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HomeMy WebLinkAboutACSA198900003 Approval - County 1989-11-08November 8, 1989 (Regular Meeting) (Page 15) 22~g and build upon and depends on the College Advisory Board to help advise as to the best way to accomplish that. (The Board recessed at 11:19 A.M. and reconvened at 11:30 A.M.) Agenda Item No. 11. Status Report: SP-88-45, Pope and Mikkelsen Pottery Studio and Kiln. Mr. Agnor reported that the Zoning Administrator has indicated that the applicants have complied with the conditions of the special use permit. They have now been issued a certificate of occupancy. The Zoning Administrator recommends that revocation of the permit not be pursued further and the matter dismissed from the agenda. Ms. Amelia Patterson, Zoning Administrator, said there is compliance on the part of the applicants. She made an inspection before this Board meeting, and the old kiln enclosure has been dismantled. Motion was immediately offered by Mrs. Cooke and seconded by Mr. Bowie to remove SP-88-45 from the agenda. Roll was called and the motion carried by the following recorded vote: AYES: Mr. Bain, Mr. Bowie, Mrs. Cooke, Messrs. Lindstrom, Perkins and Way. NAYS: None. Agenda Item No. 15. Request to amend the jurisdictional areas of the Albemarle County Service Authority for water service to Tax Map 59-7B1, between Flordon and West Leigh Subdivisions. ~ Mr. St. John said the Board has documents reflecting the history of this matter. He reviewed for the Board the fact that certain easements the Albemarle County Service Authority acquired from landowners to install pipes were granted and recorded. As payment to the!landowners, the Service Authori- ty gave the right to connect to the waterline.when it was laid in the ease- ment. In Mr. St. 3ohn's judgement, that vested a property right in the landowner to this connection. If that right ~s not honored by the Service Authority, that would be a breach of its contract under this easement. The Service Authority would be liable to the property owner for damages created during construction of the waterline. If tha~ breach is forced upon the Service Authority by refusal by the Board of ~upervisors to allow the Service Authority to keep its commitment, that constitutes a taking of this property right by the County. In that case, the Count~ and not the Service Authority would have to pay for it. He said there are ~ither easements similar to this. He said in all the cases he is aware of, the ~ight to connect was included and vested in the easement at a time when the thei~Property in question was within the service area boundaries of the Service Authority. In other words, the Service Authority did not exceed its powers a~ that time. Later, the service areas were diminished. Mr. St. John said he had prepared a resolhtion for the Board's considera- tion which would address all similar applicatf~ons and eliminate the need for the Service Authority and an applicant to aPp$~r before the Board for this action in the future. He noted that the resoi~tion provides that no more than one connection is deemed to be required by thi~ resolution on any particular easement. He said there may be cases where t~e land has been divided into two or more parcels subsequent to the easement co~nitment by the Service Authori- ty. Then there is the question as to which parcel gets the right to use the one connection. Mr. St. John summarized by saying that the Board has a choice to either pay the value of these easements or honor the easements. Mr. Lindstrom asked if there is a distinction between industrial, commer- cial, or residential connections. Mr. Brent responded that a connection is differentiated only by the size of the line. :~ Mr. Bowie asked if the utility connectionilreferred to is water. Mr. St. John said the connection is for water. He sai~ he mulled over the use of the word, "utility", and concluded that there is no easement for sewer connection November 8, 1989 (Regular Meeting) (Page 16) of which he is aware. Mr. Brent said he is not aware of any, but would be reluctant to say that none exist. Mr. Lindstrom asked if Mr. Brent has records of these easements. Mr. Brent said he did not. Mr. Lindstrom asked if the easements are recorded anywhere. Mr. St. John said they are recorded in the Clerk's Office. He said the title to each piece of property would have to be reviewed. Mr. Bain said he assumes that the language in these Service Authority easements was approved by the County Attorney's office and would be the same on each easement. Mr. St. John said this happened before he became County Attorney, and he could not say that was so. He said he knows there were a mass of commitments made by the City which the County took over under the Four-Party Agreement. In doing that, the County agreed and covenanted to assume the obligations that the City had made on those easements. Mr. Brent said~most of these acquisitions occurred in the period of time when the distinction between the County and the Service Authority was not as clear as it is ~oday. He said these situations are most prevalent on the line from Piney Mountain to Ivy and the line from the Scottsville water plant into the Town of,Scottsville. Ail of these occurred in the late 1960's and early 1970's. He thinks the easements are confined to these areas and these time frames. Mr. Lindstrom asked if a precedent is being set by which the County could not buy another easement right in the future. Mr. St. John said he did not think so. Mr. Lindstrom said his reservation concerns the number of cases there might be and whether the connection means commercial or residential. Mr. St. John said the County can always buy the right. He said this resolu- tion would not set any precedent because the 'Board is already in the posture of being told to either honor it or buy it. That option would always be open to the Board. Mr. Bowie asked if that option would be '~.available on a case-by-case basis. Mr. St. John said there has never beep a procedure where the court superimposed its judgment on that option, to iris knowledge. He said all that is necessary is some rational