Easement holders weigh shared driveway to reduce slope impacts at Ragged Mountain Farm

Albemarle County preservation-easement holders discussed a request from the owner/applicant to create a new shared access easement across preservation tracts in the Ragged Mountain Farm RPD, a recorded cluster subdivision approved in February 2006, and agreed to wait for county-level waiver reviews and additional environmental comparisons before approving or denying the requested easement.

The issue involves two preservation tracts (identified in meeting materials as A19 and B20 or parcel identifiers 5b8 and 5d9) whose recorded plats show required building sites on ridge tops. The applicant asked the easement holders to permit a single shared driveway that would run from Taylor's Gap up an existing ridge road and serve both lots, rather than constructing two separate driveways from the internal subdivision cul-de-sac that would cut steep, “critical” slopes and cross stream buffers.

Why it matters: easement holders said their legal duty is to protect the conservation values of the preservation tracts and that any change to access should not dilute those values. County planners and the applicant argued the proposed shared access would reduce slope disturbance compared with the platted route and therefore could be less damaging to the conserved resources if built with appropriate erosion controls and tree-conservation measures.

In the meeting, Justin Shimp, the project engineer for the applicant, summarized route options and said his team’s slope‑disturbance analysis shows the internal-cul-de-sac option…