Clevenger’s Corner: How will 9,000 new neighbors just over the county line affect Rappahannock?

by Don Audette, Summer 2004

Status: On 26 January 2005, after many months of debate, the Culpeper Board of Supervisors approved by a 4 to 3 vote Centex's application to rezone 1,754 acres at Clevenger's Corner for 774 homes and 398,000 square feet of commercial space.

Additional information on Clevenger's Corner is available on the Concerned Culpeper Citizens website.

Build-out of Clevenger's Corner Village Center—1,648 homes are included as part of the Village Center, and 1,735 existing and potential homes lie within two miles of the Village Center boundary.

Background: The map shows it all. The darkened area with the label "Clevenger’s Corner Village Center" is where Culpeper County wants development to take place in the northern end of the county. It surrounds the intersection of Routes 211 and 229, where the Quarles Shell station is located.

The Village Center will have a major municipal water and sewer treatment facility — something that has held up development of the area for decades—and is zoned to contain 1,648 homes at build-out (when all the houses approved have been built). Using a 2000 U.S. census figure for Culpeper County of 2.68 persons per household, this will amount to 4,417 people. However, the impact will not stop there. Within a two-mile radius outside of the Village Center are 1,735 existing and potential homes. This means potentially 4,650 more people, bringing the total population of the development, just three miles from Rappahannock County's border, to 9,066.

2002 U.S. census figures showed Culpeper was the 78th-fastest-growing county in the nation in 2002. An April 4, 2003, article in Fredericksburg’s The Free Lance-Star projected the county's population could almost double over the next 10 years "unless the economy collapses or the building boom suddenly goes bust."

A major player in the development of the Clevenger's Corner Village Center is Centex Homes. Centex has submitted a rezoning application to build 766 homes, 144,000 square feet of retail space, and 254,000 square feet of office and employment space in the southeast corner of the Village Center. The Centex development runs down Route 229 for two miles, as far as the eye can see.

Hours before an April 29 public hearing by the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors on the rezoning, Centex Homes withdrew its application. It appeared the rezoning request was going to be denied. If it had been denied, Centex Homes would have had to wait a year before submitting a new rezoning request. By withdrawing the request, the company could submit another request at any time after paying an estimated $47,000 application fee. Centex did so on May 20, filing a new conceptual plan.

The main stumbling block to permit rezoning approval was the water and sewer treatment facility that Centex had proposed to build and then turn over to Culpeper County. The county now wants to design and build a topnotch facility using its own consultant and then have Centex pay the estimated $10 million cost. The company has countered with its own facility plan.

Looking across Rt. 211 from Quarles Shell station and south down Rt. 229 at Clevenger's Corner, also known as South Wales. Development will run south on Rt. 229 for two miles, as far as the eye can see. Photo courtesy Paul R. Farmer.

Of interest to Rappahannock County was a statement in a final staff report submitted by the Culpeper County Planning Office to the county’s Board of Supervisors a few days before the April 29 public hearing. One potential basis for denial was the following: "The application unreasonably impacts the surrounding area: the rezoning generates the need for up to four new traffic signals and has a negative impact upon transportation levels of service even after proffered road improvements are implemented. Impacts are mitigated immediately adjacent to the site, but traffic impacts elsewhere in the County and in adjoining jurisdictions remain a concern."

	Centex is on a roll. The builder is expected to file a concept plan for 650 homes in Bealeton, in Fauquier County. It has also expressed interest in Longlea, in Culpeper County, which is already zoned for up to 1,000 homes. Longlea is about half a mile south of the Rappahannock County line, along Route 522.

The adjoining jurisdictions are Fauquier and Rappahannock Counties. In connection with the cited traffic impacts, the Virginia Department of Transportation's comments earlier this year on development at Clevenger's Corner are significant. The department’s report noted that "It is anticipated that by [the year] 2018, the Route 229/211 intersection will be well over 80 percent of the ultimate capacity even with all of the proposed [Centex] improvements. In the future, it is highly probable that the Route 229/211 intersection will fail without a major grade separation intersection." In other words, a bridge will be needed over Route 211, with on/off ramps.

RLEP is working to develop more detail on the expected traffic impacts on Rappahannock County of the proposed Village Center. Clevenger's Corner traffic congestion might cause drivers from our county to use alternate routes to get to Northern Virginia. Route 522 to Flint Hill and thence Route 647, Crest Hill Road, to Marshall and east-bound I-66, might become a driver's preferred choice. If so, the character of Flint Hill and Crest Hill Road will certainly change.