Mid County Civic Association Of Prince William
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Agritourism and Arts Overlay District

This is a proposal to allow some arts and agricultural tourism commercial activities in residential areas.  
​Draft text: https://eservice.pwcgov.org/planning/documents/AAOD/DRAFT_AAOD_Text_20200714.pdf

Draft map: https://eservice.pwcgov.org/planning/documents/AAOD/AAOD_Map_20200618.pdf

Below are some of MIDCO's concerns.


Our understanding of this concept was that it came out of the Rural Preservation Study and was intended for the rural area. The Purpose and Intent states: "The intended result of the AAOD is to help establish an area with agritourism and art-related businesses integrated together in a manner that maintains the rural character of the Rural Area." 

From the above it's clear that the reasoning behind this concept is to protect farmland and open space, not to use in residential neighborhoods as exist in the mid-county area. Most of the land zoned A-1 in mid-county is either already part of a subdivision or is next to existing subdivisions. Even with larger parcels (20 acres or more), the existing surrounding subdivisions may be on 1/2 acre to 1 acre lots. This is quite different than the land use patterns in many areas of the rural area. The AAOD would incentivize commercial uses in and near these subdivisions, possibly multiple instances within one community. 

Questions/ concerns: 

1. Does this AAOD concept fit in areas with existing subdivisions, specifically mid-county?

2. Is it fair to existing homeowners to now change their basic assumptions regarding what's allowed in their neighborhoods? (Many/ most? bought their homes based on the assumption that their community was residential and would stay that way).

3. This was intended to help preserve the rural area and came out of the Rural Preservation Study. Why should it be applied to the development area, particularly mid-county- what problem are we trying to solve?

4. Is the public aware that this may apply to subdivisions in mid-county and elsewhere? (It hasn't always been clear from the staff reports).   

5. Is it appropriate to allow up to 150 parking spaces within a subdivision of 5 acre lots or smaller?

6. Why would we allow this on less than 20 acre parcels if the goal is to enhance the rural area?

7. Do we really want to promote commercial development in subdivisions (rural or suburban)? How will that affect quality of life for the residents?

8. Wouldn't this potentially introduce more traffic, sound and wear-and-tear on privately maintained roads in subdivisions?

9. What was the rationale for allowing 75 decibel sound level at the property line instead of the county-wide 60? This is a logarithmic scale, so this is quite a bit louder.

10. Special Use Permits are available for "other than specified uses," but the only limitation is that they be "arts related uses." Isn't this overly broad and undefined?

11. The setback requirement in residential areas is generally 25 feet- is this sufficient for commercial activity?

12. If this is to be a strategy to help the rural area to stay viable by attracting agritourism and arts why would we allow similar competitive activity in the developed area?

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