Mallard North and South

This is a rezoning request that was approved by the BOCS in June, 2015. The staff report is available here: http://eservice.pwcgov.org/documents/bocs/agendas/2015/0616/15-C.pdf 
and here: http://eservice.pwcgov.org/documents/bocs/agendas/2015/0616/15-D.pdf


Below is a MIDCO letter to the BOCS on this project.


Dear Supervisors, 

Regarding the Mallard North and South project that will have a public hearing before you on June 16th, we recommend denial of the rezoning as currently presented. This project is way too dense and doesn't respect the Comprehensive Plan recommendations for the SRR classification. Parcels like these are what SRR was designed for.  

SRR (semi-rural residential) is used when a transition is required between higher density housing and the Rural Crescent or parkland, and these parcels are that transition. This proposal actually asks for higher density on their parcel than the surrounding residential areas, which is the opposite of what's recommended. Adjacent parcels average 1.85 acres per housing unit and this proposal would be barely 1 acre per housing unit. This would be a bad precedent for the SRR classification and poor planning-why go through the process of putting together a Comp Plan only to ignore it?  

The applicant would be given large density credits for actions they're required to take, such as extending public water and sewer to the parcels. The water and sewer could be considered a benefit to surrounding residents as a fall-back for those with "failing" septic systems, but there are two issues here. One, due to a landfill and underground plume of contamination on the north parcel from tanks on a neighboring property, they could be required to supply public water. Two, the cost for a homeowner to connect to the public services isn't that different that an alternative septic system would be. Hardly worthy of large density credits.  

Please honor the Comp Plan and community desires and insist on the lower density that would create a transition here as is recommended and logical. 

Respectfully, 

Martin Jeter 
President, MIDCO