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HomeMy WebLinkAboutVA199600017 Review Comments 1996-10-01 C�ooA rt COUNTY OF ALBEMARLE Department of Zoning, Room 223 401 McIntire Road Charlottesville, Virginia 22902-4596 (804) 296-5875 FAX (804) 972-4035 TDD (804) 972-4012 September 23, 1996 J.W. Brent, Executive Director Albemarle County Service Authority P O Box 1009 Charlottesville, VA 22902 Dear Applicant: For your convenience and to allow you to organize your thoughts prior to the Board of Zoning Appeals meeting on Tuesday, October 1, 1996, please find attached the staff report for your case Sincerely, (10 t t et 0 ,) Amelia G. McCulley, A I.0 . Director of Building Code and Zoning Services AGM/db STAFF PERSON: Amelia McCulley PUBLIC HEARING: OCTOBER 1, 1996 STAFF REPORT - VA-96-17 OWNER/APPLICANT: Albemarle County Service Authority TAX MAP/PARCEL: 57/29B ZONING: RA, Rural Areas and EC, Entrance Corridor ACREAGE: 4.01 acres LOCATION: On the south side of Route 240 about 2/3 mile west of the intersection with Route 250 and Route 680. It is the current location of the Crozet Water Treatment Plant and the Service Authority storage yard. REQUEST: This request is being made in conjunction with and is only relevant with the proposed rezoning, ZMA-96-14 Albemarle County Service Authority This is a proposal to rezone the property from Rural Areas to Light Industrial. Section 27.3 states: "Minimum area required for establishment of a LI district shall be five(5) acres . " This is a variance request to reduce the minimum area for establishing this light industrial zoning from five (5) to four(4) acres, a variance of one (1) acre. The question of whether or not the property should be rezoned because it lacks in acreage, is not part of this variance review. That is a focus of the rezoning review. Because this variance is based on rezoning, if the rezoning is disapproved, the variance is moot. Because most of the Service Authority operations have relocated, this property and the facilities are underutilized. The ACSA use is grandfathered as a public use. This use will continue and once further service is needed in this area, it may expand In the interim, secondary uses anticipated include a lease arrangement with a private use. It has previously been determined by the Zoning Administrator that the private uses necessitate a zoning district to specifically permit it and that they would not be permitted simply as accessory uses. Those private uses which take best advantage of the existing facilities are limited by the Rural Areas zoning The applicant's justification for the variance includes the following Hardship 1 This property was acquired by the County of Albemarle (and subsequently transferred to ACSA) in 1964 prior to the adoption of a zoning ordinance Two of the three buildings on the site were constructed prior to the adoption of a zoning ordinance These buildings consist of a building housing the water filtration plant and offices, and two freestanding maintenance buildings/cinder block garages. Other improvements include a 500,000 gallon steel tank water reservoir and a 50,000 gallon wash water steel tank. Existing development and the zoning of the property limits the possible uses of the property. Staff Report - VA-96-17 Albemarle County Service Authority Page 2 2. As a public agency, the ACSA is only able to obtain that property necessary for their operations. They could not reasonably justify obtaining additional land to be able to rezone in order to lease the property to a commercial user. Uniqueness of Hardship It is not a frequent occurrence that a public entity is in a position of needing to rezone and to acquire more property to lease the property they currently control. Another unique aspect is the fact that as a use under the category for"public use" which is actually of an industrial character, the property has fewer uses available than if it had been a private industrial use. In other words, if it had been a commercial contractors' yard, it would be grandfathered as such and could lease to another the same use. Character of the Area The use of the property will not change with or without the variance The current and past use by the ACSA has been of light industrial character. Uses of this character, such as another contractors' office and storage yard, are expected to be of interest. RELEVANT HISTORY SP-76-17 Albemarle County Service Authority was approved for a water treatment plant on this property. It was approved with 3 conditions. SP-77-18 Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority was approved for an expansion of the water treatment facilities It was approved with 3 conditions VA-77-16 was approved to allow a 17 foot variance from the required 25 foot side yard setback in an A-1 zone. This was to allow additional storage space on the east side of an existing structure VA-77-45 was approved to reduce the front setback to 43 feet for the construction of a service structure for handling cylinders, etc RECOMMENDATION Ron Keeler, Chief of Planning and one of the authors of the zoning ordinance has commented' "Sections 19.0 Planned Residential Development, 10 0 Planned Unit Development, 25.0 Planned Development - Shopping Center, 25 A Planned Development - Mixed Commercial, 27.0 Light Industry, 28 0 Heavy Industry, 29.0 Planned Development - Industrial Park and 30.4 Natural Staff Report - VA-96-17 Albemarle County Service Authority Page 3 Resource Extraction Overlay District all contain minimum acreage requirements for establishment of the district. There were several reasons for inclusion of these requirements - adequate scale to ensure open space/setback areas, avoidance of small-scale individual uses, creation of larger zoned