Planning commission recommends 1 of 3 strategies to conserve land in the ‘rural crescent’

The Prince William County Planning Commission voted Wednesday evening to recommend one proposed land-preservation tool intended to help conserve land within Prince William County’s designated rural area – and to deny two others.

The commission voted unanimously to recommend the creation of a purchase of development rights program but voted to deny recommending a transfer of development rights program and a new zoning designation to allow higher-density development in certain parts of the rural area. 

The proposals now head to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors which will have the final say over whether the county adopts them. 

PDR program

Commissioners voted in favor of creating a purchase of development rights, or PDR, program – a potentially costly proposal aimed at permanently conserving land in the rural area. It would allow landowners with more than 20 acres to voluntarily sell the development rights to their properties to the local government to permanently shield the land from any future development. . 

About 18,000 acres of land, or about 15.4% of the developable land in the rural area, could be put into permanent conservation easement if all eligible property owners took advantage of the program, according to county planner Alex Stanley.

But Stanley cautioned that the program would be very expensive and “may not be realistic” because of the high cost of land in Prince William County. 

The average cost of a 10-acre lot in the county’s rural area is $250,000 -- or about $25,000 per acre -- according to at-large Planning Commissioner Don Taylor. Taylor voted in favor of creating the program but said that “in order for a landowner to want to part with their acreage,” the county would need to put up large sums of money. 

“For 50 acres, it’s a million bucks,” Taylor said. 

The program’s cost could be offset by state and federal grant funding, including federal funding from the U.S. military dedicated to creating buffers along the edges of their military bases. But, Taylor said, the type of grant money currently available “does not support land values that are in that $25,000 per acre range.” 

“The money is just not there,” Taylor said. 

Fauquier and Stafford counties, just south and west of Prince William, have had PDR programs for more than a decade. Fauquier has permanently conserved 4,013 acres through its PDR program since it was implemented in 2002, but the average cost per acre at the time the land was purchased was $1,234 -- far lower than Prince William’s current market. 

Higher densities – but fewer houses 

The board voted 7-1 to deny recommending the adoption of two land-use tools that taken together would allow higher residential densities but less total development in the rural area. 

The board voted down the adoption of zoning designation known as “conservation residential,” which would allow higher-density development and public sewer along several designated areas in the rural area bordering the county’s “development area.” It would require developers to put 60% of their land into a conservation easement, but would allow residential development with densities of one home per three acres on the remaining 40% of the land.  

In total, the conservation residential designation would allow 216 more housing units above what is currently allowed in those designated areas. 

The additional housing units allowed in those areas would be offset, however, by the implementation of a purchase of development rights and transfer of development rights program, if the board were to adopt them. 

A transfer of development rights, or TDR, program would allow property owners with 20 or more acres in the rural area to voluntarily sever the development rights on their properties, permanently conserving their land, and transfer the development rights to designated “receiving” areas in the county.

Under the program, developers would purchase those rights in exchange for being able to build higher-density housing units -- likely apartments or condominiums -- in "receiving areas" in areas of the county already served by mass transit and other development.

The county's plan designates receiving areas around Potomac Mills in Woodbridge; the Virginia Gateway shopping center in Gainesville; Potomac Shores, outside Dumfries along the Potomac River; and around Innovation Park, outside Manassas.  

Under the proposed TDR program, some of the development rights could also be transferred within the rural area, on the edge of the development area near Manassas airport and in Nokesville. The plan would allow fewer development rights to be transferred to those areas than would be allowed around areas in the development area, such as Potomac Mills and Virginia Gateway.

Stanley said the adoption of these ordinances, while allowing higher densities in specific parts of the rural area, would reduce the total number of homes that could be built in the rural area by 1,000 units if all were adopted and successfully implemented.

Only Potomac Commissioner Juan McPhail voted in favor of all three strategies. Others raised concerns about adding density in the rural area, however. Gainesville Commissioner Rick Berry said the conservation residential designation would “create suburbia in the ‘rural crescent.’”

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors will take up the rural area preservation proposals at a later date that has not yet been set.

The board has voted contrary to the planning commission’s recommendations in several instances recently, and several Democratic board members have expressed support for creating higher residential densities in the rural area as long as other areas are conserved or downzoned. 

Reach Daniel Berti at dberti@fauquier.com