FABA Fast Facts

Legislative Update

Orange County:

•    Progress on their zoning ordinance update has stalled. There seems to be a major disconnect between staff, the board, and the Berkley Group on the parameters of the update. The board wants just the creation of 5-6 new districts (A1,A2, Rural Residential, Rural Service, Tech, and Overlay). The recreation of A1 and A2 is beneficial for us, as one of those agricultural districts will be intentionally open to development. The issue that is slowing progress is that the Berkley group wants to add other items to the ordinance to restrict growth that the board does not want, or think is necessary – specifically, the elimination of pipe stem lots, new road frontage requirements, and other aesthetic requirements for building houses. Staff and the board feel these additional requirements are unnecessary and distract from their main goal of creating new districts. At this time, the board is considering the suspension of their contract with the Berkley Group and suspending the stakeholder subcommittee tasked with reviewing the Berkley Group’s ideas. Right now, they have agreed they need a couple months to get back on track, meaning several more work sessions, and public hearings before any decision is made.

Spotsylvania

•    Dave Ansell has officially retired and been replaced by Chuck Stiles as Chief Building Official.
•    The Board of Supervisors has approved an increase of utility fees that will go into effect in a two-fold manner. The first increase phase will go into effect on July 1st, 2025 – while the second will go into effect on July 1st, 2026. Included below is a link to the ordinance that outlines the new fees and their implementation schedule.

o    Board of Supervisors Meeting • Spotsylvania County Boards & Commissions Portal • CivicClerk

FABA Upcoming Events

Hard Hat – June 19th – Sponsored by NK Floors 

Corn Hole Social – June 12th

Join us on June 19th for the June Hard hat at NK Floors

Click here to support the community service committee in their efforts to help Caroline County Public School

FABA Fast Facts from the week of 5/26/25 –

Listed below are my legislative updates for the week – including Stafford Impact Fees and King George County Subdivision Restrictions.

1. Stafford Impact Fees – The Stafford BOS voted to approve their impact fee update on Tuesday night, solidifying the rates at 30% of the original amounts proposed by the Volkert report (I will include calculations below). These fees go into effect July 1st, 2025. The board also voted to reinstate the TIF advisory committee and conduct a new traffic study on impact fees, which is tentatively scheduled to start in January. They will have a funding/budget meeting for this study and committee in June.
   1. In response to this, FABA is backing several plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Stafford County. We believe their implementation of these impact fees violates several Virginia statutes – including those that dictate the parameters of how impact fees are to be implemented by a locality. We are asking for your support in this effort and are fielding donations to our legal fund. If these fees are instituted as is, all projects in Stafford County will become financially ruinous for our builders and developers. It’s hard enough to build in Stafford County right now. With these new fees, it will become impossible. The lawsuit has been served, and we are working with Clark Lemming to get an injunction and stop the fees from going into effect on July 1st.
2. New rates at 30% of the Volkert report estimates:
   1. Residential: Northern Service Area = $5,137.80 per unit
      ii. Residential: Southern Service Area = $4,055.10 per unit
      iii. Office: Northern Service Area = $6,950.40 per 1000 square feet
      iv. Office: Southern Service Area = $5,485.50 per 1000 square feet
      v. Retail: Northern Service Area = $10,854 per 1000 square feet
      vi. Retail: Southern Service Area = $8,566.20 per 1000 square feet
      vii. Industrial: Northern Service Area = $3,539.40 per 1000 square feet
      viii. Industrial: Southern Service Area = $2,793.30 per 1000 square feet
3. King George Subdivision Restriction & Subcommittee – King George wrapped up their stakeholder subcommittee reviewing their proposed ordinance to increase the minimum acreage requirements for subdivision in all three of their agricultural districts. Our builder member, Allen West was on this committee. At the most recent BOS meeting, the county administrator presented the subcommittee’s findings and opinions to the board. The board cited a case mentioned by Allen West’s attorney that casts doubt on the county’s ability to impose such steep subdivision restrictions, as it would potentially violate property rights. The Board also toyed with the idea of limiting parent tracts to 4 lots plus the remainder. They even considered reducing the acreage requirement increases from 50, 20, and 10, to 15, 10, and 5 (A1, A2, A3 districts respectively). No action was taken by the board at this time. There will be several work sessions and public hearings that will follow in the coming months. All six members of the subcommittee did not support the acreage increases. Instead, they supported the following:
   1. A full comprehensive plan update, especially water and sewer service area updates, revising the lot number thresholds for a major subdivision, and the creation of a future land use map.
   2. Removal of the ability for a major subdivision in all agricultural zoning districts and allowing them only in residential zoning districts. This will require developers to apply for a rezoning. Allen did propose an option for grandfathering language – but this was not agreed upon by the other members.
   3. Members supported requiring all lots in major subdivisions to access from internal roads built to VDOT standards.
   4. Researching a purchase of development rights program and funding county projects via proffers.
   5. Researching the possibility of the county performing adequate public facilities study to determine school capacity and the feasibility of future proposed developments.
   6. Supported leaving family subdivisions as they are.

FABA Fast Facts from the week of 5/19/25 –

Community Service Committee and Caroline High School – Click here to purchase soap needed for the backpack drive 

Register today for the CornHole Social on June 12th 

Summer Fest – Save the date, August 8th. Tickets go on sale starting in June!

Register now for FABA University on May 21st 

FABA Fast Facts for the week of 05/05/25 –

Jim Tobin Address to HBAV 

Town of Culpeper UDO: Town of Culpeper Zoning Update Project

Spotsylvania Zoning and DSM Update: Zoning Ordinance & Design Standards Manual Update | Spotsylvania County, VA

FABA University – May 21st 

Hard Hat Networking