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Proposed Approval of Planned House, Shed, and Driveway Extension
Green Springs National Historic Landmark District » Proposed Approval of Planned House, Shed, and Driveway Extension » Document List
The National Park Service (NPS) proposes a determination of No Adverse Effect to Historic Properties by—and thus NPS approval of—a house, a shed, a driveway extension, and landscaping and utilities on the grounds of the house and shed. This project is planned and would be funded by the owner of a 260-acre farm that encompasses alternating woodlands and fields, in the Green Springs National Historic Landmark District, Louisa County, Virginia.
NPS reviews the owner's plans (the review constituting the federal undertaking) under the terms of an NPS-managed conservation easement recorded for the property in 1974.
Stipulation 2 of the restrictions-section of the easement states that "'a single family dwelling," and "farm buildings or structures" may in the wake of a subdivision be erected in a way that would, in the opinion of the Grantee (NPS) "be in keeping with the character Green Springs Historic District, and provided that the prior written approval of the Grantee to such action shall have been obtained." (A subdivision that detached the property from what is now a separate property to the west occurred in 1977, thus creating the right under the terms of the easement to propose the aforementioned structures.) As a federal agency, NPS reaches the decisions for prior, written approval, required of it by this and other NPS conservation easements, under the terms of the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, and other laws guiding federal actions. NPS has requested agreement by the Virginia State Historic Preservation Officer, for the NPS expediting this review, per 36 CFR 800.3(g), by combining the steps of: Initiation of Consultation, Identification of Historic Properties, and Assessment of Adverse Effects. The NPS review is limited to the scope and terms of the easement and does not also imply or address any additional reviews, requirements, or restrictions of Louisa County, Virginia or other authorities, such as those of the county Code of Ordinances.
For a detailed description of the proposed work, see text below and also "Illustrations Packet_Planned House, Shed, Driveway Extension" in "Document List" linked at upper left of this webpage. The illustrations packet includes: location maps, area of potential effect (APE) mapping, site plans, dimensions, building elevations, and site photographs. The APE map reflects NPS consideration of potential effects that are both direct and indirect, including visual, as required of NPS by the National Historic Preservation Act, and as is customary for its reviews in the Landmark District.
Specifically, the owner's planned work would entail construction of the following:
(Excepting the well, the buildings; new trees; and other planned components described below would at the deepest necessitate excavation to 10' 4" below existing grade and including grading and site-preparation.)
-a one-and-one half story, wood frame, wood-siding house painted white with black trim, and with a standing-steam metal roof painted dark gray (SentriGuard Charcoal; see illustrations packet in Document List for swatch). The house would measure 30' 7" in height, 85' 9 in width, and 30' 10" in depth (north-south axis).
-a one-story, wood frame, wood-siding shed painted white with a standing-steam metal roof painted the same dark gray as the roof of the house. The shed would measure 12' in width and 8'5" in depth.
-an extension measuring 14' wide and 1,500' in length of a gravel-surfaced driveway from its existing terminus (14' width dimension including total clearing along the middle segment of driveway route, which would pass through woods). The color of the surfacing gravel would be blue/gray other than on the northernmost third of the extension, where the gravel would be tan/buff. The latter would also be the color of the gravel surfacing of the terminus-loop and pair of parking areas adjacent to the planned house and shed.
-other landscape elements and utilities (see site-plan in illustrations packet, attached, for locations and dimensions): well, septic field, buried power-cable to existing power connection, 1 row native trees, 1 small grove native shade trees, 1 stone-lined campfire-pit in front yard.
NPS Proposed-Identification of Historic Properties—Area of Potential Effect (APE). NPS proposes an APE (denoted with blue polygon on map in the illustrations-packet) that reflects consideration of the following:
- -view/visual assessment (see map in attached illustrations-packet of relative locations): those homestead-complexes located within one mile of the planned house and shed and possessing National Register of Historic Places contributing-significance to the Green Springs National Historic Landmark District.
