Peggy Price needed an easement on county land to continue using her driveway, parking area, walkway and stairs. The county’s property line is on the right side of the pair of cedar trees in front of the house. (Photo by Brittany Voll/WYDaily)
When Peggy Price bought her home at 3121 Forge Road, she unknowingly bought into a decades-long property dispute over an 1800s railbed that came to a close this week.
On Tuesday, the James City County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to allow Price to continue using her driveway, walkway and area where she parks her vehicles – all of which are on county-owned land.
Over the past several decades, property deeds have had discrepancies in ownership information, so some owners – Price included – mistakenly thought they owned certain areas of land.
Price’s driveway runs across old railbed land technically owned by the county at 3135 Forge Road. Deputy County Attorney Adam Kinsman talked with Price and her attorney, and Price eventually decided to give up any claim she had on the railbed in exchange for the county allowing her to keep her driveway as is.
In the 1800s, C&O Railroad used a railbed near Forge Road in Toano. Once the company no longer needed the railbed, the land was given to the school system, which was operated by James City County. Property disputes have popped up over the past several decades, said County Attorney Leo Rogers in an interview, but the county has been able to work around them since there was previously no need for the land. Once the county began planning to build a new Fire Station 1, the need arose to settle the disputes.
The new fire station will be built behind the existing station; once it is built, the old station will be torn down. Price’s driveway runs through land the county has no plans on using for the fire station and sits in a county-required buffer area. Because the county had no need for the land, a deal was worked out to allow Price – and any future owners of the 3121 Forge Road property – to use the land forever.
While it was necessary for the county to purchase one homeowner’s property in order to gain back the railbed property before the station could be constructed, the county did not need to acquire any portion of Price’s property. The easement does not cost the county any money. Because the property was showing as county-owned land, no taxes were being paid on it previously and the same will hold true now.
Other Board Business
The board also voted unanimously to add about 50 acres of land owned by William and Katherine Mann to the Croaker Agricultural and Forestal District. The county’s agricultural and forestal districts are designed to protect farms and forests; in exchange for enrolling land into an AFD, the county offers reduced tax assessments. William submitted an application requesting the land, which is heavily wooded, be included as a way to protect it.
The Virginia Department of Transportation asked the board to rescind a 2005 resolution that renamed a section of Centerville Road as Monticello Avenue because the resolution did not accurately reflect the changes.
VDOT also requested the county abandon sections of some sections of Greenspring Plantation Drive and Powhatan Secondary from VDOT’s system of state highways because they are no longer used. Other portions of the same roads and Monticello Avenue were added to the system instead, and portions of Greenspring Plantation Drive will be renumbered as part of Monticello Avenue. The decision, which did not reconfigure any existing roads, was a unanimous one. The resolution fixes some paperwork inaccuracies and will allow VDOT to resurface portions of Monticello Avenue later this year.
The board also approved several items as part of its consent calendar with no discussion. The items approved included:
- An application to be sent to the Virginia Department of Transportation to request Columbia Drive, in the James River Commerce Center in Grove, be added to the department’s road system for maintenance. The road leads to property owned by the James City County Economic Development Authority that is being actively marketed for sale.
- An easement for Dominion Virginia Power to allow power lines to be put underground for the new Fire Station 4, which will be constructed to replace the old station on Olde Towne Road.
- An appropriation of more than $42,000 in grant funding from VDOT’s Safe Routes to School Program to enhance sidewalks and intersections near James River Elementary, which are planned to slow traffic and keep drivers alert to students who are walking or biking.
- An appropriation of nearly $38,000 in grant funding from the State Department of Criminal Justice Services’ Virginia Domestic Violence Victim Fund to the commonwealth’s attorney. The funding will be used to cover personnel costs and travel expenses associated with prosecuting cases involving domestic violence, sexual and family abuse and stalking.
- An appropriation of more than $54,000 from federal grant funding and a county match to the commonwealth’s attorney to continue funding a worker responsible for advocating for victims of crimes involving domestic violence, sexual abuse and stalking.