Fayette County board opens hearing on variance to cut frontage requirement for Pardee parcel

The Fayette County Board of Zoning Appeals opened a public hearing on VCA 25-04, a variance request by Pardee Resources Company (doing business as Pardee Timber) to reduce the required minimum frontage on State Route 639 from 300 feet to 100 feet for the parcel identified as tax map 28 section 10 parcel 1. The applicant told the board the change would allow the property owner to subdivide the parcel into five lots, four smaller lots plus a roughly 115-acre residual parcel.

The request matters to nearby residents because it could enable sale and future development of timberland that neighbors say contributes to the county's rural character. "If the company that purchased the property purchased it for timbering and then they never timbered the company, then they didn't actually purchase it to timber," public commenter Patty Rainer said during the hearing, adding she was "not in favor of the development at all." The board heard questions about traffic safety on Longacre Road (State Route 639), availability of water and sewer, and whether rollback tax implications apply.

County staff presented the variance request and explained the ordinance citations under consideration, including Section 22-4-3(c)(1)(b) and the corner-lot frontage requirement in what staff referenced as Section 22-4-5. Staff said the parcel is a corner lot with 300 feet of frontage on State Route 680 but only about 100 feet on State Route 639, and that the lot's current configuration resulted from a 2018 division. "This lot was previously divided in 2018, which is the result of its current configuration," staff told the board, describing why the parcel does not meet both-road frontage requirements for corner lots.

Bryce Hunter, representing Pardee Resources Company, told the board the current owner acquired the property through corporate restructuring and that the company has been selling subdivided lots in the area. "Pardee is not in the development business. They're just landowners," Hunter said. He and the applicant's surveyor described a plan that would place vehicle access for the new lots on State Route 680 (Middle Fork Road) rather than on Longacre Road (State Route 639); staff said that can be added as a condition. "There will not be any entrance on Longacre," Hunter said; "it will be on 680, and that can be added as a condition."

Board members questioned whether the hardship claimed for the variance was created by the applicant or predated current ownership, noting the parcel's nonconforming frontage existed before recent sales. One board member said the only realistic remedy to obtain additional frontage would be acquisition or deed transfer of adjacent land, noting that reconfiguring the proposed four smaller lots would not change the existing nonconformity. "The only way you can remedy that is you buy another parcel," a member said during deliberations.

Neighbors raised other concerns during public comment. Edward Probst, a nearby property owner, said he received notice by mail and said he had not previously known the scale of the proposal. "What is the proposed density of housing? Where's water coming from for this?" Probst asked, saying properties in the area use well and septic systems and expressing concern about impacts to a creek that marks his property line. Patty Rainer pressed the board to consider whether Pardee purchased the land for timber or with development in mind, and asked about rollback taxes if land-use classification changes.

The hearing, as reflected in the transcript, consisted of the staff presentation, questions by board members, testimony from the applicant and the applicant's engineer/surveyor, and public comment. The board opened the public hearing on VCA 25-04; no final vote or formal decision on the variance is recorded in the provided transcript segment.

The record shows the board and staff focused on factual questions about lot history, frontage measurements, access points and whether conditions could be attached to limit access from State Route 639. The transcript does not record a final outcome on the variance request or any immediate conditions adopted.

Speakers quoted in this article spoke during the board's presentation, the applicant's presentation or the public comment period and are shown in the meeting transcript.