Zoning Laws Are Looser for Some Family Ties

Suburbs to Scrutinize Loopholes That Allow Dense Building

On the outskirts of the Washington region, where local officials have tried to protect farms and rural vistas from encroaching suburbia, more and more landowners are turning to a loophole that allows them to carve up their land for new houses.

The measure -- often referred to as a family subdivision -- allows property owners to skirt zoning laws in rural areas and subdivide land for the use of their relatives. In Prince William and Montgomery counties, it has become a common practice, and officials in both localities are beginning to scrutinize it.

Critics say that as the area's real estate market continues to thrive, family subdivisions are easily abused. Homes meant for property owners' relatives can easily end up on the open market.

But many families say the allowance -- created decades ago to encourage family farming -- is the only way many relatives stand a chance of owning a home in this expensive area.

"In my mind, it was a great blessing while I was still alive to give my children a leg up," said Shari Jacobs, who along with her husband, Jerry, turned their eight-acre lot in western Prince William into lots for themselves and each of their three children.

"The original purpose was to allow farming families to provide homes for the next generation of farmers," said Derick P. Berlage, chairman of the Montgomery Planning Board. "It was not intended as an avenue to create new market lots or an avenue to increase the investment value of farmland."

In 1981, Montgomery set aside about 145 square miles, one-third of the county, for farmland and open space and limited housing to one unit per 25 acres. Prince William created its Rural Crescent of 120 square miles in 1998 and set the minimum lot size at 10 acres.

But under a 55-year-old Virginia law, Rural Crescent landowners can subdivide property into lots as small as one acre and distribute them to offspring. In 2001, the county extended the exemption -- over the objections of its Planning Commission -- to nephews, nieces, uncles and aunts.

Since 1998, the pace of family subdivisions in the Rural Crescent has quickened. The law often is used by owners of 10-acre lots created within the past decade, and real estate ads tout property as having "potential for family subdivision."

In the past eight years, owners have turned 56 lots into 162 lots. All but 11 of the properties have been divided since 2001, and last year there were 39 applications.

With its efforts to create a protected rural area on hold, the number of applications for family subdivisions in Loudoun County also has grown -- 41 since July, officials said.

Montgomery planners say they worry their family subdivision laws allow the new lots to be resold too easily.