The Northern Virginia Daily

Article date: July 10, 2008

Planners approve 11 more lots for Llewellyn

Former supervisor hoping to build on roughly 200 acres in Warren County

By Robert King

FRONT ROYAL — Warren County planners Wednesday recommended approval of a request from former North River Supervisor Ron Llewellyn to build more lots on Catlett Mountain Road.

The Warren County Planning Commission voted 4-0, with one member absent, to recommend approval of a subdivision variance after a public hearing Wednesday. The Board of Supervisors will make the final decision and is expected to take up the matter next month.

Llewellyn seeks to build 53 lots on roughly 200 acres he owns. He initially wanted to build 150 lots with Fairfax-based Brookfield Homes, but that deal fell through.

Llewellyn now wants to build 42 lots on the property by-right, meaning county approval isn't required.

The variance would allow him to build another 11 lots that don't have direct access to a state-maintained road.

In exchange for the variance, Llewellyn will donate right of way for a future western bypass road that would stretch from Rivermont Drive to Strasburg Road.

He also allayed concerns about groundwater contamination by not using wells.

"We have elected to go with a central water system," said Mark Lucas, an engineer for the project.

In January 2007, the Planning Commission recommended a rezoning from agricultural to residential for the development.

In February of that year, the Board of Supervisors and Brookfield jointly requested water and sewer service from Front Royal for the development.

Llewellyn told the commission last month that negotiations stalled when the town and Brookfield disagreed on where the water would come from.

The town insisted the water be brought in from the south. Yet that scenario could have cost Brookfield anywhere from $4 to $6 million, Llewellyn has said.

Brookfield in turn wanted the water to come from the north, which would have been cheaper. Yet the town wanted to reserve those lines for commercial development north of town limits, according to a February memorandum from Steve Burke, the town's director of environmental services.

The stalemate between Brookfield and the town eventually forced the development to collapse.

Meanwhile, the proposed development became an issue in Llewellyn's re-election bid. He was defeated in November 2007 by current supervisors Vice chairman Glenn L. White, who slammed Llewellyn for his role as a developer.

The property is near the former Avtex rayon plant, which was declared a Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1986, and is now being cleaned up.

The EPA doesn't know yet whether nearby groundwater is contaminated, according to a 2007 letter from the project manager.

Commission members Victor Failmezger and Harry Krum were concerned about the lot layout. Both said it would be hard to create 53 lots due to topography and power lines.