Planning board tables Villas of Lake Gaston final plat after easement and stormwater concerns

Chair Sid Cutts and the Warren County Planning Board voted on April 7 to table final approval of The Villas of Lake Gaston subdivision after public commenters and property representatives raised unresolved easement and stormwater concerns.

Scott Murray, director of the Upper Reach Program at the Roanoke River Basin Association, urged the board to delay approval, saying unrecognized easements and unresolved stormwater-flow and drainage-pond issues could cause runoff to flow across residential lots and harm both homeowners and the surrounding watershed. "If these matters are not properly addressed before approval, stormwater runoff could end up flowing across residential lots within the subdivision, creating long-term problems," Murray told the board.

Property owner Richard Blankenship said his easement concerns remain unaddressed on the final plat. His attorney, David Pokela, presented an illustration he said showed the developer had wrongfully interfered with Peete Blankenship access easement rights and pointed to additional items he described as noncompliant, including intersections within Dominion Energy’s transmission-line right‑of‑way and alleged improper curb-cut locations.

Consultant Jose Martinez of KCI Associates summarized the developer’s plan and told the board the proposal met county zoning requirements and complied with applicable deed restrictions. Martinez characterized an access easement as narrowly allowing access across another’s land, not an unlimited right to use the easement: "an access easement is just that—it allows an individual to access their property by crossing another individual’s land. It does not give the individual the right to do whatever they want on that easement," he said, adding that vehicles cannot be parked or left on the easement for extended periods.

Chair Cutts criticized what he described as a developer "creative rationalization" for cemetery access that appeared to disregard recorded easements and asked the developer for a specific explanation. Chris Hoover, the applicant and developer representative, said the subdivision roads had been shifted to better accommodate the easements and to provide a paved, more direct access route to the cemetery.

Board members pressed for clearer mapping of existing access easements and required setbacks. Forest Alston reiterated that all access easements must be clearly shown on the subdivision map and that structures cannot be built within those setback areas. Terry Grizzard recommended the easement holders and developer counsel meet to seek a negotiated resolution.

Vice Chair Dan Swango moved to table final-plat approval for The Villas of Lake Gaston pending the discussed revisions; Chair Sid Cutts seconded the motion and all members present voted in favor. The board recorded that the developer agreed to return with a revised subdivision layout relocating affected lots to properly accommodate three existing easements.

Next steps indicated by the board were for the developer to submit a revised plat addressing mapped easements, setbacks and drainage concerns and for affected parties to pursue counsel-to-counsel discussions as recommended by the board. The board did not adopt the final plat and no appeal or approval timeline was specified at the meeting.