- -historic properties potentially within areas of ground-disturbance necessary for construction or installation of the planned buildings, landscaping, utilities, driveway-extension, landscape elements, and other features listed above: past and proposed archeological survey by NPS. In 2022, an NPS-contracted archeologist, for an NPS full, four-step Section 106 review of a barn and short driveway-extension planned by the same owner for the same 260-acre property, conducted a Phase I archeological survey that entailed background research, for the entire property, into the Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources' records and other sources; survey for potential above-ground features; and excavation of shovel-test pits, each 15 in. diameter and 4 in. in depth, at intervals of 30 ft. across the planned ground-disturbance area of 66 ft. x 66 ft. Given the close proximity of that 2022 survey, 1,200 ft. to the south, to the sites of the house and shed and other planned features now under NPS review in 2024; in an extension of the same, irregular-plan field as the features now under review; and that the 2022 survey found no sites, no artifacts, no above-ground features, and a cartographic record indicating that the property remained, in the words of the archeologist's summary and recommendations "relatively undeveloped from the Civil War to today," NPS does not anticipate identification of above-ground features or archeological resources over 50 years in age within the ground-disturbance area (denoted as green polygon and blue line [route of driveway-extension] on the site-plan in the illustrations-packet linked at upper left of this webpage) that includes the sites of the planned house, shed, utilities and landscaping, and driveway extension. However, and in light of the maximized planning required by law of NPS for its easement-based reviews involving any National Historic Landmark, NPS proposes to conduct a Phase I archeological survey of all of that ground-disturbance area, and again to include associated research; survey; and shovel-text pits at intervals of 30 ft. (and with the usual protocol for shovel test radials to be excavated at 16 ft. intervals in cardinal directions from shovel tests that might yield positive for cultural material), and to take the results of that survey into account before making final decision on the NPS proposed decision of No Adverse Effect to Historic Properties.
- - view/visual assessment (see map in attached illustrations packet, of relative locations): the nearest segments of public thoroughfares: County Rt. 613 (6/10th's mile to the south at the nearest) and County Rt. 617 (7/10th's mile to the northwest at the nearest).
-Proposed NPS Determination of No Historic Properties Adversely Affected: on the recommendation of the NPS Section-106 advisers in the fields of historic architecture; archeology (with the caveat, described above, on final NPS decision awaiting results of the Phase I archeology survey proposed by NPS); and historic landscape architecture, NPS proposes a determination of No Adverse Effects to Historic Properties for the planned house, shed, driveway extension, landscaping, and utilities. That recommended determination includes NPS consideration of:
- -While obviously incorporating design-features and access/utility considerations of 2024, the planned house reflects the design of National Register of Historic Places-listed dwellings in the region considered/referenced by the owner's consultant, including two homes that are also situated in the Green Springs National Historic Landmark District (property names and addresses withheld per requirements of Privacy Act, for federal public-documents):
- - -one situated just over one mile to the northeast of the site of the planned house and shed, is likewise a one-and-one half story, wood frame, white siding, dormer window, asymmetrical-elevation-and-plan dwelling. Single-story dependency structures and a circular drive are situated in the yard.
- - -one situated four miles to the northwest of the planned house and shed, is likewise a wood frame, dormer window, asymmetrical-elevation-and-plan dwelling. A one-story dependency structure and a curved drive are situated in the yard.
- -The planned house, shed, and driveway extension would not be visible from any other structures on the 260-acre property, nor from the five nearest, National Historic Landmark District-contributing, homestead complexes on adjacent parcels under different ownership, because of a) distance, b) intervening woodlots; forested hedgerows; and rolling topography, c) retention of the existing, forested hedgerow that denotes the 260-acre property's north boundary and is adjacent to the planned house; shed; driveway extension; and associated new landscaping, d) low profiles—1 ½ story and 1 story, respectively—of the planned house and shed, e) a dark roof color for each of those structures (the dark gray/Charcoal noted above and in the attached illustrations-packet), and/or f) groves or clusters of trees on the immediate grounds of the five, contributing-significance homesteads. Those National Historic Landmark District-contributing significance homestead complexes situated within a mile are:
- - -8/10th's mile to the northwest
- - -8/10th's mile to the north
- - -6/10th's mile to the south
- - -1/2 mile to the south
- - -2 homes on same property, 8/10th's mile to the southwest
- -Neither the planned house nor the shed would be visible from the nearest public thoroughfares (Louisa Rts. 613, 617, 6/10's and 7/10''s miles distant, respectively) because of considerations "a"-"e" listed and described above.
