Call to Action!!! - Illegitimate Celebrate Virginia Rezoning!
 
The proposal for a Regional Park at the Abandoned Cannon Ridge Golf and a River Crossing is threatened by an Illegitimate Plan to build Housing on the Golf Course.

Below is an email I sent to Stafford County Officials explaining what's been happening Out of the Public Eye.
 
I'm asking everyone to contact Stafford Supervisors to ask them to require a conditional use permits for housing in the RBC District.

Please in the include in the subject line of the emails " Illegitimate Celebrate Virginia Rezoning!!!"

My email address and County Officials emails are in the email below.

Thanks for your support,
Joe Brito

From: jsbrito@aol.com
To: denglish@staffordcountyva.gov, cvanuch@staffordcountyva.gov, pyeung@staffordcountyva.gov, mgary@staffordcountyva.gov, mbohmke@staffordcountyva.gov, tallen@staffordcountyva.gov, tcoen@staffordcountyva.gov
Cc: kbarnes@staffordcountyva.gov, wshelton@staffordcountyva.gov, sapicella@staffordcountyva.gov, abain@staffordcountyva.gov, dcummings@staffordcountyva.gov, mmartinez@staffordcountyva.gov, LSellers@staffordcountyva.gov, jharvey@co.stafford.va.us
Sent: 4/3/2022 12:28:05 PM Eastern Standard Time
Subject: Illegitimate Celebrate Virginia Rezoning!!!

To Stafford Supervisors,

 
I want to bring your attention the defects and loopholes in the RBC and the subdivision ordinances. The defects are being exploited to allow Residential rezonings without Public Notifications, without Public Hearings and without Proffers in the RBC District.

The Silver Company 2003 proffers prohibit the housing to be expanded into the RBC District onto land with no proffers, but the former zoning administrator made some poor decisions before she retired opening up the loopholes for exploitation.

Please find attached "Exibit A" the 2003 proffers for the Del Webb retirement community. These proffers were put in place at the same time the RBC District was rezoned from commercial to allow 30% of the RBC District to have retirement housing.The 30% amendment is in a different ordinance that was approved on the same day.
Paragraph #5  of the proffer states; 
 
"The Applicant further agrees that retirement housing shall be constructed only on property within the RBC Zoning District that is subject to these proffers."

There are two applications for housing in the RBC District. The first application is a hideous Plan for 100 townhouses was Unanimously denied by the Planning Commission, but will come back. (Thank you Planning Commissioner!!!)

The second application is for 288 Duplex Condo's on the Cannon Ridge Golf Course. The applicant is sneaky and exploiting other loopholes in the RBC and subdivision ordinances that are too complicated to explain. The sneaky part is as long as the land isn't subdivided the Plan can be approved in the back room out of the Public Eye, Administratively without it going to the Planning Commission for approval. That should be a RED FLAG to all of us.

 
If these plans are approved Out of the Public Eye without Notifications, without Public Hearings and without Proffers it would demand a Public Outcry of a corrupt system where the voices of the Citizens don't matter, because the Developers are running the County.
 
As Supervisors you have the opportunity to remedy the situation simply by Amending the RBC Ordinance to require a Conditional Use Permit on all residential in the RBC District. 
 
Below is an email I sent to the Planning Commission about one exploited loophole, but there are other loopholes that can be fixed to require all plans with more that 50 lots to be approved by the Planning Commission.
 
Thank you for your consideration on a remedy to the situation,
Joe Brito
                                                                                                                  Celebrate Virginia Townhouse Plan Facts and Questions.

2/8/2022 2:02:17 PM Eastern Standard Time

Good Afternoon Stafford Planning Commission members,
 
First I would like to welcome the new members of the Planning Commission. You have a difficult and time consuming job trying to make the best decisions possible. Good luck to you figuring out the developer's tricks and how to counter them. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

I'm writing to you about a hideous townhouse development plan on your agenda in Celebrate Virginia. I believe the developer is misrepresenting the intent of the RBC ordinance and is being underhanded to maximize Developer Profit at the expense of Stafford Taxpayers.
 
Oversights and mistakes are allowing a developer to exploit loopholes in the RBC Ordinance to build residential on land zoned for commercial use. The exploitation is all done behind closed doors without Public Hearings, Notifications to the public or Proffers.
 