basis for distinction. Mr. Bowie said the basis is the Comprehensive Plan. Mr. Lindstrom asked what issue it would '~aise if the easement does not expressly state the nature of the connection What is permitted and the Board specifies "one residential connection". Mr. pt. John said this resolution presupposes that the property is outside the ~ervice area. Mr. Lindstrom asked if this should be discussed in executiv~ session. Mr. St. John said that would not be necessary. He said it is d~fficult to predict what the courts will do in this area. However, Mr. Stil John's opinion is that if the Comprehensive Plan and the service area boundaries coincide with each other and zoning coincides with both of them, then ~he reason the Board is doing this is because in 1971 someone put this property right in an easement. He thinks the courts would recognize that fact. ~.If this is an aberration to the regular land use program of the County, it wa~ engaged in by the Board only because it was necessary to avoid the posture~iof taking someone's property and going back on a written, recorded commitment. French Slaughter, III, appearing ~or the applicant, said the Mr. D. request is only for this one particular parcel. He asked the Board to rule favorably on this application. Mr. Lindstrom asked if the request is fo~ residential service. Mr. Slaughter said it is for one house. Mr. Bowie! asked if this property could be subdivided. Mr. Slaughter said he was not sur~. In any event, the property owner does not intend to subdivide. Mr. Lindstrom said the applicant is aski~ for connection for one house, and he would like to see the resolution tailori~d for that. Mr. Slaughter said if approval could be given at this meeting, hi~ client would appreciate it because the house is already under construction. Motion was immediately offered by Mr. BowSe and seconded by Mr. Lindstrom to adopt the following resolution to include a~d permit one residential connection only to the property shown within t~e green enclosed line on the plat of Gloeckner and Osborne dated August 13,!.i1987, showing survey of Parcels November 8, 1989 (Regular Meeting) (Page 17) D and E, as presented by Mr. French Slaughter and made a part of these min- utes. Roll was called and the motion carried by the following recorded vote: AYES: Mr. Bain, Mr. Bowie, Mrs. Cooke, Messrs. Lindstrom, Perkins and Way. NAYS: None. BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Supervisors of Albemarle County, Virginia, that the service area boundary of the Albemarle County Service Authority is deemed to include and permit one residential connection only to Tax Map 59-7B1 for water service; and FURTHER that said property is shown within the green line on a "plat Showing Survey of Parcels D and E~ located on the east side of State Route 677 in Albemarle County, Va.!, as prepared by Gloeckner & Osborne, Inc., dated August 19, 1987", ~aid plat being initialed "FRB" on November 8, 1989, and made a part of the record. Agenda Item No. 16. Review: Forestry Department's Master Plan for Blue Ridge Hospital Site. Mr. Lindstrom said last week he met with..Mr. Craig Covey, Mr. Werner Sensbach, Mr. Bain, Mr. Bowerman and other members of the committee working with the University regarding the location of the administration complex on the Blue Ridge~Hospital site at the foot of MOnticello Mountain. At that time, the architect for the project presented models of the project which are on display today in the Lobby. He said representatives of the Thomas Jeffer- son Memorial Foundation were also present at i~that meeting. Mr. Lindstrom said the purpose of that meetzng was to evaluate ~he proposal .on the 25 acre portzon of the 250 acres of the Blue Rzdge Si~te. He pointed out a chart on the wall prepared by staff explaining the two~i~alternatives presented by the architects. ?~ Mr. Lindstrom said this area is shown i~!the County's Comprehensive Plan as Rural Areas, and the proposed project is n!~t a rural use. The PACC Agree- ment with the University states that propert~in Area B would be subject to a jointly agreed upon plan before any development took place. For various reasons, this project came about before a plaf~ was proposed or developed under the Agreement. Therefore, it seems that the ~greement falls back to a posi- tion whereby the University agrees to use "it~ best efforts" to comply with the existing plan, which is ' !! ' the County s Comp~ehenszve Plan for rural designa- tion. As Mr. Covey pointed out in the previohs meeting, the County has no direct authority to review, approve, or deny ~his particular proposal. In fact, Mr. Covey had asked on what grounds the!iBoard intended to look at the plan. Mr. Lindstrom said the Board is lookin~ at the project because it has a public obligation to defend its ComprehensiveilPlan and to try to preserve a national historic site. With that as background, Mr. Lindstrom said the concern is whether there might be a way that this building can be located somewhere on that property that would be less intrusive. He said, frank!y, it would be problematic to find another place on the tract for a building this size. He said another question was whether a better location, more Harmonious with the topography, could be found on the 250 acres. For these reasons, the two alternatives have been presented. ~ Mr. Lindstrom said he is aware that the ~niversity and the Division of Forestry have spent a lot of money on the pla~s and are anxious to go forward. His concern is that the Board has a responsibJ~lity to the 65,000 people it represents. The Board needs to get as much l~verage as possible on the development process, even though the County m&y not have any legal authority. He said there are a number of hurdles that this project will have to go through before the construction can be startedi~ One of them is an environmen- tal assessment by the State Council on the Environment. He said there was a very frank discussion in last week's meeting ahd he intends to be just as frank in reporting that meeting. He feels that essentially the County is being asked to sanction these plans. In fact,~there was a lot of pressure in