areas on the zoning map to avoid a hodge-podge of zoning and provide viable zoned areas for clusterings of uses These provisions were included in the 1980 zoning ordinance. It should be noted that the 1980 zoning map designated various areas of less than the required acreage for establishment of the corresponding district PUBLIC USE: Staff has maintained over the years that a public use should exercise (and seek refuge under) eminent domain only to the extent that the land acquired is needed to satisfy the intended public purpose Therefore, if a public utility sought acreage in excess of that necessary to satisfy the public necessity, that could be an issue in review for compliance with the Comp Plan. (We spent some 65 hours in public hearing on the RWSA acquisition issue for Buck Mountain Reservoir.) In this case, ACSA has utilized four acres, but acquiring 5 or 10 acres could be viewed as excessive. The issue of minimum site acreage is most pronounced with electrical substations where the site area is regularly less than the minimum RA lot requirement." **** This property was acquired in good faith well before the adoption of zoning. The use at that time and at the present is classified as industrial in character The analysis for a variance calls for a finding of what about the property is unique or extraordinary in terms of size, shape, condition or use of this or adjoining property. This property is unique in the extraordinary situation as follows 1 It is a property owned by a public entity As such, it is limited as to acquisition of land for express and eminent public purpose Therefore, if this additional acreage to meet ordinance minimums were available, it would not be justifiable to purchase it Also, as a public entity, it is under a more restrictive test for use of money. Using money for this purchase would be difficult to justify as a public purchase and it would defeat the purpose this effort of better fiscal management; 2. The property recently became underutilized when the main operations moved to Pantops This underutilization is a temporary situation until the needs increase. The property needs to remain in active ACSA use until that time; 3. The property was developed with industrial buildings at the time of adoption of zoning Staff Report - VA-96-17 Albemarle County Service Authority Page 4 Staff recommends approval for cause 1. The applicant has provided evidence that the strict application of the ordinance would produce undue hardship. There are few choices available in this situation. ACSA use must continue. One option would have the property continue in an underutilized status. This would result indirectly in a public cost The other option is that which is being pursued under variance If approved, the secondary use would maintain some income until the facilities could then be used fully by ACSA. 2. The applicant has provided evidence that such hardship is not shared generally by other properties in the same zoning district and the same vicinity. The fact that this property is developed with structures of an industrial character and is owned by a public entity is not shared generally. It is an even more unique situation in that ACSA use will continue and as the needs arise, the use will increase to meet the needs in the future. Therefore, this is not disposable property 3. The applicant has provided evidence that the authorization of such variance will not be of substantial detriment to adjacent property and that the character of the district will not be changed by the granting of the variance. This criteria is one of the considerations which are part of the rezoning review The use proposed by ACSA would be restricted. It is expected that tenants may include uses which is similar, or no more intensive, than the current use in terms of noise, traffic, visual aspects and the like. AL3EVARLE COU\TY SERVIC' AT - ORTY 3 0 30X 1009 168 SPOTNAP RD CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA 22902 • (8U4) 977-4511 FAX (804) 979-0698 September 10, 1996 Board of Zoning Appeals Albemarle County Office Building L.) Charlottesville, VA = Re: Tax Map Parcel 57-29B ALBEMARLE COUNTY ZONING DEPARTMENT Dear Members of the Board: The Albemarle County Service Authority requests a variance from the minimum lot size required for Light Industrial zoning. The referenced parcel is the site of the Crozet Water Treatment Plant and two garage/shop buildings. Albemarle County Service Authority has surplus space in these two buildings and wishes to rent the space. The Zoning Administrator has advised us that we must obtain a rezoning of the property in order to lease space. After filing the application for rezoning from the existing Rural Areas to Light Industrial it was discovered that the 4.01 acre parcel did not meet the minimum lot size of 5 acres for LI zoning. In making our case to the Board for this variance we offer the following for your consideration: 1. This property was acquired by the County of Albemarle (and subsequently transferred to ACSA) in 1964 prior to the adoption of a zoning ordinance. Two of the three buildings on the site were constructed prior to the adoption of a zoning ordinance. 2. Use of the property will not change with or without the variance. 3. The citizens of Albemarle County have an investment in currently underutilized buildings on this property. This variance will allow the rezoning application to be considered. A favorable vote by the governing body will enable the citizens to earn a return on their investment. The Albemarle County Service Authority will be happy to provide any additional information you may need in consideration of this request. Very truly yours, J. . Brent Executive Director JWB/lbt c.c: Amelia McCulley Y C O