Background

The Miller Farm north of Rockwool was purchased by the land development company Jefferson Orchards, Inc. around the time they sold part of the old Jefferson Orchards land to Rockwool. In 2021 Jefferson Orchards, Inc. applied to have the land rezoned from Rural to Residential Growth. Residential Growth allows urban level housing development. Jefferson Orchards, Inc. was granted the zoning change even through it did not align with the 2035 County Comprehensive Plan. The Jefferson County Planning Commission and County Commission did so because they found that due in part to the new road “Northport Avenue” that the applicant promised that the WVDOH would build to the site there had been a significant change to the community.

In May 2024, the applicant (Jefferson Orchards, Inc.) came back to the Planning Commission with a concept plan for a housing development—including 720 houses on 88.06 acres of lots, and tiny housing lots pushed right up against rural land where large livestock are kept and crop fields are planted. Frustratingly, when the applicant came back to the Planning Commission, they decided not to put in the road that had allowed the zoning change in the first place. The Planning Commission gave the applicant direction to continue to the preliminary plat stage and to meet with the adjoining land owners to address their concerns specifically with fencing to protect the adjoining land owners’ assets.

Now the owner, Jefferson Orchards, Inc., and the applicant, Lennar, have come back with the preliminary plat and there are deficiencies.

What is happening

The developers of Birdhill Meadows Subdivision have applied for approval of a Preliminary Plat. The Jefferson County Planning Commission is holding a Public Hearing on the Preliminary Plat on January 14, 2025 at 7 pm at the County Commission Meeting Room in the downstairs of the Charles Town Library. The Planning Commission is required to hold a public hearing on all preliminary Plats (Section 24.114 of the subdivision regulations).

Read the submitted Plat in the PDFs below (note: due to the large size, the entire PDF is broken up into sections to make it easier to read and download).

The Issues

The Issues with the application:

There is no historic resource impact study included as required by 24.113 B. 10.
There is no Phase I archeological study included as required by 24.113 B. 10.
There are zoning issues (24.113 D.1.). When the property was rezoned, Jefferson Orchards, Inc. promised that a road would be extended through the development from Northport Avenue to alleviate traffic issues on 480. Now it is not building this road. The development should not be allowed without this road.
24.113. B.13. requires that applicants address the identified concerns from the Concept Plan. The Planning Commission directed the applicant to meet with the adjoining and confronting land owners regarding facing prior to submitting the preliminary plat. This was not done.
24.113 E. requires WVDOH approval prior to final Preliminary Plat approval by staff. No such approval may be found in the materials provided to the public.

The issues with the process:

The Planning Department staff are refusing to post a public copy of the preliminary plat documents online for the public to view. They are also refusing to print a full-size copy of plans for members of the public to view in the Planning Commission office. If you wish to see the Preliminary Plat, you must contact the Planning and Zoning office and request a link to download the document. If your internet is not sufficient to download the documents, Jenny Lynn from the planning commission said that you could come to the office of Planning and Zoning and look over her shoulder at the computer screen (literally). The Subdivision Regulations require 21 days legal notice to the public before the public hearing. How can the public have a meaningful right to be heard if they do not have the opportunity to review the information.

How to take action

Plan to attend the meeting January 14, 2025 at 7 pm at the County Commission Meeting Room in the downstairs of the Charles Town Library and give public comment on the issues.

Send written public comment to the Planning Commission by January 7, 2025. Use our comment portal below to send to the Jefferson County Planning Commissioners and staff. Please add a personal comment to make sure it’s seen by commissioners.

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Dear Planning commissioners,

Please accept my comments on the Birdhill Meadows Preliminary Plat for a Major Subdivision.

I request that you deny the application because the road (extension of Northport Avenue into the development) that was the basis of the zoning change in 2021 (change from Rural to Residential Growth) to accommodate this development is now not going to be built. This leaves all of the traffic from this development (some 4320 to 7200 trips a day) to use Route 480, greatly overtaxing its capacity, and placing a hardship on the rural surrounding rural and village properties.

If you do not deny the application, I request that you hold the application for an additional 45 days for additional information as described in 24.115 of the subdivision regulations. In this time the applicant needs to provide the historic resource impact study and Phase I archeological study both required by 24.113 B. 10. of the subdivision regulations. The applicant did not provide these studies. The staff does not have the authority to simply waive these requirements. Also, the applicant needs to meet with each adjoining landowner and provide the fence that adjoining landowners’ wishes to have, not just the one the applicant wants to provide.

If you approve this application, I request that you place a condition on the final plat that requires the applicant to build the extension of Northport Avenue into the development to provide regular ingress and egress onto a road other than Route 480, and requires the applicant to build the fence requested by each adjoining landowner.

Thank you for considering these comments in your deliberations of the Birdhill Meadows Preliminary Plat.

Sincerely,

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Birdhill Meadows Subdivision in Jefferson Orchards