Berkeley County planning commission approves waiver to allow one additional lot on private Wisteria Falls Trail

The Berkeley County Planning Commission on an evening vote approved a waiver allowing Henry Griffin to subdivide a 1.59-acre parcel on Wisteria Falls Trail to create one additional lot.

The waiver exempts the parcel from the county's private roadway paving and maintenance requirements in the county's land development and subdivision regulations (Chapter 59, Section 59-45), letting the private roadway continue to serve 16 lots instead of 15 if the subdivide is recorded.

Staff presented the item, saying the subject parcel is zoned Lehi 1, contains about 260 feet of frontage on Wisteria Falls Trail and had previously been part of a 2002 subdivision that left one lot served by a public road. Staff noted that the property currently qualifies for a one-lot subdivision size-wise and that the subdivision as proposed would not increase the number of allowable dwelling units versus the undivided parcel. Staff also said Wisteria Falls Trail is privately maintained and that, if approved, a hold-harmless and maintenance agreement would have to be recorded concurrently with the plat and access must conform to International Fire Code (IFC) standards.

Henry Griffin, the applicant, told the commission he expected the cost to bring the private road to county paved standards would be about $55,000 and that he planned to rely on guidance from staff about road maintenance until he sold the new lot. A nearby resident, F. Dixon of 120 Wisteria Falls Trail, said she had lived on the lane for years, described confusion about whether the roadway had previously been public, and raised concerns about emergency access given her ambulance needs.

Commissioners asked whether the road provided adequate emergency vehicle access and whether the fire department had reviewed the access; staff said no review had been completed and that questions about formal county acceptance would require input from Engineering and Roads & Bridges. Commissioners also noted that private access serving 10 to 15 lots has different width requirements under county rules and that historically the commission had not counted a lot with public road access in the private-road lot count.

A motion to approve the waiver was made by Miss Hoover and seconded by Miss Gore. After a voice vote produced opposition and an apparent tie, the chairman cast the deciding vote in favor of approval. The commission did not accept a request to table the matter for up to 30 days to obtain additional engineering and emergency-access review.

The approval allows Griffin to record a plat creating one additional lot, subject to the county-required hold-harmless and maintenance agreement and to meeting fire-code access requirements. Staff told the commission that any future subdivision of lots served off Wisteria Falls Trail would be required to meet paved road standards.