Warren County might beef up its subdivision development ordinance to ban lot sales until the first phase of road and drainage planning and construction is complete.

A hearing would be required before any change in the ordinance, which supervisors have tried to enforce with varying degrees of success since 2004.

The goal is to protect homebuyers from washouts and potholes and protect county funds from accepting poor drainage designs and roadbuilding for public maintenance.

Developers begin a neighborhood by buying land, having it surveyed into lots and submitting a plat to land records.

At least 13 small and large developments have had final plats approved since 2008 when supervisors took a tough stance on unfinished developments by threatening legal action. An equal number remain incomplete. Some halted due to the economy and large tracts of undeveloped land in the northeastern part of the county have been in and out of foreclosure.

Before the ordinance, the county had a very limited role and some developments dumped drainage problems and poorly built roads on the county. Supervisors could refuse to accept them for public maintenance, but that left homeowners with no recourse except to sue developers and face years of expensive court action.

With the ordinance, developers are supposed to have initial road and drainage plans approved by county engineers, who then track work through completion.

Signaling a shift in strategy on how the ordinance should deal with land sales, supervisors agreed lots allowing sales in later development phases should be blocked until all roads are completed and dedicated.

“If we keep the size of our exposure limited, that would be very helpful,” Board President Richard George said.

The existing ordinance allows lots to be sold before any county approval has been obtained. Over the past two years, have talked about tighter controls, but quickly backed off the topic. More recently, homeowner groups in unfinished subdivisions such as Pebble Beach, Fairways, Manchester, Amberleaf and Brandi Lane, all east or northeast of Vicksburg, have inquired about paying for their own road maintenance through a seldom-used petition process, Supervisor David McDonald said.

Under the law, at least half the landowners in a developed neighborhood may petition a county to survey and estimate the costs of replacing gravel or dirt roads with asphalt, concrete or other durable material as long as the road is already maintained with tax dollars. Counties may borrow money in advance of collecting the taxes to cover the expense. In March, the county paid off the last of 10 annual payments on such a loan that financed a thinly paved surface on Rollingwood Drive and Hidden Oaks Lane in Lakemoore subdivision. 

In Lakemoore, the road had been accepted for maintenance before work started in 2000. By contrast, main streets in the four areas where residents have sought a solution are not publicly maintained, a situation supervisors said can only be clarified by an attorney general’s opinion on the road petition law.

“What we need to do is have a change in our ordinance where when they do phase one, we’ll let them sell their lots and stuff. But, they can’t start phase two until they have phase one totally finished — final drive course and everything,” McDonald said. The law allows counties to spread payments over 20 years, but McDonald said special assessments to property for paving  roads should last no more than 10 years and that property sales would pick up if house shoppers saw a road under construction versus one in poor condition.

Supervisors acknowledged that a balance is needed and placing too high a financial burden on developers would be counterproductive.

“In our community, our development business is either chicken or feathers,” George said. “Well, if it’s feathers, you’re turning the feathers with it because you’ve got lots out here that at one time had some value to them. People were buying them. Now, you can’t give them away.”

Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com