Sporting clays in Goochland

 

 

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Goochland supports the Second Amendment rights of its residents. Intermittent gunfire is a familiar sound in the more rural parts of the county, but how close to homes should a shooting range be located?

At its August 20 meeting, around 3 a.m., the Goochland Planning Commission voted 3-1 to recommend denial of a conditional use permit application filed by Virginia Sports Park to build a recreational sporting clays shooting and archery range facility in western Goochland. Commissioner Amanda Kowalski District 2 was absent.

The application, which had been repeatedly deferred from the planning commission hearing at the request of VSP since January 2026, is currently scheduled to move on to the board of supervisors for final vote in October. In the interim, additional community meetings and resulting revisions to the application, including moving the site, occurred.

The location of the proposed facility is a 125-acre portion of 359 acres owned by Luck Stone, located just north of I-64 on Old Fredericksburg Road near Hadensville. Luck was granted a CUP in 1997 to operate a quarry on the site that allowed blasting from 9:30 to 3:30 Monday through Friday. The staff report indicates that Luck could submit a plan of development to the county to begin quarry operations at any time.

As presented, the proposed use is for a “Non-Profit Youth Oriented Sporting Clays and Archery facility. This facility will be open to the public with specific programs and benefits to the youth in general to include youth groups such as, Boy Scouts, 4-H, Young Life, Scholastic and Collegiate, and youth Archery groups,” which VSP contends would bring recreational opportunities and tourism revenue to the county.

During the public hearing, a wide range of comments were made both in support and opposition to the application. Noise, proximity to existing homes, traffic, and environmental threats posed by lead leaching into ground water were the main objections. The county wants the site fenced to prevent people wandering into the line of fire, but VSP contended it is not necessary.

Guy Kemmerly, District 1, said he believed that the sound studies performed to gauge the impact of the sound of shooting were flawed and that obtaining an accurate, impartial measure is complicated and difficult. Curt Pituck, District 4 observed that the repetitive shooting sound is annoying. Martin Dean, District 5 asked if an environmental cleanup bond should be included as a condition. VSP said that its lease with Luck required an environmental stewardship plan, which does not require a bond. The staff report wanted a clearly defined plan to remove lead from the site.

VSP’s sound engineer said that sound mitigation could be verified in the CUP area. He opined that distance and berms take out the lion’s share of the noise and that modeling of a specific site could provide more detail.

Hours of shooting, days when shooting is allowed, numbers of stands allowed to be built and how many of them may be in operation at one time, were also revised. As most of the shooting seems to be scheduled for daytime weekdays when kids are in school it seems contradictory that this will be youth oriented.

VSP contended that the proposed facility will boost tourism revenue for the county but gave few specifics. There are few businesses nearby. The nearest hotel is in Centerville. Food trucks, ideally Goochland based, would feed patrons of the facility. On-site restroom facilities would be built for regular attendance but would need to be supplemented with porta potties for tournaments, which could draw more than 100 participants.

It will be interesting to see what, if any, revisions VSP makes to its application on the way to the supervisors’ vote. Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

Courthouse 200th celebration

 

Goochland Courthouse 200 Birthday Celebration

 

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the Goochland Courthouse. The community is invited to join the celebration of this historic milestone on September 19 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on the Courthouse Green, located at 2938 River Road West.

The celebration will be a family-friendly community event featuring a variety of activities and opportunities for participation. Highlights include historical plays and reenactments, a commemorative brick laying ceremony, an interactive historic walking trail, and the opportunity to write notes for inclusion in a time capsule that will be placed at the new courthouse, when it is built, to be opened in 100 years.

Don’t miss this special occasion to honor Goochland’s rich history and celebrate this special occasion with residents, visitors, and community partners.

In the event of rain, the event will be moved to the sports complex gym at 1800 Sandy Hook Road.

See https://www.goochlandva.us/1468/Goochland-Courthouse-200-Birthday-Celebr

 

 

Wither Goochland

 

Dr. Tom  Epperson facilitates strategic planning retreat

On August 12, the Goochland Board of Supervisors met at the Luck Stone Studio in Manakin for a retreat to begin an update of the county’s strategic plan, which was last overhauled in 2013. Sessions where the entire board—more than three supervisors together at the same time constitutes a meeting—sit down to share their thoughts and concerns about issues facing the county are rare, due to statutory restrictions.

