Just because you work out a 264-acre rezoning for 900-plus homes and 500,000 square-feet of commercial space by a narrow vote of 4-2 doesn’t put you in the clear. Richard Spurzem, the first developer to bring forward site plans as part of the North Pointe mega-development, had his plans for 188 residential units on 40 acres rejected November 26 by Albemarle County staff.
Staff’s six-page denial covered a range of reasons, from engineering details to proffer requirements. But the two biggest issues for the project concern the layout of the residential units and the sewer capacity.
"The stuff that we can’t comply with are the nonspecific issues," says Spurzem. "The rezoning [plan] was not an engineered plan. Now, are our buildings located in a different direction than the little sketch that was done with the rezoning? Yeah, they are, but we don’t think that’s a basis for disapproval."
Spurzem is no stranger to the trials and tribulations of the review process. He’s taken the county to court, and in 2005, the Albemarle County Circuit Court reversed the county’s decision to deny his by-right Gazebo Place shopping center. This time around, Spurzem says he’s leaning toward submitting new plans that clean up some of the technical issues that county staff have.
"But there’s probably still a problem with the fact that the plan that we submitted doesn’t meet their vision for this property," says Spurzem. "The Board of Supervisors voted to rezone this property and said exactly what they wanted to have in each of the areas of the development, and county staff ought to be working to see that that happens and not obstruct everything every step of the way."
But even if he irons out the other kinks, he still has to deal with a lack of capacity at the Camelot Wastewater Treatment Plant. The Albemarle County Service Authority (ACSA) noted in the county’s letter to Spurzem that "there is no capacity for sanitary sewer pointing that direction." The long-term plan is to do away with the Camelot plant and build a new pump station that would divert Northern Albemarle waste to the Moores Creek treatment plant instead. ACSA is planning a January meeting to discuss future needs that would involve area stakeholders such as the National Ground Intelligence Center, developer Wendell Wood, UVA Foundation and North Pointe developers.
"We don’t believe that the sewer capacity has anything to do with the county’s action on the preliminary site plans," Spurzem says. "The sewer will come later—that’s just not handled at this preliminary site plan stage."
If North Pointe stalls because of the sewage question, it would join a club to which Albemarle Place developers have long belonged. As C-VILLE reported in April, that project, which has been rezoned and is slated for the corner of Hydraulic and Route 29, has had to wait for the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority to resolve sewage issues with the Meadowcreek interceptor.
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