Stafford leaders want at least 3 items addressed when it comes to its cluster ordinance

STAFFORD — There is a sense that that at least one Stafford County official is backing off a once hardline approach for repeal and replacement the county’s cluster ordinance.

The issue was discussed Tuesday at a meeting of the county’s Community and Economic Development Committee following a vote by the Planning Commission last week to urge the Board of County Supervisors to repeal the cluster ordinance.

The code allows developers to build homes on smaller lots in the county’s rural areas, known as cluster developments, rather than building “by right” on larger lots.

Essentially, developers may apply to build a cluster development where homes may be constructed on 1.5-acre lots, requiring fewer streets, and septic fields, rather than building the same number of homes by right on three-acre lots. Ideally, open space is preserved and developers save money.

Stafford County Supervisors Mark Dudenhefer and Wendy Maurer have pushed for the repeal and eventual replacement of the ordinance, arguing developers are choosing to “save space” by choosing not develop land that is already undevelopable like land earmarked for utility and power line easements, or stormwater retention ponds, or land with slopes too steep on which to build.

The Board of Supervisors could choose to repeal the ordinance at its March 20 meeting. If it does, and it does not have a replacement ordinance to put in its place, the county would find itself in violation of state law that mandates the county have some sort of cluster ordinance on the books.

Maurer had previously called for a full repeal but on Tuesday said that whether or not the cluster ordinance is repealed, she and other Supervisors need to ensure the ordinance is, at a minimum, amended to address the utility and power line easement, stormwater retention pond concerns.

She also wants to change the ordinance to better match state code which would allow developers to build on 40% of the property, rather than the 100% the county ordinance allows today.

She also said now is not the time to engage developers or the Fredericksburg Area Builders Association, which have asked for a seat at the table when it comes to amending or writing a new cluster ordinance.

During Tuesday’s committee meeting at Stafford Government Center, which Maurer chairs, Widewater District Supervisor Jack Cavalier urged Maurer to allow stakeholders, like developers, to be involved in the discussion.

“Yes, that is what the public hearing process is for,” said Maurer. 

To date, they’ve been frozen out of the process and have only been allowed to speak during public meetings like last week’s marathon planning commission session that lasted more than four hours.

“There are great arguments on both sides,” said Stafford County Board of Supervisors Chairman Meg Bohmke. “There are some great clusters in the county and some that could have been done a lot better, want to see good bad and ugly on March 20.”