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Supervisors approve reduced Chesapeake Bay deck, OK employee housing permit and table accessory-structure exception
Summary
The board granted a Chesapeake Bay Act exception for a downsized waterfront deck with planting and gravel mitigation, approved a conditional-use permit allowing multifamily housing for restaurant employees (with a contested ownership condition removed), and postponed a separate accessory-structure Bay exception pending more engineering details about a dry well.
At its May 14 meeting the Northumberland County Board of Supervisors ruled on three land-use matters brought to public hearing: a Chesapeake Bay Act exception for a reduced deck, a conditional-use permit for employee housing, and an accessory-structure exception that the board tabled for more engineering data.
Deck exception approved: Daryl and Joyce Licki sought an exception to construct a 32-by-12-foot deck reduced from an earlier, larger plan. Jason Swift of Bay Design Group (S16) and staff presented a revised site plan that includes four inches of gravel under the deck to collect stormwater and nine shrubs within 100 feet of the water as vegetative mitigation. Planning staff (S14) recommended conditions including required permits, the deck dimensions, gravel underlayment and vegetative planting. After discussion the board approved the exception with those conditions by voice vote.
Conditional-use permit approved for employee housing: Graydon Hester (S17) sought a conditional-use permit to allow a multifamily dwelling on R-01 zoned property so restaurant employees can live onsite in separate units. Staff read suggested conditions, and the board debated whether to include a condition tying the permit to current ownership. County counsel (S18) advised that a condition making the permit ownership-dependent may be inconsistent with zoning practice, because zoning decisions generally run with the land. The board struck condition number 5 (the ownership condition) and approved the permit with the remaining planning conditions by voice vote.
Accessory-structure Bay exception tabled: Robert G. Breckard (S2) requested an exception to build a 30-by-36-foot accessory barn inside the resource-protection area. Breckard proposed a guttered roof and a dry well designed to route roof runoff beyond the 100-foot buffer and provided an engineering plan and planting mitigation. Several board members raised concerns about dry-well sizing and infiltration rates for large storm events and about precedent for permitting new accessory buildings in the RPA. The board voted to postpone the request to the next month to allow staff to obtain additional engineering information (storm-return-period sizing, percolation rates and dry-well capacity) and return with recommendations.
Next steps: Staff will collect the technical answers requested by the board and schedule the accessory-structure item for the next regular meeting; the approved deck exception and the conditional-use permit carry the conditions read into the record at the May 14 meeting.
