COM 0473.000 2014-2016 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Dru Kanuha, Council Chair and Members of the County Council Page 3 A major concern in allowing a rezoning of agricultural land that creates smaller lot sizes is that this will reduce the potential use of the land for commercial agriculture by fragmenting the land into areas too small to be farmed on a commercial scale. While a few crops can be intensively cultivated on very small acreage, usually these crops have a very limited market. Reducing the size of the lots can reduce the range of potential agricultural uses and the range of market opportunities for those crops. At the same time, a strong demand exists in the real estate market for lots in agricultural areas by purchasers who are interested in large-lot residential homesites or for speculation. The desire for these"gentleman's estates"tends to drive up the price of agricultural land making it less affordable for commercial farmers. There will be considerable interest by landowners to rezone to reduce the minimum lot sizes because the biggest value is the ability to build a home. The per-acre price is therefore higher if the property can be sold in smaller lots. This desire to create smaller lots must be handled very carefully because of the possible carving up of the land into uneconomical units, and the increasing per-acre price. In this case, the property is not classified as "Important Agricultural Lands"by the LUPAG map, hence there is a lesser degree of concern over its rezoning to smaller lot sizes. All of the proposed lots will be over four acres in size, thus the newly created lots will still have the potential to be used for agricultural purposes, such as pasture. The fact that this is not classified as "Important Agricultural Lands", its poor soil characteristics, and the fact that the property is immediately adjacent to smaller lots, and that it has not historically been used for intensive agricultural development,tips the balance in favor of a smaller-lot rezoning. All essential utilities and services are available to the property. Access to the existing dwelling on the property is from Lyman Springs Road which is a County roadway that has approximately 12-14 feet of pavement within a substandard, 30-foot right-of-way. In addition to keeping the aforementioned access for the existing dwelling, the applicant is proposing a single access from Kaumana Drive to serve the four(4) newly proposed lots. Kaumana Drive is a County-owned roadway with a pavement of 20+ feet within a 50-foot right-of-way. According to the Department of Public Works- Engineering Division, Kaumana Drive is classified as a secondary arterial and in order to preserve its functional classification, they do not recommend direct access to the parcel from Kaumana Drive. While the Planning Department usually defers to DPW recommendations relative to access, we are inclined to accommodate the applicant's request because the proposed single Kaumana Drive access serving four newly created lots would be better than from Lyman Springs Road, which has site distance and functional problems. In addition, as the Saddle Road alignment is completed, it is likely