County Administrator Dr. Jeremy Raley said the goal of the meeting was to “zoom out” from pressing matters and take a long term look at what is important to the community, to local government as an organization, and where the county wants to be going forward. The process to revise the strategic plan will include conversations with the community and focus groups to craft a long-term road map to get everyone on the same page about the future direction of the county. Adoption is expected in the next six months or so.

The session was facilitated by Dr. Tom Epperson, Vice President of Culture at the Luck Stone Companies and a founder of the Innerwill Leadership Institute https://innerwill.org/, a philanthropic arm of Luck Companies.

Epperson explained that a strategic plan should help set goals; identify major projects and tactics going forward; and most important, to get everyone on the same page, aligned “with where we’re going” and how we’re going to get there. Ideally, this will have everyone, government and citizens, who should have a loud voice in this, moving together.

He segued into a SWOT—strength, weakness, opportunity, threat—analysis.

The following offers a few highlights. Go to the “watch county meetings” tab at goochlandva.us to view the entire session.

Goochland’s strengths are many. They include engaged citizens; current financial position; excellent schools, fire-rescue, law enforcement; a do more with less philosophy; proximity to major metro area; James River and interstate access; and lowest tax rates.

Weaknesses included underutilization of bond rating to finance capital projects; small size and scale that makes competing with large jurisdictions like Henrico difficult; thin staffing; resistance to change; need to communicate better to help citizens understand the rationale behind decisions; legal constraints on board collaboration; east west tensions; and staff lacking some tools needed to support its workload.

Opportunities include generation of flow charts for response to issues like power transmission lines; rebuild public trust; clearly define role of county government and communicate that to the citizens; find the sweet spot between costs and services; educate newcomers about rural living like sharing the road with farm equipment and hunting season, AKA the fall festival of firearms; leverage our history for tourism; limit annual population growth to  certain percentage, equally across all districts; and explore additional public-private partnerships.

Threats include the cumbersome, slow, and expensive nature of working with VDOT on road projects; poaching of staff by neighboring counties; negative local impacts of state legislation; growing too fast; attracting and keeping the best teachers; need for strong revenue sources to build infrastructure; and crafting multi-year fiscal flexibility to deal with the uncertain revenue streams caused by factors outside county control.

A recurring theme in the session was frustration about statutory barriers that hobble effective and transparent communication among themselves and with citizens.

The supervisors voiced their appreciation for the opportunity to sit down face to face and talk, which is pretty much prohibited by state law. Between monthly board meetings, they have “two by two” meetings, where two supervisors meet with Raley and members of staff to discuss pending issues. Raley then shares those conversations with other board members. This hub and spokes method is cumbersome, things will “drop through the cracks” along the way. Supervisors said they would welcome more opportunities for “cross pollination” to explore in detail issues facing the county.

Erosion of public trust was identified as a major threat. This was attributed to doing a poor job of helping citizens understand rationale behind decisions. Information vacuums tend to be filled with rumors, speculation, and conspiracy theories. If people do not like or understand a decision, they assume that the supervisors are being paid under the table for “done deals”. There are very mixed attitudes about attracting more outside investment to the county. Many citizens, busy with their lives, find that local government is hard to understand and access, which complicates communication and undermines public trust.

Newcomers from other states may not realize that Goochland is governed by part-time elected officials, only has about 28,000 people, and cannot operate on the same level as say, a Henrico, whose budget is about $1.4 billion versus Goochland’s about $107 million.  

Disclosure is a perennial frustration. Virginia is a caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) state, which prohibits jurisdictions from requiring realtors and developers from telling buyers about things that could discourage a sale. Goochland, for instance, was recently prohibited by state law from accepting a proffer from a developer to inform buyers in a new subdivision that the land on the opposite side of the road is zoned M-1. That was not always so. Deeds for homes in Manakin Farms, which is on the opposite side of Rt. 6 from Luck Stone, included warnings that they would be living near a large quarry.

Jonathan Lyle, District 5 contended that anyone who buys property in Districts 4 and 5 should be aware that is in proximity to an area that has been designated for high growth for decades, but there is currently no way to share that knowledge. The TCSD was created to attract commercial development, but previous boards decided to put residential development there, creating conflict, with which the current board must deal.

