Officials vote for part of Frederick land-use plan after a public hearing

By Alex Bridges -- Daily Staff Writer

WINCHESTER — A new land-use plan would help control growth in part of Frederick County near U.S. 277 and Stephens City, the Board of Supervisors said Wednesday.

The board amended the 2007 Comprehensive Policy Plan to include the Route 277 Triangle and Urban Center Land Use Plan. The plan focuses on the area where Va. 277 and U.S. 522 meet, east of Interstate 81.

But supervisors stopped short of backing another goal of the plan: to expand the urban development area by 664 acres and the sewer and water service area by 2,360 acres.

Supervisors voted 6-1 in favor of the land-use portion of the plan following a public hearing on the matter. However, the motion sought to remove language that would have allowed the county to expand the development and service areas — an initiative that planning officials said would be needed in order to promote the goals of the plan.

Usually such expansions come by way of requests from developers and are considered on an annual basis by supervisors and other county officials.

Opequon Supervisor Bill Ewing voted against the motion, saying that, though he supported the plan, he still had concerns, based on information the board had received earlier Wednesday night, that water facilities may be insufficient to supply the affected area.

Joann Leonardis, president of Preserve Frederick, said during the public hearing that her organization backed the plan.

Two residents of the affected area, Jonathan Hancock and David Ritter, expressed concerns about a new Va. 277 parkway proposed in the study. Hancock said that, as drawn, the parkway would pass close behind his home.

County Administrator John Riley Jr. and the Planning Department's Deputy Director Mike Ruddy, as well as Gainesboro Supervisor Gary Dove, tried to ease their fears, noting that the plan was just that, and that the road network as proposed could face some modifications.

The study behind the plan "identified opportunities to create new communities, integrate land use and transportation choices, address community infrastructure needs and expand the county's goals for economic development," according to Planning Department documents. The study promotes five main areas of new land-use: the Route 277 Urban Center, the Route 277 Triangle, Center of Economy, Interstate Commercial at Exit 307, and Neighborhood Commercial at White Oak and Tasker Woods.

But Chairman Richard C. Shickle noted that Sanitation Authority

"What you're looking at are limits of development, not exactly where roads are going, not where retention ponds are going ... but the concepts of development and the limits of development," Riley told supervisors. "If this were all to come to fruition tomorrow? No. It couldn't be served. But can it be served over a phased development as facilities expand over time? Probably."

Stonewall Supervisor Charles "Chuck" DeHaven proposed the motion to adopt the land-use portion of the plan and to ask staff members to have service providers re-evaluate the issues of sewer, water and stormwater management in the affected area.

* Contact Alex Bridges at abridges@nvdaily.com