Also, all fill activity of 2,500 square feet or greater would be subject to performance regulations.
In addition to maintaining the current operational regulations, the changes allow some trees to be cut in the development areas for the placement of fill, require additional setbacks and limit the fill activity area to a maximum of two acres for the lifetime of the property.
The board also modified the hours for operational activities, which are limited to the hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
During public comment, Neal Magee, who started an online petition supporting the new regulations, said he and his wife have been concerned about the unanticipated ways that city, county and university building projects affect the rural landscape and the waterways.
“We live very close to the Mechums River, and the four and a half-acre fill project on the property adjacent to ours continues, even after three months of completed construction, to have really significant erosion. And with every rain, we see really large flows of water and silt spilling over the silt basin at the bottom of the fill area,” he said.
His petition, titled “Save Albemarle County’s Rural Landscape,” cites complaints around two fill incidents: one in November 2018, when synthetic turf was taken from an area park to property off Fox Mountain Road; and spring and summer of 2019, when debris from the demolished University Hall and other materials were taken to a property in Free Union and other sites in Crozet and Covesville. More than 130 people have signed the petition.