When there is a proposal that citizens do not like, they show up to voice their opposition. While there was acknowledgment that supervisors could do a better job of explaining their votes, they cited a philosophy expressed by former District 5 Supervisor Ken Peterson that after listening to the comments of a room full of opponents to a proposal at a public hearing, he also needed to consider the other 26,000 citizens not present.

There was acknowledgment that the board needs to do a better job of communicating with citizens, but no clear-cut way to do it was identified.

Supervisors said that rather than focusing solely on their district, each of which has distinctive characteristics, they try to base their decisions on county wide impact. However, restrictions on board internal collaboration give the perception that this is not the case.

There was some discussion, and there needs to be more going forward, on the role of local government and finding the sweet spot between too much and not enough. Seems simple in theory, in practice, not so much.

The relative inexperience of supervisors and staff was identified as a challenge, but also an opportunity. Since taking the helm of team Goochland—there will be sports analogies—14 months ago, Raley has reorganized county government and brought in many new, and well-qualified people, who got right to work but are still getting acclimated to Goochland. Raley began his tenure by meeting with a wide range of residents to learn about their view of local government. He continues to do this and welcomes citizen feedback.

The strategic plan update holds great promise to help citizens understand the role of local government, where Goochland needs to go as a county, and how to get there. This will be a challenging task; there are about 29,000 people in the county and probably almost as many opinions. Stay tuned and be engaged.

By now, every household in the county should have received a letter announcing an August 27 meeting to be held at Goochland High School beginning at 6 p.m. to discuss proposed amendments to the TOD to prohibit data centers outside of the TOD boundaries and align the ordinance with state law on high energy use facilities. Go to https://goochlandva.us/OrdUpdate for details.

 

 

 

 

 

Road work

 

VDOT

Philip Frasier, Administrator of the Ashland VDOT residency began his monthly update to the Goochland Board of Supervisors at its August 4 meeting with a sobering announcement that a VDOT employee in the Hampton Roads district died after being struck and killed in a work zone on Rt. 460. Frasier urged everyone to respect VDOT construction zones and the people who work there. “They support our transportation network and deserve respect of drivers and space to do their job safely,” said Frasier. VDOT employees’ lives are endangered by people who drive distractedly with their noses in their phones and speed through work zones Some of the bravest people in the world face oncoming traffic armed only with a stop sign on a pole. Frasier asked all to respect work zones so VDOT employees can go home to their families at the end of the workday.

Frasier reported that the Oilville roundabout, at the top of the westbound I64 off ramp. will go to advertisement next week.  This project expected to ease dangerous congestion on the westbound off ramp from I64 onto Oilville Road. (Go to https://www.goochlandva.us/1255/10781/Oilville-RdI-64-Westbound-Ramp-Roundabou for details)

CVTA

You’ve probably seen the “buy your gas in Goochland” messages urging us to fill our fuel tanks locally to help fund road projects and not given it much thought.

Chet Parsons, Executive Director of the Central Virginia Transportation Authority (CVTA), explained how that tax collected from local fuel sales translates into county road improvements.

He began his presentation with an overview about the CVTA, click on  https://cvtava.org/  to watch the video.

In 2020, Parsons explained, the Virginia General Assembly created the CVTA, comprised of nine jurisdictions in the region—Richmond City, Town of Ashland, Henrico, Hanover, New Kent, Goochland, Chesterfield, Powhatan, and Charles City—to “fund critical transportation needs across Central Virginia. CVTA drives priority projects that improve long-term accessibility, economic development, mobility, and quality of life across Central Virginia.”

Goochland roads are built and maintained by VDOT. We compete with jurisdictions across the Commonwealth for scarce road dollars. The CVTA administers revenues generated by wholesale fuel taxes and sales and use taxes to fund transportation projects in its region that are prioritized using data driven scoring.

