Mill roads in western Stafford, and about 37 acres of property at the intersection of Poplar and Truslow roads in Hartwood known as Robeli Farms.
Collectively for all three properties, to include the purchase price, planning and engineering fees, as well as the cost of soli study and evaluation, Gallahon claims to be out $1.6 million.
Legal fees are mounting for the Stafford Board of Supervisors, too. On April 17. it approved an expenditure request of more than $100,000 to defend itself following its land-use decision.
Supervisors limited cluster subdivisions to just 40 percent, or about 40,000 acres of undeveloped land along heavily trafficked routes like Interstate 95, and Routes 610 and 17. It effectively curbed cluster development in the rural areas of the county and directing it near developed areas that would have easy access to water and sewer lines, negating the need for the use of septic fields in the rural areas that are known to fail.
The move was to curb explosive growth witnessed over the years in the county, as well as to ease the strain on public resources felt when new residents move in.
Attorney Clark Lemming is representing the plaintiffs in the case and told Potomac Local that a freedom of information act request that he filed uncovered county officials included about 12,000 acres of land in the newly defined cluster area, not 40,000 as it claimed, which is required by state law, said Lemming. Because of this, Lemming it petitioning the court to toss out the March 20 Board of Supervisors decision.
While some residents supported the Board of Supervisors actions to curb development, many developers who have invested time and money into site work, soil testing, drafting plans, and submitting them for county review. Before the Board acted, developers said the move would be unfair because they had followed the law when it came to drafting and filing development plans with the county government only to have many of them tossed out.
