RICHMOND COUNTY: Fones Cliffs Subdivision Plan Rejected
By Lawrence Latane Iii, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Feb. 10–WARSAW — The Richmond County Board of Supervisors late Thursday night killed a proposed subdivision slated for one of the most important bald-eagle habitats on the East Coast.
But, the board left the door open for Richmond city businessman Terrell W. Bowers to return with a more specific plan for his 265 acres high atop Fones Cliffs on the Rappahannock River.
The property “is the jewel within the entire region” from Maine to Florida for bald eagles, said Bryan Watts, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary. Hundreds of eagles are drawn from both ends of the coast to Bowers’ and adjoining properties where high riverbanks make convenient perches from which to forage for fish and waterfowl.
The board voted 3-1 with one abstention against the project after listening to almost two hours of spirited debate over landowner rights and the need to regulate development.
Board Chairman Louis Packett, who favored Bowers’ plan, and Supervisor Randy Packett, who voted against it, told Bowers they would be willing to consider a more detailed development proposal. Bowers declined to comment on the board’s vote after the meeting.
Bowers, who owns commercial property in the city of Richmond, told last night’s standing-room-only audience that he had not decided what to do with the land had it been rezoned.
He asked the board to rezone the property from agriculture to residential, promising to create no more than 50 lots. His plan showed 15 waterfront lots atop the 150-foot-tall cliffs. Bowers also held out the possibility that he would place the land in a conservation easement prohibiting development if his rezoning plan were approved.
Bowers had made it known to county Planning Director Christopher Jett that he had been exploring a conservation easement until the county tightened agricultural zoning restrictions. The change drastically reduced the number of lots he could divide from the property “by right,” which severely reduced the value of tax credits an easement could provide.
Last night, Bowers told the audience he could have created 104 lots under the old agricultural designation when he bought the property in 2002 and 2003. Amendments made in 2005 limited him to only eight lots. Amendments made last night raised his limit to 18 lots.
Critics warned supervisors against rezoning land that the county comprehensive plan designates as a conservation area in acknowledgement of its importance to bald eagles.
“If you veer off of this, then you have nothing to stand on,” if other tracts in the conservation area attract development attention, county resident Chip Minor told the board. A 1,000-acre tract along the same cliffs and just north of Bowers’ property has been for sale for several months.
Contact staff writer Lawrence Latane III at llatane@timesdispatch.com or (804) 333-3461.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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