Since 2023, said Parsons, that revenue, about two thirds from sales and use tax, has grown from approximately $211 million to more than $229 million and continues to increase. Those dollars are divided into three buckets; 50 percent goes to the locality where is was generated. Of the remainder, 15 percent goes to GRTC (Greater Richmond Transit Company) for regional public transportation, and the other 35 to fund projects that benefit the region as a whole, including the diverging diamond project currently in the works on Ashland Road, which cannot be funded in other ways. Regionally, Parson said, 77 regional projects have been funded since 2020, supported by $862.6 million. Funds applied locally include $33,669,829 for the Ashland Road diverging diamond; $606,000 for the Oilville Road roundabout; and $7,500,000 for improvements to the   Rt.288/Rt. 250 interchange.

“Goochland gets a sizable monthly check from CVTA, for use on any transportation project that has been identified by the county,” said Parsons. Since 2021, he reported that Goochland has received $15,738,482 in CVTA funds.

Since 2021, Goochland has received CVTA funding commitments for $59,267, 935, about 7 percent of the total, making the county very competitive for its size, in getting projects funded. The priority now is to get projects shovel ready, which helps move them forward.

In addition to funding projects, CVTA contributes matching funds to support “Smart Scale” applications, one of several competitive VDOT processes used to distribute transportation dollars throughout the Commonwealth. Central Virginia “has done very, very well” in the last round of Smart Scale funding, Parsons said.

The CVTA is also authorized by statute to issue bonds to fund huge regional projects beyond the typical “pay go” scope. CVTA is busily looking forward to future projects.

Tom Winfree, District 3, who currently represents Goochland on the CVTA board, commended Parsons and declared that CVTA is a government program that really works.  He noted that the degree of matching and leverage of funds helps Goochland to pull off significant projects. Winfree commended Neil Spoonhower, District 2, a founding member of the CVTA board for his important work, and significant input that is still bearing fruit.  Winfree also noted that County Engineer Austin Goyne’s leadership role on the Technical Advisory Committee, which does the legwork for CVTA projects, also stands Goochland in good stead on the transportation front.

Prioritizing road improvements and finding ways to pay for them is a complicated process. Kudos to all who navigate the labyrinth move us forward.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Animals

 

During the afternoon session of their August 4 meeting, Goochland supervisors congratulated the Goochland Department of Animal Care and Protection for earning a fourth consecutive no kill award from the Best Friends Animal Society, a national nonprofit dedicated to ending the killing of dogs and cats in America’s shelters. The No-Kill award is given annually to organizations that have achieved a save rate of 90% or higher.

Deputy County Administrator for Operations Elizabeth McDonald said that the Goochland shelter achieved an outstanding 97 percent survival rate. “This is no small accomplishment and reflects the commitment, compassion, and professionalism our staff supported by volunteers and dedicated veterinary partners.”

If you’re looking to add a furry friend to your family, please visit the Goochland Animal Sheler. Go to https://www.goochlandva.us/299/Animal-Protection to learn more. Also visit https://goochlandpetlovers.com/ the site of the local non-profit that works with the shelter.

During its evening session, the Board held a public hearing on proposed animal code ordinance amendments. Job Greene, Director of Animal Protection, explained that the amendments were proposed to restore legal enforceability, decriminalize minor infractions, and maintain officer discretion when dealing with animal control issues.

Greene explained that the revisions would make the ordonnances work the way they were intended, in a clear, fair, and effective way while preserving the department’s ability to educate and work with residents. The ordinance revisions will give animal protection the tools it needs. Over the years, Green explained, ordinances as written, are difficult to enforce, inconsistent with the way that animal protection approaches compliance, or unnecessarily challenging for officers and citizens.

The first three infractions are regulatory. They are failure to inoculate dogs and cats against rabies; dogs running at large without a license fixed to their collar; and failure to pay a license tax for dogs. The proposed amendment revisions change the penalty for these infractions from a Class 4 misdemeanor, which imposes fines, but not jail time and are noted on an individual’s criminal record, to civil penalties with escalating fees for initial and subsequent violations.

The revisions would improve compliance by resolving violations quickly with civil citations; reduce demands on court and related law enforcement resources; allow enforcement resources to focus on cases involving cruelty, neglect, dangerous animals and other threats to public safety; provide penalties proportionate to offenses while maintaining accountability; and preserve criminal penalties for serious or repeat offense that warrant stronger enforcement.

Changes to chapter 3 of the animal ordinance states that “livestock, poultry, and other fowl must remain on the property of owner. It is unlawful for any person to allow or permit any livestock or fowl owned by him or her or under the control of him or her to stray to any highway, public property, or private premises of another.”

