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lauons are permitted to continue, added BZA member Sid Gottlieb.
Asked how common this issue of substandard subdivision lots actually is, Mr. Miller reported than in addition to the 70 lots in Rappahannock Lakes, Chester Gap has 400 lots recorded prior to adoption of subdivision and zoning controls. Other small lot subdivisions exist west of the Town of Washington and scattered in pockets elsewhere in the county, he said. “If this was just one lot surrounded by farm land. I’d see no problem . . . But this is a 70lot subdivision, and half of the lots haven’t been built on,” Mr. Miller said, adding that it’s been reported that the lake in the development is already polluted (bv septic field run off).
BZA member Peter Kramer noted that in the Town of Washington are old “cesspools” that have Health Department approval as sewage disposal systems. The drain field for Mr. Hur's lot was approved by the Health Department in 1977 and installed in 1984; it should be recertified as meeting today’s standards, Mr. Kramer said.
Present residents opposed
Gilbert Dickerson, who owns property adjoining Mr. Hur, opposed granting the variance on the basis of the septic field’s potential for polluting the lake. “Any new (septic fields) put in there are going to add to the problem we’ll have eventually,” he said, presenting a petition with 30 signatures calling on the BZA to enforce the county’s current setback regulations. The signatures represent “basically everybody that is living in there year-round right now,” he told the zoning board.
If the variance is denied, Mr. Hur replied, it means that lot 3 is unbuildable; then it would be possible for Mr. Dickerson to buy the property for “a very low price.” He could then merge it with his adjoining small lot to meet setback regulations, and use the already approved septic field and the existing well to serve a new house, Mr. Hur speculated. “I don’t think that’s fair to the present owner, and I don’t think it’s fair to me, either.”
When Mr. Dickerson and the other Rappahannock Lakes property owners bought their lots, they did so knowing that the small lots next door were also planned as home sites, said Mr. Gottlieb. In essence, he said, their point of view is, “We
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