Loudoun discusses zoning ordinance amendment to protect prime soils

By Grace Bennett

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors will be holding a public hearing on June 12 on the proposed amendment to the current Zoning Ordinance (ZOAM) in Agricultural Rural (AR-1 and AR-2) Zoning Districts in the Rural Policy Area. Farmers and stakeholders alike will be impacted by the outcome of this push to preserve Prime Farmland Soils and maximize the efficiency of cluster housing.

In cluster housing zones, presently, Prime Farmland Soils are not being preserved. In June 2020, the Board approved amending regulations to improve cluster development design while preserving Prime Farmland Soils to ensure the success of the rural economy.

After appointing a Work Group to formulate revisions to the proposed ZOAM text in February 2023, debates over the best course of action began—locals and organizations alike contributed their ideas and concerns over the content within the ZOAM text being considered.

The proposed amendment requires that at least 70% of Prime Farmland Soils be preserved on any Originating Tract when the tract contains at least five acres of contiguous or non-contiguous Prime Farmland Soils. Similarly, a minimum of 70% of the Originating Tract must be outside of the area used for Residential Cluster Lots. The hope is to mitigate impacts to the value of productive farmland and ensure protection to the surrounding environment, ultimately benefiting local farmers and property stakeholders.

Cluster subdivisions, too, will be amended to include greater design flexibility for promoting preservation and efficiency. The ZOAM text suggests that smaller RCL groupings will be considered as well as a decreased minimum distance between groupings, a reduction of the minimum setback from local roads, and an overall resizing of RCLs to ease the burden on farmland while maintaining the development potential and avoiding a significant increase to development costs.

Two major voices in the amendment debate remain at odds with one another. The Farming Stakeholder group is in support of the proposed ZOAM, as most lots are able to easily achieve preservation of 70% of Prime Farmland Soils, and the environment would benefit from a reduced spread of residential buildings.

Locating Prime Farmland Soils mostly on Farmland Preservation Lots would also promote production diversity and allow for up-and-coming farmers to work with small new tracts. Furthermore, a clarification of the language within the ZOAM text has the potential to eliminate harmful loopholes in farming practice.

The opposing major voice in the amendment debate is the Conservation Easement group. The CE group has expressed interest in first identifying practical preservation methods, as the current ZOAM proposal contains “fallacies” that could negatively impact the “desirability, marketability, and valuation” of Preservation Farm Lots and Rural Economy Lots, according to the documentation for the June 12 public hearing. The CE group also wishes to account for changes in future demand.

A few outstanding issues presented by the CE with preserving 70% of Prime Farmland Soils are as follows: the proposed ZOAM necessitates longer roadways, which would increase construction costs and decrease conservation easement monetary value; it causes the placement of septic systems to be more expensive; and greater Rural Economy Cluster lot spacing would create the need for more, expensive stormwater facilities.

With 70% of Prime Farmland Soils preserved, the CE group says that Rural Economy Cluster lots might be pushed into environmentally sensitive areas. The CE group suggested that, rather than requiring preservation on Originating Tracts containing five non-contiguous acres of Prime Farmland Soils, the ZOAM should change the threshold to twenty contiguous acres.

The public hearing for prime soil conservation will take place on June 12 as the eighth item on the agenda. The community can sign up for public comment at 703-777-0200.