-Proposed NPS approval-conditions: as with NPS consideration of approval for any landowner's plan made under the terms of any Green Springs National Historic Landmark District NPS-held conservation-easement, and that would entail ground disturbance, the NPS would make its approval conditional on the landowner ceasing work and notifying the NPS, for next steps, in the event that archeological features, human remains, or Native American cultural or religious artifacts are encountered during excavation work.
Manager of Easements
(540) 424-0512
NPS reviews the owner's plans (the review constituting the federal undertaking) under the terms of an NPS-managed conservation easement recorded for the property in 1974.
Stipulation 2 of the restrictions-section of the easement states that "'a single family dwelling," and "farm buildings or structures" may in the wake of a subdivision be erected in a way that would, in the opinion of the Grantee (NPS) "be in keeping with the character Green Springs Historic District, and provided that the prior written approval of the Grantee to such action shall have been obtained." (A subdivision that detached the property from what is now a separate property to the west occurred in 1977, thus creating the right under the terms of the easement to propose the aforementioned structures.) As a federal agency, NPS reaches the decisions for prior, written approval, required of it by this and other NPS conservation easements, under the terms of the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, and other laws guiding federal actions. NPS has requested agreement by the Virginia State Historic Preservation Officer, for the NPS expediting this review, per 36 CFR 800.3(g), by combining the steps of: Initiation of Consultation, Identification of Historic Properties, and Assessment of Adverse Effects. The NPS review is limited to the scope and terms of the easement and does not also imply or address any additional reviews, requirements, or restrictions of Louisa County, Virginia or other authorities, such as those of the county Code of Ordinances.
For a detailed description of the proposed work, see text below and also "Illustrations Packet_Planned House, Shed, Driveway Extension" in "Document List" linked at upper left of this webpage. The illustrations packet includes: location maps, area of potential effect (APE) mapping, site plans, dimensions, building elevations, and site photographs. The APE map reflects NPS consideration of potential effects that are both direct and indirect, including visual, as required of NPS by the National Historic Preservation Act, and as is customary for its reviews in the Landmark District.
Specifically, the owner's planned work would entail construction of the following:
(Excepting the well, the buildings; new trees; and other planned components described below would at the deepest necessitate excavation to 10' 4" below existing grade and including grading and site-preparation.)
-a one-and-one half story, wood frame, wood-siding house painted white with black trim, and with a standing-steam metal roof painted dark gray (SentriGuard Charcoal; see illustrations packet in Document List for swatch). The house would measure 30' 7" in height, 85' 9 in width, and 30' 10" in depth (north-south axis).
-a one-story, wood frame, wood-siding shed painted white with a standing-steam metal roof painted the same dark gray as the roof of the house. The shed would measure 12' in width and 8'5" in depth.
-an extension measuring 14' wide and 1,500' in length of a gravel-surfaced driveway from its existing terminus (14' width dimension including total clearing along the middle segment of driveway route, which would pass through woods). The color of the surfacing gravel would be blue/gray other than on the northernmost third of the extension, where the gravel would be tan/buff. The latter would also be the color of the gravel surfacing of the terminus-loop and pair of parking areas adjacent to the planned house and shed.
-other landscape elements and utilities (see site-plan in illustrations packet, attached, for locations and dimensions): well, septic field, buried power-cable to existing power connection, 1 row native trees, 1 small grove native shade trees, 1 stone-lined campfire-pit in front yard.
NPS Proposed-Identification of Historic Properties—Area of Potential Effect (APE). NPS proposes an APE (denoted with blue polygon on map in the illustrations-packet) that reflects consideration of the following:
- -view/visual assessment (see map in attached illustrations-packet of relative locations): those homestead-complexes located within one mile of the planned house and shed and possessing National Register of Historic Places contributing-significance to the Green Springs National Historic Landmark District.
