I have an error with a new virtual host that I can't figure out.. My .htaccess doesn't have web access (403).

[Thu Oct 31 17:51:01 2013] [crit] [client ] (13)Permission denied: /srv/data_disk/www /site.dev/.htaccess pcfg_openfile: unable to check htaccess file, ensure it is readable

I have set the permissions for the complete htdocs folder to 755, and to owned by my regular user and group (www-data). I have other vhosts set up with the same user and lesser permissions (rw-rw---) on the .htaccess. The virtual hosts are also setup in the same way.. as far a I can tell..

Thanks!