Planning commission recommends Highway 72 access for proposed Afton landscaping and mulch site

At a meeting of the Loudoun County Regional Planning Commission, commissioners recommended that a proposed commercial landscaping and mulch retail site in Afton obtain access from Highway 72 rather than Wade Road. The applicant, Andrew Brackett, and his surveyor described plans for a retail lot selling mulch, nursery items and landscape materials and said they preferred Wade Road for driveway access; commissioners raised safety and sight-distance concerns and recommended the state highway instead.

Brackett, the applicant and property owner, told commissioners: "the idea for the property is, we've been in that's been in 3 business for nearly 30 years and started using, wood chips into making mulch, but got the idea of doing that to, start up with, like, a, retail lot for nursery items and landscape material, just everything in those lines." Commissioners and staff discussed sight distance, road width and traffic safety; one planning commissioner said the hill and narrowness of Wade Road made commercial access risky and favored state-highway access.

Staff and commissioners noted the Tennessee Valley Authority and state Department of Transportation reviews, and a staff member said off-highway access would likely reduce safety and long-term liability concerns. The commission recorded that sight-distance measurements on Wade Road showed "a little over 400 feet" of sight distance and noted potential additional costs for state-required improvements if access were taken from Highway 72: "about 10 and $11,000 worth of items that [DOT] requires," a staff member told the commission. The commission then voted to recommend access off Highway 72; the action was a recommendation on access, not final site-plan approval.

The commission’s recommendation will be noted in the applicant’s site-plan record; final access approvals and any required state permits or roadwork will be determined during subsequent site-plan and permitting reviews. Brackett and staff said the full site plan will return with detailed access engineering and permitting information for final review.