Subdivision Regs Causing Headaches

Fayette County doesn’t want neighbors in rural areas to share driveways. Officials say problems arise when neighbors can’t agree on maintaining their road. Those poorly-maintained private roads hamper first responders trying to get to fires or medical emergencies.

The Commissioners Court put a rule in place two decades ago to prohibit shared easements for future land divisions. But now they’re grappling with a new problem – “flag lots.”

Prior to 2001, when land became subdivided, more and more property owners ended up sharing driveways. In some cases, new property owners came to see their driveway easement as a public road that should be maintained by the County, which can place political pressure on commissioners to take over the roads. State law, however, prevents the County in most cases from performing work that benefits individual property owners.

The County adopted subdivision regulations in 2001. The rule requiring all parcels to have exclusive road access was intended to prevent conflicts between property owners who share a private driveway easement.

For example, if a developer wants to divide a 100-acre property into four 25-acre tracts, each “daughter” tract would have to either touch a public road or the developer would have to grant to each parcel an exclusive 30-foot-wide path to the public road. Otherwise, the developer must build a road to county specifications and dedicate it to the county. Such roads are expensive to build.

Due to the 2001 regulations, land developers seeking property to divide often look for land with plenty of road frontage. Those kinds of tracts may be becoming harder to find.

Case in point: an 82.75 acre tract at the corner of Fritsch Rd. and Baron Rd. The developer, Dan Mueller, wants to divide it into 11 tracts for homesites. The tracts range in size from three to 11 acres. Eight of the daughter tracts are flag lots with exclusive pathways to Fritsch Rd. All of the pathways are stacked together in the middle of the parent tract. A shared driveway would be built. Mueller’s plan calls for all of the future property owners to sign an agreement to maintain the shared driveway. However, he included the separate pathways for each lot in order to abide by the subdivision regulations.

County Inspector Clint Sternadel told Commissioners at their Oct. 14 meeting that Mueller’s plan conforms with the subdivision regulation. However, Commissioners raised concerns about drainage issues if the property owners ever decided to abandon the shared driveway and develop their exclusive pathways instead. In an interview last Friday, Pct. 1 Commissioner Jason McBroom said property owners building multiple driveways next to each other would cause drainage problems for the County. Commissioners tabled action on granting the subdivision and asked Sterndel to gather more information.

Commissioners took the item back up at their meeting last Thursday, Oct. 28. Real estate broker Terrell Newton, who represents Mueller, was present for the meeting. Commissioners asked Newton whether Mueller would consider building a public road to county specifications and dedicate it to the County, similar to a separate project that commissioners reviewed that day.

Commissioners reviewed plans for a new subdivision along SH 159 north of La Grange that would contain 19 lots, each roughly two acres in size. The plans called for two new roads to be built to county specifications that would eventually be deeded to the County. Commissioners unanimously approved the preliminary plans.

Newton said building such a road in Mueller’s subdivision would be quite expensive and that the project may not be financially viable.

Commissioners asked whether Mueller would consider separating the exclusive pathways to other parts to property so they aren’t stacked a closely together. Newton said he would present that option to Mueller.

Commissioners again deferred action on Mueller’s subdivision. Commissioners also discussed amending the subdivision ordinance to limit the proliferation of such stacked driveways.

“I call it growing pains for the County,” said Pct. 1 Commissioner Jason McBroom. “We need to make sure we sort it all out so it works for everyone in the county.”