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It’s a step in the right direction. That’s how Charlotte County supervisor Hazel Bowman Smith summed up the lot size changes she and the rest of the board adopted last week. 

“This does not meet all the requirements the people in my district wanted, but it is a step in the right direction,” Smith said. 

The issue involves the question of how much land should you need in order to buy a house? That answer varies in Charlotte County. If you’re in the General Residential District, you just need 1.5 acres. In order to follow the rules in the Village Center, it’s 1 acre. The problem is that 96% of Charlotte County is in the Agricultural District, where the current rules say lots must be a minimum of 3 acres. And for a county struggling to bring in younger residents, that can create an issue.

And so, over the last seven months, this proposal to reduce lot sizes in the Agricultural District has bounced back and forth between the board of supervisors and the planning commission. 

That was part of what got approved during the board’s Dec. 11 meeting. 

Focusing on family lots

As for the General Agricultural District, only a very specific part of the rules changed, when it comes to lot size. If a family wants to subdivide a piece of land, that is take the existing land and give a piece to a son or daughter, they were previously required, like all land in the agricultural district, to cut out a minimum of three acres. But what about properties that are only five acres total? Cutting out that piece would mean the existing land is suddenly in violation, as it would only be two acres now. That’s what supervisors voted to fix. By unanimous vote, all family subdivided lots of land in the agricultural district only have to be two acres now. So if you have a five acre parcel of land, you can give your son two and keep three for yourself or vice versa. A family lot division was also specifically set up just for immediate family. That includes just your children, grandchildren, grandparents, parents or spouse. 

There was also some wording put in to protect against a family member being given the land and then immediately selling it. For a full five years after being given the property, the family member can’t sell it to anyone outside of the family. 

Also this past week, supervisors reduced the minimum lot frontage required to 200 feet in the General Agricultural Zoning District, as well as increasing the minimum lot size required in the Village Center section to 1.5 acres. Currently, residents need a frontage of at least 275 feet in General Agricultural. 

“That helps with lots that are oddly shared, which we have come across a lot,” explained Charlotte County Administrator Daniel Witt. 

A few more lot size changes

Only the family subdivided lot size got changed in the Dec. 11 meeting. The requirement for General Residential stayed at 1.5 acres, while all agricultural plots not involving a family decision remain at 3 acres. Supervisors even increased the Village Center District lot requirements to 1.5 acres. 

Currently, Charlotte County does have the highest minimum rural lot requirement in the region. Prince Edward County’s Agricultural Conservation District calls for a 1.5 acre minimum requirement. In Appomattox it’s just 1 acre, while in Mecklenburg, there’s practically no requirement at all, with just a .69 acre requirement if the land is not served by public water and sewer. If it is served by public water and sewer, then the requirement is even smaller, coming in at .34 of an acre. The closest to Charlotte County is Lunenburg, which has a 1 acre requirement if served by public water and sewer, with a 2 acre requirement if not.

Smith echoed again that it wasn’t what she or her constituents wanted, but she supported the lot size changes because it was a good start. 

“I would like to make a motion to approve it, simply because we’re going in the right direction,” Smith said. 

A problem with aging residents

The issue of lot size changes gets raised because of the current and future projections, as far as population growth goes. In 2010, Charlotte County had 12,586 residents. But by 2020, that number had dropped down to 11,529. Now, a new study from the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service projects that Charlotte will see more losses over the next 26 years.

The Weldon Cooper Center’s projections expect that population to drop to 10,322 people in 2030, 9,705 in 2040 and 9,234 by 2050. It’s also already a much older population than some others in the region. A total of 18.7% of Charlotte County residents were 65 or older in 2010. By 2022, that number had jumped to 22.8% and it continues to rise.

Reducing the minimum lot size, county officials hope, would help entice young professionals and young families to move to Charlotte County.