PRINCE EDWARD – Poplar Hill Development Group wanted access to some 25 acres of property south of Farmville from the new Route 786 and were willing to swap a small piece of property in the area.

County supervisors approved the request Tuesday night.

“What's happened is the Popular Hill Development Group is requesting that the Board of Supervisors provide some documentation contract to allow an easement across the property that the County purchased from Glad Hill, which is south of 786,” detailed County Administrator Wade Bartlett.

The easement, he explained, would be between the CenturyLink phone line and a storm water pond. The development group, Bartlett also detailed, has a strip of land about 30 feet wide and about 333 feet long “that the development group is proposing that they would convey to the County in exchange for this easement.”

The County owns a corner lot fronting on U.S. Route 15, which is about 195 feet wide. The 30-foot section fronting the highway would be added to that.

“Now the problem is, at the moment, we don't know where we would want that easement to be because development has not occurred; there's not a master plan for either our property or Poplar Hill Development Group,” Bartlett said. “That's not a deal-breaker for them. What they would like is the board to pass-tonight what I'd recommend is the board…approve the agreement of this swap and have the County attorney develop a document that would allow in the future an easement to be determined in that (outlined area).”

The easement width, he further elaborated, would depend on what would be developed on the Poplar Hill Development Group's property “but in no case could I foresee it being any wider than 80 feet. Eighty feet would allow…a four-lane road with a six-foot median and sidewalks on the side. So an 80-foot easement or right-of-way would more than suffice for any development that I would think would happen in that area.”

Though not land-locked, available access is a considerable distance and not desirable.

“…That they've always meant to have (it) as commercial,” Bartlett said, “so it would be in the County's best interest to allow the best access and their shortest access to a road would be onto 786.”

Farmville District (701) Supervisor Jim Wilck assessed it is “a good swap,” explaining that the addition “enhances our property. It makes it over 200 feet in width. And, again, (in) my estimation, land's gonna sell quicker on Highway 15 than back inland…”

While the County would retain ownership of the land, they would be granting Poplar Hill Development Group the right to cross it.

Asked if they would get to see the plat before the transfer takes place, it was noted it would be part of the site plan and that it could be written into the contract.

The exchange was approved on a 6-2 vote, with supervisors Pattie Cooper-Jones and Howard “Pete” Campbell opposed.