By DAPHNE HLIKJHINSUN

By DAPHNE HLIKJHINSUN

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

County Administrator John McCarthy recognizes a “potential inequity” in the county’s rejection of Joan Brown Doares’ request for approval of a family subdivision. But he was also convinced at the Planning Commission’s meeting last week that his proposed zoning ordinance amendment to correct that inequity would create an opening for the development of hundreds - maybe even thousands — of small lots. “Increasingly, I believe we should let the court decide this,” Mr. McCarthy concluded.

Mrs. Doares had been given 16 acres and her sister 26 acres by their father in administratively-approved subdivisions recorded in 1973. The sister sold her 26 acres in 1982, and in April, 1988, the new owners received approval for three two-acre divisions as family transfers.

Those three lots coupled with the two divisions Paul Brown made for his daughters in 1973 brought the number of cuts on the “parent” parcel to five, the county’s limit on lots of record as of 1962.

So in May, when Mrs. Doares sought approval for a family division of five acres for her son from the 16-acre lot she has near Amissville, her request was denied. She filed an application for a special exception permit to accomplish that division and concurrently proposed a zoning ordinance amendment which would allow by right up to three family subdivisions from all parcels except those previously created through the family transfer exception. But in the face of concern that such an amendment would promote wholesale parcelization of Rappahannock County, Mrs. Doares withdrew the proposed ordinance change, and to give the county time to come up with an alternative, agreed to having her special exception request tabled for 60 days, until the Board of Supervisors’ September meeting.

To prevent other landowners from unknowingly losing the family subdivision option in the future, Mr. McCarthy had suggested limiting family transfers to one per parcel in any calendar