For months, Stafford County officials have wrestled with a zoning ordinance that would require a minimum buildable lot area for agriculturally zoned parcels. It finally died yesterday when the Board of Supervisors opposed the ordinance with a 4-3 vote. Supervisors Joe Brito, Paul Milde, Mark Dudenhefer and Cord Sterling voted to deny.

The ordinance would have required a 10,000-square--foot area--excluding drain fields, resource protection areas and 25 percent slopes--to build a house. Depending on the point of view, the ordinance was either designed to protect the soils and environment of Stafford County, or unfairly reduce lot yield in subdivisions.

"What problem is this solving?" Milde asked. "I don't think the government should be micromanaging like this."

One of the problems it would solve, according to Supervisor Harry Crisp, was soil erosion.

"This is something that has been well understood in the county for years," he said, pointing to a soils map from the 1970s that suggested building should be highly regulated in much of the county.

Crisp's rationale may have been understood, but the specific figures in the ordinance were of particular concern. According to staff, they were based on a similar Spotsylvania ordinance. Some supervisors questioned the scientific basis for both the 10,000-square-foot restriction and the 25 percent slope, something that would potentially eliminate walk-out basements.

"It's more of an environmental standard than a scientific number," Crisp admitted. "It's an arbitrary number."

Brito saw merit in the ordinance, and made suggestions to make it less onerous. His changes were not adopted.

"We have people with extreme positions on either side," Brito said, "and they're not willing to meet in the middle."

Harvey Gold of the Fredericksburg Area Builders Association was a bit surprised by the board's action, but he was happy with the outcome.

"It was not a good ordinance," he said. "You could see that with the number of concerns the board still had."

A separate zoning ordinance that could also affect lot yield was discussed in the evening session, only to be deferred for 90 days by a 5-2 vote, with Milde and Supervisor George Schwartz voting against.

The ordinance suggests limiting the number of lots that can be subdivided from a single parcel of agriculturally zoned land. The suggested cap is 10 lots, applicable no matter the size of the parcel.

"This is a downzoning," Milde said. "It reduces lot yield by thousands in agricultural areas. It's a scary message to send to people in the county."

The ordinance is still in the discussion stage and has not yet come to public hearing. The county attorney will review the ordinance before it is reconsidered by the board.

"There are issues here we need to work out," Crisp said. "We need to have this debate."

Jonas Beals: 540/368-5036
Email: jbeals@freelancestar.com