The loophole started in 2003 when the Silver Company requested a zoning change to allow retirement housing in the Recreational Business Campus District (RBC). The district was zoned for businesses, but the Supervisors amended the RBC zoning to allow retirement housing with proffers on a 345 acre parcel of the 1170 acre RBC District. The 345 acres is 29.5% of the District, but the amendment was rounded to 30%. 

The intent was for the retirement housing to only be built on the 345 acre Del Webb parcel, but 30% of the RBC district is 351 acres, so that left an oversight of an additional 6 acres that retirement housing could be built without Public Hearings, Notifications to the public or Proffers.

The second oversight was in 2013 when 18 acres was rezoned and added to the RBC District to allow Law Enforcement Apartments. 30% of 18 acres added to the RBC District unknowingly increased the retirement housing use by 5.4 acres.

The third oversight was in 2015 when Supervisors rezoned 15 acres to RBC and amended the District to allow additional apartments for a total of 278 apartments on 2.1% of the District. At that time the Law Enforcement housing was switched to apartments and the proffers were reduced from $7,500 a unit to $7,000 a unit, but the developer deliberately left a loophole by only putting the proffers on a portion of the rezoned land, leaving some of the land without proffers.

The 2013 rezoning of 18 acres and the 2015 rezoning of 15 acres added 33 acres to the 1170 acre RBC District for a total of 1203 acres. The increased acreage of the District multiplied by 30% Retirement housing equals 360 acres for retirement housing or an oversight of 15 acres above the 345 acres in the Del Web Community.
 
Now a developer that owns some RBC land is exploiting the oversight and is proposing a plan for 99 alleged Townhouse retirement units.

It seams to me that the County is bending the zoning laws to accommodate the developer wants at the cost of accountability to the Taxpayers.

I urge the Planning Commission not to approve the requested waiver
and to do something to stop the approval of the Development Plan.

Here are my comments on the  Hideous Development Plan.
 
1. There are no proffers on the land therefore the requirement for the development to be retirement housing can't be enforced.

2. Some of the Townhouses are so close to the road that the fencing would interfere with sight distance on the road as it is indicated in the development plan. Cramming as many townhouses as possible up against the road is not appealing to the RBC District.
 
3. There is very limited parking and I anticipate the narrow roads will be cluttered with street parking when the subdivision turns into regular. townhouses.
 
4. Some of the driveways are too close to Celebrate Virginia Parkway. This creates a dangerous situation when an elderly person is backing out of their driveway as another elderly person is turning into the development from Celebrate Virginia Parkway. Street Parking will make the situation much worse.
 
4. There are no sidewalks along the Townhouse side of Celebrate Virginia Parkway.

5. Celebrate Virginia Parkway should have more limited access and require turn lanes. Three access points for the development without turn lanes is excessive and low standards. The elderly have a tendency to drive slow on turns. The other access points on Celebrate Virginia Parkway have turn lanes. 
 
6. I don't see plans for a median break. I'm assuming that left turns will be prohibited and the elderly would have to make U-turns on Celebrate Virginia Parkway. Elderly making U-turns  will be dangerous and interfere with Traffic Flow.

Can you please have staff answer the following questions?

Question 1. Why is there a Townhouse Plan in front of the Planning Commission on POD A3 when the legend on page 67 of the link below shows POD A3 with Allowed uses of Office and Commercial?
 
Click on this link, go to page 67 and enlarge. Please look at POD A3 and the legend on the bottom right.
 
XXXXXXXXXX

 
Question 2. On page 39 of the 2015 rezoning link the application says" provide attachments if multiple owners".

Were attachments filed for CVCC, LLC and if so can you provide us with a copy of the owner list?

Question 3. How many acres is zoned RBC on the Development Plan? What is the Open Space Ratio of the RBC zoned land on the Development Plan?

Question 4. Is any of the M-2 zoned land being used to satisfy the Open Space Ratio requirement of the Development Plan?

Question 5. Was the Development Plan already approved by staff, if so when was it approved?
 
Question 6. Can New Retirement Housing be built on any other Parcels without proffers in the RBC District? If so how many units can be built?

I look forward to hearing staffs response. If you have any questions please let me know.

Sincerely,
Joe Brito