Warren County Report

Article date: January 17, 2007 

County planners recommend increased Catlett Mountain buildout on Llewellyn property- neighbors fume 

By: Roger Bianchini 

By a 3-1 vote on Jan. 10, the Warren County Planning Commission recommended approval of both rezoning and conditional use permit requests that would allow Brookfield Washington Homes to increase an 80-unit by right residential build out to a cluster housing development of 150 homes off Catlett Mountain Road.

In explaining their support of the request to allow a larger build out in exchange for a variety of proffers, now totaling approximately $3.8 million, the three planners voting to approve (Bower, Mabry and Krum) cited a preference for more homes tied to cash, land and central water and sewer proffers versus the potential of an 80- unit by right build out dependent on individual well and septic systems with no proffers to the county.

As the proposal now stands Brookfield and the county must get the Town of Front Royal to agree to extend central water and sewer for the project to proceed.  Questioned by the commission on their plan should the town refuse central water and sewer, Brookfield attorney Merle Fallon said the prospect of another central water source would have to be explored and the existing proffer package renegotiated, possibly leading back to ground zero in the approval process.

The 203-acre parcel is owned by Ron Llewellyn, a contract partner of the national builder, which has raised alarm bells with some county residents.  However, rather than concentrate on who is involved in the request directly or indirectly, neighbors of the proposed subdivision along Catlett Mountain Road have focused their criticism on two primary concerns- traffic safety and pollution of the goundwater at the site.

Pollution concerns and Brookfield representative Brian Grezelak’s public hearing admission his company would not proceed by a by-right, well and septic-based development makes the major rational for the project- 80 by right homes with no proffers to the county versus 150 homes with a $3-million-plus proffer package a moot point, neighbors say.

“We on Oak Ridge Drive don’t agree with the Planning Commission majority’s assessment that it is an either/or proposition,” neighbor and former Avtex Redevelopment Advisor Committee member Scott Dueweke said.  “Portraying this as a choice between 150 houses with the proffer of being hooked up to town water and sewer or 80 ‘straws in the ground’ I think is a bit of a stalking horse that isn’t really accurate because this is sandwiched between the tongue of toxic chemicals, mainly carbon disulfide, a deadly nerve agent, from Avtex that comes to the tip of that property – it’s treated but it’s still there – and on the other side you’ve got the old town dump, an unlined dump that they talk about capping.  Well (pun intended?), who cares if they cap it or not if it’s not lined, which it hasn’t been and it was closed, what 20 or more years ago?”

It is the potential hazard created by such long term pollution in the area that would make any builder reluctant to proceed with a well and septic development, Dueweke believes.  “Oh they (Brookfield) made it clear they had no interest and I don’t know why the planning commission keeps overlooking that and glossing it over and making it an either/or choice?  Clearly, it’s not and clearly Brookfield has no interest in doing this by-right on wells and won’t do it.”

South River Planner Lorraine Smelser, the lone dissenting vote (David McDaniel was absent),  agreed with Dueweke and other neighbors assessments.

“I voted against it because of traffic impacts to begin with, the roads are not in any condition to handle even 80 [more homes],” Smelser said.  “I also don’t believe they would ever be able to build 80 by right just because of the conditions of that property, the old dump, Avtex.  I think they’d have a hard time getting 80 homes there – anybody,” Smelser said.  “I think that in reality you might be looking at 25 or 30 homes eventually, totally,” Smelser added.  She said that even with a development of that size, she felt state laws would mandate consideration of a central water supply at the Catlett Mountain site.”

 Superfund intervention?

Drawing from his experience on the Avtex Redevelopment Advisory Committee, Dueweke also believes the federal government might take a hand’s-on interest in the drilling of wells near an area known to have been contaminated by carbon disulfides from a federal Superfund site, which the 467-acre Avtex rayon and synthetic fibers plant site across the Shenandoah River has been since shortly after its 1989 closing by state authorities for illegal dumping into the river.

“If you look at what parties might be interested in making sure that this is safe for whoever would come in here and drill a well and drink out of it and have their kids drinking out of it, EPA could be I believe ... because that pollution, that tongue of nerve agent [from Avtex] goes right up to the [Catlett Mountain] property and you combine that issue with an old, unlined, unsafe municipal dump with PCB-laden devices, old transformers in it- put the two together and that is a toxic sandwich between the two”.

Supposition vs. reality?

However, Shenandoah District Planner Harry Krum said he based his vote on what is a known option rather than supposition.  “That is all supposition,” he said of Dueweke’s prediction of potential federal involvement over adjacent pollution issue.  “What is the reality?  The reality is they could build 80 homes.  That land is sitting there, it’s zoned for 80 houses.  Somebody can go and buy that property and put 80 houses there and I don’t think [the county] can stop them.”

Krum pushed hard to limit the annual buildout to 30 units per year, 20 less than the developer proffered for a three year period, after which they wanted no restrictions placed on numbers until buildout was achieved.  The 30-unit condition was part of the package the planners recommended for approval.

Traffic dangers

As for traffic, a significant increase of local traffic along winding, narrow, two lane Catlett Mountain Road at the edge of a steep ravine on one side and deep ditch on the other makes approval without major road improvements a potentially fatal mistake residents, including Linda Walker and Maziak Momeui contend.

“Now what they have is a mistake,” Walker said following the vote.  “They don’t build the roads before they allow the people to come in here and build houses and that’s what they need to do, they need to make the builders fix the roads before they build homes – period.”

Current residents living on or near Catlett Mountain Road also called a late increase of $50,000 in road proffers to deal with projected traffic increases an joke.  “ We spent $30,000 just leveling out the hill a little bit for Oak Ridge Drive just to make it a little bit safer,” Dueweke said of his subdivision’s road.  “There are a couple critical turns that are blind, hairpin turns that people just hug on Catlett Mountain Road .  They would need to cut into the hill, and put up guardrails – They already put signs up.  In fact, I believe the near- fatal accident over the weekend (Jan. 5) knocked over one of the safety signs they put up after the last major wreck there.”

“Those girls were lucky they didn’t get killed,” several Catlett Mountain Road residents observed on the Jan.5 accident.  Two teenage girls were able to walk away with minor injuries after a 20- foot ride down the steep embankment overlooking the Shenandoah River to the east of Catlett Mountain Road..  The driver, Nicole Dodson, 19, was charged with reckless driving after losing control of her 2000 Ford Contour on wet pavement at one of the Catlett Mountain Road’s sharp turns.  State Police investigators estimated Dodson was doing 40 mph in a 35 mph speed zone with neither drugs or alcohol a factor in the mid-afternoon mishap.  The earlier accident referred to occurred on Dec. 21 when a truck overturned into a ditch along Catlett Mountain Road.

Both recent accidents occurred after the planning commissions public hearing on the Brookfield request, resident’s pointed out.

“VDOT is being motivated by seeing money they can use for their pet traffic light project at Route 619 and 340 that has absolutely nothing to do with traffic safety concerns at this development – zero,” Dueweke said of planning staff discussion indicating VDOT was likely to earmark at least $100,000 of the now $150,000 in road proffers (1,000 per unit) to the Route 619/U.S. 340 intersection.