On the west side of Old Lynchburg Road, directly opposite Biscuit Run, sits Whittington—Biscuit Run’s Rural Area cousin, a 183-acre development approved by Albemarle supervisors in 1977 and slated for 96 units. Since plans for the 3,100-lot Biscuit Run development were flushed in favor of a 1,200-acre state park, Whittington developer Frank Stoner thinks the site could take advantage of Biscuit Run’s nearby sewer lines.
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Although county staff did not recommend sewer service for Whittington, a planned 96-unit development near Biscuit Run, the Board of Supervisors agreed to host a public comment session on expanding Albemarle County Service Authority’s jurisdiction to the site. |
During a recent Board of Supervisors meeting, Stoner requested that the Albemarle County Service Authority (ACSA) expand its jurisdiction to offer sewer services to Whittington, currently approved for water lines but slated for a septic system rather than sewer lines. Supervisors denied the same request in 2006; this time, they unanimously agreed to hear public comment on the proposal in September.
Supervisor Dennis Rooker told Stoner that he “wouldn’t be unsympathetic to looking at this as a Comprehensive Plan change”—moving Whittington into the county’s Development Area. Stoner said he would consider the step. However, Stoner reminded the board that Whittington was approved for one-acre lots more than 30 years prior, and said the request for sewer service wasn’t a growth management decision.
But with Biscuit Run, the county’s mega-development, out of the picture, a site like Whittington could be a sort of bellwether for how development is moderated in southern Albemarle. Should the ACSA expand its jurisdiction to include Whittington, located in the county’s Rural Areas? Or should developers pursue an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan?
“I think the county has to take a serious look at development south of town, now that there’s a state park in the middle of it,” says Elizabeth Breeden, who sold Biscuit Run to developer Hunter Craig and Forest Lodge, LLC in 2005 before that group sold it to the state of Virginia last year.
Asked about use of sewer lines by Whittington, Breeden says the county and developers would “be foolish not to use [them].
“It would save lots and lots of trees, and be of little cost to them since now capacity is nowhere close to what it was built for,” says Breeden.
Pete Gorham, ACSA’s chief engineer, said two sewer lines run near Whittington. Roughly 400′ away, an 8"-diameter sewer main connects to the Mosby Mountain development, also in the Rural Area. Another 125′ further is a 12"-diameter sewer main, located at the upper end of what Gorham calls the “Biscuit Run collector.”
“The closest is the 8", but a lot goes into figuring out capacity—not just diameter but also slope,” says Gorham. “You’d have to look at slope of sewer, what Mosby Mountain is contributing, and see what capacity is left in it.”
Liz Palmer, a member of the ACSA board, says that ACSA has sufficient capacity for a development the size of Whittington. (“We were prepared for Biscuit Run, a much bigger development,” she says via e-mail.) However, she adds that expanding the authority’s jurisdiction “does set a precedent” for developments in the county.
“The lines have been kept firm for many years and I have personally been a supporter of that policy,” says Palmer.
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