Fate of house put in board's hands

By the end of today’s Prince William supervisor meeting, Gilberto Guel and his wife expect to know if they can keep their home.

The West Virginia couple owns a 16.5-acre parcel of land in Nokesville at 13301 Fitzwater Drive that they purchased three years ago with intent, they said, to use as the site of their new home. Since, Gilberto — who works in construction — and his wife, Cintia, said they have suffered financial hardship and need to sell the property in order to save their existing house. They have a buyer for the Prince William property, Gilberto said, but hit a glitch May 21 with the Planning Commission.

Turns out, any house built on that property will not be allowed to hook up to the existing sewer line, according to background documents for the supervisors, who will hear the Guels’ appeal on this Planning Commission decision sometime after 2 p.m. today.

The problem, Gilberto said, is that the buyer will back out unless the county quickly affirms that sewer can be provided. And if the buyer backs out — if supervisors deny the couple’s appeal and they then have to take more time to bring the matter to court — the Guels will not have the money to pay on their current mortgage, and they’ll lose their house, Gilberto said.

The issue for the county is not one of sewer capacity, but rather zoning.

“In response to your recent inquiry,” Richard Visger, project engineer for the county’s Division of Engineering and Water Reclamation, wrote in a June 2 letter to Cintia Guel, “please be advised that there is capacity for another single family home in the low-pressure force main that runs in … front of [your] property.”

That division does not direct county policy, however. In a May 7 letter to the applicants, Ray Utz, the county’s chief of long-range planning, wrote the sewer connection proposal “is not consistent with the Comprehensive Plan … [because the property] is located in the county’s rural area, undeveloped and outside the Nokesville Sector Plan Core Area.”

The Guels should instead, Utz continued, “develop your lot with a conventional septic system … [or] alternative on-site wastewater treatment systems that are consistent with state regulations.”

The applicants tried that, but were denied in a May 15 letter from the Prince William district of the state Department of Health stating the use of “any of the onsite sewage systems presently approved for use in Virginia.”

The situation for the Guels, who will appear at today’s hearing along with their attorney, has become a bit frantic.

“If I’m not able to install sewer, and I’m not able to hook up to existing sewer lines, then nobody is able to build a house on it,” Gilberto said, in a Monday afternoon telephone conversation. “I’m hoping to get some relief … but if nobody can build, it’s just recreational land.”

Adding to the Guels’ frustration is the reality of the $4,500 taxes they said they’ve paid the past three years on land that’s been valued around $500,000.

“There are other houses around there. They’ve hooked up,” Gilberto said. “And there’s more than enough capacity. What good is it if I can’t do anything with it?”

The board meets today at the McCoart Administrative Building at 2 p.m.