The proposed amended removes the requirement for three prior violations and makes each violation separately enforceable. Greene said that animal protection officers would continue to use discretion to issue warnings of violation depending on the individual circumstances. The change would restore enforceability of the ordinance while giving officers the flexibility to seek voluntary compliance whenever possible. Virgina law does not authorize counties to impose a civil penalty for this kind of violation, so explained Greene, retaining criminal enforcement is necessary.

Greene said that officers typically give people time to rectify a violation after issuing a warning before they return to ensure compliance.

A local fourth generation farmer said that it is important to him to own livestock and keep the community safe. He raised concerns about the timeline as most farmers must have jobs that take them away from their farms, making it difficult to immediately correct problems. He cited weather related conditions like destruction of fences that could make it hard to return the animals to their rightful place. Some farmers pasture livestock on widely separated parcels of land that make it hard to check on all of their animals in a timely manner.

Another speaker wondered if it is a per penalty. Owners of animals that damage other people’s property or cause accidents by being on a road must be held accountable. Circumstances of how animals escape might also need to be considered when determining culpability.

Greene said that an officer must see the animal out to justify a summons. “This is for us an issue of people who do not keep their animals contained, repeated negligence. We understand and make allowances for weather related incidents.”

Enforcement is complaint driven to correct problems, like a neighbor’s chickens repeatedly pooping on your porch, or someone else’s pig eating your cucumbers. Cows and horses in the middle of a road are a safety concern, but sometimes, they get out. Citations are given per incident, not per animal.

Greene said that currently animal control has no enforceable code to bring offenders into compliance and that hobby farmers tend to cause more problems than commercial farmers, who value and care for their livestock.

The supervisors took the concerns of the farmers to heart and voted unanimously to reduce all noted penalties to civil violations and encouraged animal control to have further discussions with local farmers, perhaps through Goochland Farm Bureau, to look for other ways to address the matter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Proffers

 

At their August 4 meeting, Goochland supervisors announced that they will hold a strategic planning retreat on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, starting at 9:00 a.m. at Luck Stone, 343 River Road, Manakin-Sabot. See the county website https://www.goochlandva.us/ for details.

Following a presentation by Principal Planner Ramzi Farhat about an update to the county’s capital impact model, which is used to determine cash proffer amounts, the board voted unanimously to deny adoption pending further analysis.

Farhat thanked all who provided input in the almost yearlong update project including department heads, staff, the county attorney, and stakeholders.

The capital impact model is used to determine the real cost burden that new residential development, as the result of rezoning, places on infrastructure including schools, roads, parks, and public safety. These costs are used to calculate impact fees, including “voluntary” cash proffers, paid by developers to offset increased need for public facilities.

Goochland adopted a cash proffer policy in 2002.This is a per home amount a developer may “volunteer” to pay to have a residential rezoning project approved. In theory the policy is voluntary.

Cash proffers are a small part of an overall funding strategy and should not be regarded as a total solution for infrastructure financing needs. Therefore, other strategies and revenue sources are needed to offset the impact on infrastructure from new homes.

Go to https://www.goochlandva.us/1463/Proffers to https:

This policy applies only to residential rezoning. Commercial rezoning applications, which do not add children to the school system, typically proffer site specific upgrades to infrastructure including roads and utilities. Impacts must be attributable to a specific development. For instance, as age restricted communities are prohibited from having residents under 19 years of age, school proffers cannot be attributed to them.

Following a 2016 change in state law, Goochland County compiled a 25 year look ahead capital improvement plan. This included projected needs for schools, fire-rescue stations, roads, parks, and items costing more than $50k with a useful life of more than five years like fire-rescue apparatus. The data in this CIP, which is periodically updated to deal with inflation, is part of the computation of the impact model.

The proposed update to the policy includes a detailed study of all the components and conditions that apply to calculation of proffers. The document begins on page 85 of the August 4 board packet.

Farhat explained that a student generation rate was used to determine residential rezoning impact on schools and that a new category for age restricted multifamily was added. As school funding is a significant part of the county budget, this is important. Age restricted communities have dramatically increased the volume of EMS response, which was underweighted in previous iterations of the impact model. A geographic component was also added to consider the differing demographic trends in each part of the county.

