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By SHARON KILPATRICK
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
With only four of its seven members present last Wednesday night, the Planning Commission voted three to one to recommend approval of Philip Mitchell’s request for a special exception to put a seven-lot subdivision on the 193-acre former Cooksey Farm near Ben Venue.
Mr. Mitchell said he wanted to give six of the seven lots, all of which will be at least 25 acres, to his children and keep one for himself.
At last month’s meeting the planners had delayed their decision, asking him to provide information on the amount of the land with slope in excess of 25 percent, to consider relocating house sites so they would not be on top of hills, and to work with the Virginia Department of Transportation and neighboring landowner Patricia Saltonstall to see if her right-of-way through the property could be consolidated with the subdivision road that would be put in.
At last week’s meeting, County Administrator John McCarthy said that the highway department had approved an entrance for the subdivision road and didn’t have any problem with two entrances close together on that section of U.S. 211, and that Mr. Mitchell was negotiating with Mrs. Saltonstall about letting her use the subdivision road in exchange for contributing to the cost of its construction.
On the matter of slope, Mr. McCarthy said there was a problem. Of the 193.5 acres in the proposed subdivision, 34.3 acres was in slopes of 25 percent or steeper. The zoning ordinance stipulates that 30 percent of that land can be added to the land with slopes less than 25 percent to determine the density allowed, Mr. McCarthy explained. Using that formula Mr. Mitchell would have 169.5 acres on which he would be allowed to locate one house for each
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