Stafford’s cluster-buster vote may be a win for preservationists, but it doesn’t mean housing development will go away. It’ll be done on larger lots outside the cluster area.

STAFFORD — For those looking to curb development in Stafford County, there were cheers on Tuesday night.

The Board of County Supervisors voted 6-1 to reduce the amount of land on which “cluster” developments could be built by-right from 100% to 40% of the remaining undeveloped land in and around the urban service area (areas with water and sewer connections, or areas where the connection could be easily be run).

The new map (pictured below) shows the just over 19,000 acres where developers can now build “clusters” — a method long used as a way to save open space by clustering homes on smaller lots, contained to a central portion of a property.

The area is largely along the Interstate 95, and Routes 610 and 17 corridors. 

But just because the Board of County Supervisors issues its cluster-buster vote, that doesn’t mean development is going to go away.

Developers can still purchase properties from landowners outside the newly defined cluster area and build homes by-right on three-acre lots, double the size of the lots that they could build on in a cluster development.

The homes would all be on well water and septic systems, would require more public streets than traditional cluster neighborhoods and would incorporate natural features like slopes into properties, developers said.

Tuesday’s decision affected about 15 total projects in the pipeline. Developers had hoped the county would grandfather in their applications for cluster developments, but it didn’t happen.

“It leaves most of the developers with pending applications up in the air, losing time and expense for their applications for reasons that did not appear to be accurately articulated,” said Clark Lemming, a longtime development attorney in Stafford.

State law requires Stafford County to permit cluster development. It also permits community drainfields in septic systems, said Lemming. Hartwood District Supervisor Gary Snellings is opposed to such drainfields, saying on Tuesday that he isn’t convinced they are useful.

Lemming says some developers could choose to sue Stafford County to recoup some of the tens of thousands of dollars developers claim to have lost in the application process.

He also said the county could also choose to “downzone” lots, allowing one home on every six or 10-acre lot.
Neigborhoring Prince William County did this 20 years ago with the creation of its Rural Crescent preservation area — a tract of land from Quantico to Manassas Battlefield National Park where homes may be built only on 10 acre lots.

If developers are only able to build fewer homes on a property, they’re liable to pay less for it, thus hurting property owners chances of making a profit when they go to sell their land.

Lemming said Stafford County could combat this issue with a purchase of development rights program (PDR) where the government pays property owners for the development rights to their land. Afterward, the owner retains ownership of the property and may only use it for farming.

Stafford County’s Planning Commission will be the next body to take up the cluster-buster process. Supervisors on Tuesday tasked it with reviewing the new cluster area, and with recommending changes to the county’s comprehensive plan to accommodate the new, smaller development area.