When land is rezoned for a subdivision, the proffer amount in effect on the date of approval becomes part of its creation ordinance and includes an escalator clause. Lots already approved are not impacted by this update. It would apply to future rezonings only.

According to Farhat, the median house price in Goochland in 2019 was $391,000, making the $23,706 average cash proffer 6.1 percent of the house price. In 2026, the median house price is $646,935 making the average cash proffer of $31,704 4.9 percent of the price.

The supervisors commended Farhat and his team for the thoroughness of the report. However, there was discussion about how proffers impact housing prices and residential growth.

Charlie Vaughters District 4 asked how jurisdictions across the country deal with the issue. Virginia explained the consultant from Tischler Bise, which was retained by the county for the study, is unique in the trigger methodology it uses to assess proffers. Other places use a similar mechanism to calculate a static impact fee schedule applied to all new construction. These are dynamic models that analyze both operational and capital expenditures needed by new development. Virginia just looks at capital impacts.

Jonathan Lyle, District 5 pointed out that a developer could decline to offer cash proffers during a rezoning action, leaving it up to the supervisors to decide whether to approve the rezoning without offering any funds for capital impact mitigation. This has never happened. He said that it is appropriate for people moving to the county to help pay for the increase in capital costs generated by their arrival but the should be as little as possible.

Vaughters contended that more detailed discussion about conflicting data on the impact of cash proffers on assessment versus escalating new home costs is needed. “At the end of the day, in my mind, this is a tax. We want to make sure that the taxes are collected appropriately and do not price people out of the market. Assessments are also an ongoing issue. There is a lot to look into. We cannot say that approval of this will solve the problem.”

He commended Farhat and staff for putting together a diverse stakeholder group of residents, developers, and businesses to provide positive meaningful feedback and analysis. He said that the capital impact model data should flow through all development discussions.

Spoonhower contended that this is not the right tool to recover costs and manage growth. “This creates a bad product in my district.”

He said that the cash proffer policy, access management, and other development fees discourage orderly development in the western part of the county. “Instead of having folks clustered together you get driveway after driveway on main thoroughfares. Ending the policy is not going to make or break Goochland’s budget. Let’s get something that ensures that the people move in here pay a fraction of the cost incurred.”

Board Chair Jonathan Christy, District 1 agreed that the capital impact model is a critical tool to analyze the true cost of residential development and the deficit that each new home creates and that the county needs to find a way to fill that hole. He said that the proffer policy does not slow residential growth but incentivizes by right development.

It seems likely that this subject will be addressed during the August 12 retreat.

The next skirmish

 

Ad hominem—look it up—attacks in comment will not be published. The anonymous commenter who called GOMM a coward for not posting their ugly remarks might want to check the definition of irony.

So tired of  the arrogant condescension of people who bought into developer fables that a townhouse in a business park is rural. 

On July 23, we got some details about the pre-application filed by Tract for the Tuckahoe Technology Park (TTP) on approximately 871 acres east of Hockett Road, north of Rt. 6 and west of Mosaic, the 55+ residential enclave in west Creek, at a community meeting.  This is the first step in the process to secure a conditional use permit (CUP) to build a data center campus there.

Go to https://www.tuckahoetechparkinfo.com/ for details.

It seemed like most of Mosaic and Readers Branch, attired in cute red tee shirts, turned out for the event. At a rally they contended that the county should grow tomatoes not data centers. This illustrates profound ignorance about Goochland—crops here include soybeans, corn, and wheat. There is a large dairy farm in Manakin Sabot. Cattle are raised and a meat processing plant is under construction. These keep much of the county rural, but are taxed at land use rates, a per acre amount determined at the state level; to help them stay in business so they’re not tempted to sell their land to developers.

The initiative to increase the county’s commercial to residential tax ratio from its current roughly 82/18 to 70/30 has been a goal of the supervisors for some time to pay for needed services and infrastructure without increasing tax rates. Until the more than 1,000 vacant, zoned residential lots are built out and the tax ratio is much closer to 70/30, the county needs to “pause” all residential rezoning applications. One more time for the refugees from Long Island, houses consume more in local government services than they generate in real estate taxes.

