Tazewell zoning board approves variance to allow up to four lots, OKs special use for dwelling sites after negotiated conditions

Tazewell County zoning officials voted to allow the Sauder Family Trust to split a single parcel into no more than four dwelling sites and approved a special-use request to permit those sites, following several hours of testimony, negotiations among neighbors, and lengthy debate about setbacks, farm-productivity standards and possible restrictions.

Why it matters: The decisions change how an approximately 25-acre irregular tract along Lake Windermere Road can be used and set a local precedent for how the board weighs the county's soil-productivity standard, neighborhood agreements and conditions negotiated between petitioners and objectors.

The board first voted to vary the code provision that normally limits a single split from one new parcel to allow up to four new parcels. After extended argument over whether the tract meets the zoning code's agricultural productivity threshold (the planner's report cited the site as below the 75%/PI-125 benchmark), the board approved findings that emphasized the property's irregular shape, mixed soil types and the…