An ordinance amendment was approved last week to align with a new bill opponents say strips local governments of land use decisions.
On July 1, SB 974 went into effect. The bill places approval authority of site plans and subdivisions into the hands of a designated agent and out of the hands of the planning commission. It also speeds up the timeline for such decisions. Action still must be taken within 60 days of receipt of the application, but applications needing review by outside agencies such as the health department or VDOT must be sent to said agencies within five days.
“It relegates the planning commission to the sideline for the approval process and sped up the timeline for this, making it impractical for the planning commission to be holding the same meetings and try to abide by those timelines,” county attorney Hannon Wright said.
Proponents of the bill, including Americans for Prosperity, say it streamlines the subdivision ordinance process and cuts the red tape around housing development, making homeownership more accessible by “reducing unnecessary costs and increasing the supply of affordable housing particularly in underserved areas.”
Opponents, such as the Virginia Conservation Network, argue the bill takes away the local governing body’s essential role in land use decision making.
County administrator Jonathon Weakley said while site plan and subdivision reviews will be handled by a designated agent, things like special use permits and rezonings will still come before the planning commission.
By taking the planning commission out of the site plan and subdivision approval, there will also be no public notices on such matters.
“The bill taking the public out of the whole thing is what upsets me more than anything,” supervisor Carty Yowell said.
Supervisor Jim Jewett said this is only the first of things to come.
“It strips local control,” he said. “The [General Assembly] did a terrible disservice by approving this bill. Essentially you are now saying to citizens they have no input into how things are done in your county.
“This is just the beginning,” he added, noting there were many bills that didn’t make it through this legislative session, but will in the future “continue to strip control.”
“I think everyone is disgusted by this in every way,” board of supervisors chairman Clay Jackson added. “It’s taking away the citizens’ voices.”
In addition to the bill, SB 2660 establishes a work group to develop recommendations to organize procedural steps, clarify processes and requirements, standardize terminology and identify and eliminate redundant or duplicative provisions to streamline the Code of Virginia as it relates to the approval of subdivision plats and site plans. The committee is expected to submit a report to the General Assembly by Nov. 1.
Weakley said he hopes the county will be involved in that process. Locally, Madison and Rappahannock counties are the ones impacted the most by the changes as other larger localities have already made subdivision and site plan approvals administrative. Those localities have larger staffs.
While the ordinance amendment made changes to be consistent with the updated Code of Virginia, a resolution approved by the board of supervisors makes Weakley the designee who will delegate that responsibility to county zoning administrator Allen Nicholls.
