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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Newly revised subdivision regulations for Chilton County are now close to being finalized after a work session by the Chilton County Commission on April 29 introduced the revisions to residents. Following the work session, there seemed to be a pleased tone in the air after months of work what went into rewriting the regulations for the county by the commissioners.

The special work session was called by the Commission at its meeting on April 22 to introduce the extremely revised subdivision regulations that Commissioners Alan Childress and Roger Perkins have been working on for months. The commissioners considered research and conversations with attorneys, land developers, real estate professionals and the individual residents of Chilton County when constructing the revised regulations. They also took the input from residents they received at the public forum in February regarding the subdivision regulations to design the revisions to best fit all parties and eliminate hardships on residents the current regulations may be causing.

The meeting began with the attendees receiving a packet that defined the revisions to the subdivision regulations and what is being altered. In his intro, Perkins reiterated what the goals were of the revisions to the Chilton County Subdivision Regulations — accurately redefine what a developer is, regulate actual subdivision developments, define what a major subdivision is not, add the complete family to exclusions and add design standards for mobile home, RV and tiny home parks.

“The sole purpose of the regulations is to govern the proper division of land as they pertain to developments,” Perkins said during the meeting. “By utilizing new definitions, and executions, we are able to separate the developer from a regular citizen who just wishes to divide property.”

The first step that was taken in revisions was to change the definition of a developer. The new definition of a developer in the proposed regulations is an “individual or company that acquires land in order to transform it for a more useful or valuable purpose, such as residential, commercial or industrial use.” From there, the commissioners thought it was important to create a few subcategories that would make it clear to distinguish between a major subdivision and someone simply dividing land.

The commissioners first defined what a major subdivision is, which is where someone is taking land to create a multi-lot subdivision, creating a road to that subdivision and then asking the county to take the road in as a county-maintained road. These types of developments would need to go through the approval process included in the county’s subdivision regulations.

The subcategories under the major subdivisions would create exemptions from the approval process for those simply dividing land. The first subcategory is called an administrative subdivision, which is defined as “the division of one lot from a larger parcel where the parcel meets the requirement of 60 feet frontage on an existing city, county or state road.” This is where a landowner would be dividing property off an already existing road. This type of subdivision will be exempt from the approval process required, and the only thing the landowner has to do is fill out an application and submit a survey to the county engineer prior to the filing of the deed.

The second subcategory is called a private subdivision, which is defined as “the division of one lot from a larger parcel where the parcel meets the requirement of 30 feet frontage on an existing city, county or state road.” However, if there needs to be a road created to access the divided parcel, a road will need to be created that is up to safety specifications to allow emergency personnel access and be maintained by the landowner. Private subdivisions are also exempt from the approval process and will only need the same application and survey submitted to the county engineer that administrative subdivisions have to do.

Other conditions the proposed regulations included that private subdivisions need to follow are that all parcels must be ½-acre or larger after the division of the property, and all parcels must have access to the private road or existing public roadway. Residents at the meeting brought up the possibility of shrinking the minimum size of the parcels down to a 1/3 of an acre, which would match what the Alabama Department of Public Health recommends. The commissioners marked the proposed change down to discuss before final regulations are proposed and voted on.

“We changed (language with the) developer, we defined a major subdivision, provided an administrative subdivision which separates the individual from the developer and a private subdivision which even further separates the individual from the developer,” Perkins said.

There were also other exclusions added that do not have to follow the approval process of the subdivision regulations. The exclusions included the construction or development of roads or buildings on private property to be used for agricultural purposes, the public acquisition by purchase or donation of strips of land for the widening or opening or streets and property divided between family members. Also, changing the division of land so that any division of land into three-acre parcels or under would fall into a subcategory or exemption, a stark change from the current regulations.

“The current regulations said that anything under 10 acres was a subdivision regardless,” Perkins said. “These proposed changes move it so anything under three acres would fall under one of our subcategories and be exempt.”

The proposed regulations also expanded the immediate family members that would be included in the exemption for division of land to family. The current regulations only include spouse and children, but the proposed regulations include parents, siblings, including stepchildren and adopted children, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. The discussions of adding cousins as well to the language as held and would be considered.

“I told Perkins, ‘If you can define a developer, then you will have these subdivision (regulations) right,’” Williams said. “I think they have determined what a subdivision is and what a developer is. If they can satisfy this redneck right here that is totally against anybody telling me what I am going to do on my property, then I think it will pass and everyone will be happy. It has my vote, and I think (Childress and Perkins) did an excellent job.”

Other areas the proposed regulations addressed changes in are the special requirements for mobile home parks, RV parks and tiny home parks. The proposed regulations and other recommendations will be deliberated between the commissioners, and final subdivision regulations could be brought to the table as early as the next Chilton County Commission meeting on May 13.