Clayton developer seeks approval for subdivision without 55+ designation

It’s been a long and winding road for Ovations, a 50-acre housing development planned off of Clayton-Greenspring Road in Clayton.

This 200-lot duplex and triplex development has been in the works for over five years. It was eventually approved by the town as a 55 and older community, but construction never began on that plan.

The developer, Ashburn Homes, now wants to build Ovations without an age restriction and has submitted a fresh subdivision plan to the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission in order to do so.

That proposed change has been complicated, however, by the realization that the plan for Ovations does not meet the open space requirement in the town’s revised “cluster development” ordinance.

Apparently, the original subdivision plan for Ovations as a 55+ community also did not meet the open space requirement when it was approved.

“It was approved incorrectly,” said Clayton Town Foreman Jeff Hurlock regarding the old Ovations plan. Hurlock explained that the town’s cluster development ordinance had been revised prior to the approval of that subdivision plan, but planners were still working from the old version of the ordinance.

“It was an oversight,” Hurlock said.

At the July 28 meeting of Clayton’s Planning and Zoning Commission, the developer requested a deviation from the open space requirement.

Engineer Douglas Barry of Pennoni Associates said the Ovations plan proposes 16 acres of open space, which would be about 31 percent of the tract.

But as written, the town’s cluster development ordinance would require about 32 acres of open space, or 64 percent of the property, he said.

Barry described that requirement as “excessive and economically unfeasible to any developer.”
Before it was revised, Clayton’s cluster development ordinance required the Ovations plan to include 25 percent open space. After revision, the open space calculation for Ovations jumped to 64 percent.

“I think it was done in error,” said developer Jordan Ashburn on the higher requirement.

“I don’t think we can make assertions that council didn’t mean to do that – that it’s a typo,” responded Marc Ostroff, executive director for St. Joseph’s Center for Community Service, which sold the land for Ovations to Ashburn back when the subdivision was planned as a 55 and older community.

Later, Ostroff also argued that the open space requirement does not necessarily make the project unfeasible.

“You can go back to 55+ and build the project as it was intended,” he said.

As discussion continued, Hurlock suggested that if the Planning and Zoning Commission chooses to grant the requested open space deviation, it should first get an opinion from the town attorney.

Hurlock also recommended that if the commission goes along with the open space deviation, the town should change the ordinance.

“If we think it’s wrong, we should fix it,” he said.

After discussion, the Planning and Zoning Commission followed Hurlock’s advice to seek input from Clayton’s attorney before acting on the open space deviation.

The commission planned to revisit the issue at its next meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, August 25.

Although the commission did not take action on the open space deviation, it did vote 4-0 to approve a deviation to allow 12 lots in Ovations to face open space instead of fronting a public street, as required by ordinance.

The commission also voted 4-0 to require the developer to put up a fence along the southern edge of the property adjacent to St. Joseph’s, from the maintenance road to the Ovations park area planned along Clayton-Greenspring Road.