- -historic properties potentially within areas of ground-disturbance necessary for construction or installation of the planned buildings, landscaping, utilities, driveway-extension, landscape elements, and other features listed above: past and proposed archeological survey by NPS. In 2022, an NPS-contracted archeologist, for an NPS full, four-step Section 106 review of a barn and short driveway-extension planned by the same owner for the same 260-acre property, conducted a Phase I archeological survey that entailed background research, for the entire property, into the Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources' records and other sources; survey for potential above-ground features; and excavation of shovel-test pits, each 15 in. diameter and 4 in. in depth, at intervals of 30 ft. across the planned ground-disturbance area of 66 ft. x 66 ft. Given the close proximity of that 2022 survey, 1,200 ft. to the south, to the sites of the house and shed and other planned features now under NPS review in 2024; in an extension of the same, irregular-plan field as the features now under review; and that the 2022 survey found no sites, no artifacts, no above-ground features, and a cartographic record indicating that the property remained, in the words of the archeologist's summary and recommendations "relatively undeveloped from the Civil War to today," NPS does not anticipate identification of above-ground features or archeological resources over 50 years in age within the ground-disturbance area (denoted as green polygon and blue line [route of driveway-extension] on the site-plan in the illustrations-packet linked at upper left of this webpage) that includes the sites of the planned house, shed, utilities and landscaping, and driveway extension. However, and in light of the maximized planning required by law of NPS for its easement-based reviews involving any National Historic Landmark, NPS proposes to conduct a Phase I archeological survey of all of that ground-disturbance area, and again to include associated research; survey; and shovel-text pits at intervals of 30 ft. (and with the usual protocol for shovel test radials to be excavated at 16 ft. intervals in cardinal directions from shovel tests that might yield positive for cultural material), and to take the results of that survey into account before making final decision on the NPS proposed decision of No Adverse Effect to Historic Properties.
- - view/visual assessment (see map in attached illustrations packet, of relative locations): the nearest segments of public thoroughfares: County Rt. 613 (6/10th's mile to the south at the nearest) and County Rt. 617 (7/10th's mile to the northwest at the nearest).
-Proposed NPS Determination of No Historic Properties Adversely Affected: on the recommendation of the NPS Section-106 advisers in the fields of historic architecture; archeology (with the caveat, described above, on final NPS decision awaiting results of the Phase I archeology survey proposed by NPS); and historic landscape architecture, NPS proposes a determination of No Adverse Effects to Historic Properties for the planned house, shed, driveway extension, landscaping, and utilities. That recommended determination includes NPS consideration of:
- -While obviously incorporating design-features and access/utility considerations of 2024, the planned house reflects the design of National Register of Historic Places-listed dwellings in the region considered/referenced by the owner's consultant, including two homes that are also situated in the Green Springs National Historic Landmark District (property names and addresses withheld per requirements of Privacy Act, for federal public-documents):
- - -one situated just over one mile to the northeast of the site of the planned house and shed, is likewise a one-and-one half story, wood frame, white siding, dormer window, asymmetrical-elevation-and-plan dwelling. Single-story dependency structures and a circular drive are situated in the yard.
- - -one situated four miles to the northwest of the planned house and shed, is likewise a wood frame, dormer window, asymmetrical-elevation-and-plan dwelling. A one-story dependency structure and a curved drive are situated in the yard.
- -The planned house, shed, and driveway extension would not be visible from any other structures on the 260-acre property, nor from the five nearest, National Historic Landmark District-contributing, homestead complexes on adjacent parcels under different ownership, because of a) distance, b) intervening woodlots; forested hedgerows; and rolling topography, c) retention of the existing, forested hedgerow that denotes the 260-acre property's north boundary and is adjacent to the planned house; shed; driveway extension; and associated new landscaping, d) low profiles—1 ½ story and 1 story, respectively—of the planned house and shed, e) a dark roof color for each of those structures (the dark gray/Charcoal noted above and in the attached illustrations-packet), and/or f) groves or clusters of trees on the immediate grounds of the five, contributing-significance homesteads. Those National Historic Landmark District-contributing significance homestead complexes situated within a mile are:
- - -8/10th's mile to the northwest
- - -8/10th's mile to the north
- - -6/10th's mile to the south
- - -1/2 mile to the south
- - -2 homes on same property, 8/10th's mile to the southwest
- -Neither the planned house nor the shed would be visible from the nearest public thoroughfares (Louisa Rts. 613, 617, 6/10's and 7/10''s miles distant, respectively) because of considerations "a"-"e" listed and described above.
-Proposed NPS approval-conditions: as with NPS consideration of approval for any landowner's plan made under the terms of any Green Springs National Historic Landmark District NPS-held conservation-easement, and that would entail ground disturbance, the NPS would make its approval conditional on the landowner ceasing work and notifying the NPS, for next steps, in the event that archeological features, human remains, or Native American cultural or religious artifacts are encountered during excavation work.
Contact Information
Noel Harrison,Manager of Easements
(540) 424-0512