THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, June 25, 1996 TAG: 9606220016
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 50 lines
In a classic case of good intentions gone awry, a Suffolk zoning ordinance intended to allow more than one family to live on a family farm is being used by developers to circumvent certain zoning requirements and squeeze extra housing lots from rural land.
Some of the subdivisions being built under the ordinance are connected to public roads only by narrow, tree-lined dirt lanes that would be difficult for rescue trucks to drive down.
The ordinance specifically permits a practice called family transfer, in which the owner of farmland can give or sell a parcel of the land to a spouse, child, grandchild or parent to enable the relative to live on the farm, without having to meet normal subdivision zoning requirements.
Virginia counties have family-transfer ordinances, but Suffolk is the only city with one.
The ordinance backfires when a developer buys farmland and gives parcels to various immediate relatives, who in turn sell it for home lots for others.
The original intention of the ordinance - keeping families together on the farm - is not served.
But by passing land through the hands of relatives and calling the family-transfer ordinance into play, the developer escapes normal subdivision requirements. For example, for a subdivision of more than five lots, the developer who passes land through relatives gets out of having the lots on public streets and having them connected for water and sewer. Smaller subdivisions have other requirements that the builder avoids by using family transfers.
As Mayor S. Chris Jones put it, ``They are acting as developers without having to do required improvements in the road . . . street lighting and the whole nine yards. I support a family member's right to sell or donate property to another family member. But once it becomes a profit-making thing to get around the subdivision ordinance, then the lines have to be drawn.''
City Council has instructed the city-planning staff to close loopholes in family transfers. The Planning Commission last Tuesday delayed acting on proposed changes for 60 days.
Among the proposals:
Allow only one transfer per family member anywhere in the city.
Require recipients of family transfers to keep the land for 10 years.
Require the seller and relative to sign affadavits that the relatives would reside on the land.
Ten years might be too long a requirement for holding property, but five years might be good. The practice of using family transfers to circumvent zoning requirements must be ended if Suffolk is to control development. by CNB