A resolution by the King George County Board of Supervisors to change the zoning and subdivision ordinance is receiving pushback from the Fredericksburg Area Association of Realtors (FAAR) and some county residents.
The supervisors have generally aimed to curb residential growth in the rural county. Their proposed resolution, which the supervisors voted 5-0 to send to the planning commission, would drastically reduce the number of homes that developers and residents could place on an existing lot.
The planning commission discussed the resolution and requested more direction from the supervisors, including what they hoping to accomplish with the amendments. The supervisors decided earlier this week to form a committee to study the matter.
The minimum lot requirements for property zoned “Agricultural-1” is currently 10 acres; “Agricultural-2” is two acres and “Agricultural-3” is one acre.
The resolution would change those figures to 50, 20 and 10 acres, respectively.
In addition to the changes in acreage, the amendments would require lot widths to increase from 300 feet to 500 in A-1; 150 to 300 in A-2; and 120 to 300 in A-3.
Residents spoke out against the proposal during a board meeting earlier this week.
“If they did this, it would impact everybody in the county,” said Gary Butler, a local realtor. “If you’re in any of the agricultural zones, it would be devaluing your land greatly. If you live in a subdivision, they’d have to make up the loss of taxes from agriculturally-zoned land, and the only way to do it would be to increase the property taxes on existing homes and businesses.”
Butler said the proposal is troubling because someone with 99 acres could only build one home on A-1 zoned property.
FAAR President Lauren Tate recently sent a letter to the King George Planning Commission voicing the organization’s opposition, “on behalf of 1,700 realtors” and affiliates in the region.
“FAAR is deeply concerned about the impacts to private property rights, the potential negative impacts to landowners and small local builders, and the further driving up of home prices,” Tate wrote. “Restricting property owners’ rights to subdivide their land by imposing very large minimum lot sizes will have major impacts on individual citizens and the county as a whole.”
Tate went on to outline FAAR’s three main areas of concern: economic impact, property rights and housing affordability.
She said that restricting the number of lots created per parcel “limits the potential return on investment for property owners,” which could severely devalue rural land in the county. She said that the amendments to zoning “infringe upon property owners’ rights to utilize their land as they see fit within existing zoning regulations.”
Tate added that the changes would drive up the cost of housing in the region “by decreasing lot yield,” thus making it more difficult for working families and young professionals to own a home.
Approximately 38% of land in the county is zoned A-1, with 52% zoned A-2 and 1% zoned A-3.
“FAAR appreciates the discussions the planning commission has already engaged in on this topic and looks forward to further discussion,” Tate wrote. “We respectfully request that the planning commission reject these onerous increases to minimum lot sizes for agriculturally zoned land.”
According to a recent report from the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center, King George is the fourth-fastest growing locality in the Fredericksburg area, behind Caroline, Spotsylvania and Stafford counties, with a 5.7% growth rate between 2020-24. The county added 1,527 residents in that timeframe.
Butler warned the supervisors that the proposed amendments are “singularly the greatest potential impact on the people of King George County that there’s ever been.”
“The unintended consequences of it [are] huge,” he said.
King George Board Chair William Davis said the supervisors have been transparent about the issue by discussing it in open meetings.
He said he’s been “irritated” by misinformation associated with the amendments. One such misconception, he said, is that families will no longer be able to subdivide their own property.
Family subdivisions will have minimum lot requirements of 10 acres (A-1), two acres (A-2) and one acre (A-3).
“There’s enough truth you can say without telling people they’re not going to be able to cut off a piece of their land for their son to build a house on and the lies and stuff that were going on,” Davis said. “It really discredits you.”
Davis noted that his father purchased land that was subdivided for him and his brother to build homes.
“That’s the last thing I want to stop,” he said.
