Jefferson County is effectively stopping development

Jefferson County Subdivision Regulations, amended by Resolution R2022I (dated 8/25/2022)

These “new” requirements effect how a parcel may be divided.

Lets break down each section:

Article III, Section 3.C.1

“Each lot shall have a building site consisting of 7.0 percent of the total property and must be at least 30 feet by 40 feet in area and be located within required building setback lines. The building site must be free from flooding, free from excessive rock formations, not needed for septic drain fields or reserve areas, and have an average slope not to exceed ten (10) percent. Land within a flood area or floodway, as defined in section F of this Article, shall not be platted for the building purposes but may be counted as part of the lot for computing lot sizes. Property below the 1002 contour on Douglas Lake shall not be included when computing total lot sizes.”

This means one cannot include (for the minimum lot size) any land below the 1002’ contour on Douglas Lake.

It is new that they have defined how large a box is and that it must be shown on the plat. 7.0 percent translates to a box as large as 123’ x 123’ (on a 4.99-acre parcel – anything larger is not a subdivision as defined by the State Statute).

Jefferson County has required (at least in the last 20+ years) a buildable area outside of special flood hazard areas, but now they are declaring this “box” must be free from “excessive rock formations.” (excessive being very subjective) But perhaps the biggest impact is that this building site, after meeting all of the other clarifications, must have an average slope, not to exceed 10%. (see the image below to understand what this means). For our region, this is a very flat area.

Article III, Section 3.C.2

“Except for lots on approved public easements, each lot must front for 50 feet on an existing County Road, or a road proposed for public acceptance that meets the standards of these subdivision regulations. “The stems of flag lots and property that will contain the driveway shall meet the slope requirements for minor collector and local streets [The maximum grade on local and minor collector streets shall not exceed twelve (12) percent. However, when special topographic or other conditions justify, the planning commission may increase the maximum allowable grade on local streets to fifteen (15) percent]”.

Looking at the image above, you can see that 12-15% is very flat, relatively speaking. The strip of land serving a flag lot basically must be able to have a county road built on it.

Article III, Section 3.A.15.

“A permanent easement crossing no more than one property may be allowed as the necessary access for the creation of no more than one lot. The easement shall front on a public road for twenty-five (25) and be twenty-five (25) feet in width throughout its length. This easement shall meet the slope requirements for minor collector and local streets [The maximum grade on local and minor collector streets shall not exceed twelve (12) percent. However, when special topographic or other conditions justify, the planning commission may increase the maximum allowable grade on local streets to fifteen (15) percent].”

This allows for dividing land that has only 50-feet of road frontage, but again, requires that the strip be capable of having a county road built on it. This means that if you have a lot that is already a flag lot and it does not meet the slope requirements set out above, you will not be able to divide.

Using the property below as an example:

Mountain Lake Way is a private road and as such, does not meet the requirements to use it for road frontage. This means that any division must utilize the ≈ 100 feet of road frontage along Valley View Rd.

The stem leading to the body of the property is very steep, about 46% grade from the road to where the hill starts leveling out. So, for this alone, this property cannot be divided.

But ignoring that, it appears that the average slope of most of this property is in excess of 30%. There does not appear to be an area (that isn’t already occupied with a house) that can meet the 10% requirement for the building site.