Goochland has enormous capital needs, something that data center opponents ignore or do not care about.

The July 23 session provided some, but not enough, clarity on the proposal. At least one more community meeting, ideally to share revisions made in response to community input, is needed before a formal CUP application is filed. This is how the process works. There were at least three community meetings for the Highfield subdivision over a period of several years before a final vote was taken.

Kara Bowyer, director of entitlements for Tract, said that data centers built in TTP will be air cooled, a requirement that will be part of the CUP language, making it law. She also estimated that the amount of water used during construction and ongoing operations, for things like restrooms, would be roughly the equivalent of 36 homes, using a 333 gallon per day average. All water servicing TTP will be municipally supplied by the Tuckahoe Creek Service District, which is surface water drawn from the James River. It will have no impact on groundwater. So, opponents can stop posting photos of icky water coming out of faucets on social media.

Speaking of groundwater, how is it affected by the herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, and other “cides” that maintain the sodded lawns and landscaping in the enclaves for the affluent that leach into the soil? Why is no one asking that question?

Bowyer also said that there will be no natural gas power generation on the site, which is curious given that the site is bisected by a natural gas line.

Tract, according to the presentation, is in the business of building pad ready sites for data centers. This was likened to shopping center developers who rezone land, build parking lots, road access, and structures for future tenants. The TTP, as presented in the pre app, is a “conceptual master plan” that applied the requirements of the TOD/TZ to the subject parcels, probably using software. That explains the vagueness of the “conceptual bubble plan”. The exhibits for TTP are “conceptual” in nature, which is why there are no “elevations” to illustrate future buildings or where they will be placed. Bowyer said that the floor area ratio (FAR) of buildings to land area will be low, estimated at about ten percent of the 871 acres.  Even estimates for building locations would be helpful.

 Bowyers explained that vertical construction will not start until a source of adequate power to the site is identified and secured, which will take at least three years.  The power line extension recently approved to service the Eli Lilly facility in West Creek, is the “best guess” for the most likely connection, said Bowyer. Three power substations, each with a 300-mw capacity, would be needed to run the data centers. Potential locations for these are illustrated.

Tract will clear the site, build road access, infrastructure, and maybe pour concrete pads for buildings, whose use, construction, and precise location would be determined by end users as yet unknown. Conditions of the CUP become law. Any changes would require another full CUP process.

What happens in the meantime? If Tract clears the land, puts in roads and other infrastructure, but the demand for data center sites goes away, what will Goochland be left with? How much of the site will be clear cut? We don’t need a Motorola redux.

The zoning will not change from its current A-2. Projections for tax revenue generated by the project suggest that assessed valuation will increase when the use changes from A-2 to “commercial” after the first building is occupied. Does this mean that the county gleans little additional revenue apart from various permit fees on the land in the interim? Tax revenue projections indicate that assessed valuations will increase from the 2025 amount of $13,954 to $22.9 million in “year 1” which is the first year after a building is constructed.  The most significant tax revenue will be generated by personal property tax levied on the equipment in the buildings, again with significant increases after ‘year 1” whenever that is.

No answer was available to the query about land use taxation “clawbacks” for some of the parcels. Typically, when property in land use taxation— used for agricultural or forestal  purposes— is rezoned for a higher use, a “clawback” payment of the difference between land use taxation, based on a per acre rate determined at the state level, and taxes based on fair market valuation for the previous five years is due. If the CUP is approved, the “highest and best use” of the property has changed, and the assessed value should increase accordingly.

Eli Lilly recently closed on the West Creek parcel for about $38 million, an increase of about $13 million over its assessed valuation as of January 1, 2026, which should impact county tax revenue in the coming months.

When will an increase in local tax revenue for the 871 acres kick in? This information needs to be part of the calculus used in the final decision. This land has been designated for economic development for decades.  It was referred to as SPEDA (southern economic development area) for decades and featured prominently in the southern infrastructure study begun in early 2023.

In response to a question about posting bonds to fund decommissioning of data centers at the end of their useful life, as is required of cell towers, the Bowyers contended said that data centers are warehouses full of computer equipment and when that equipment is removed, they can be used for other purposes.

Opponents would prefer the site to be used for office buildings, for which there is little current market demand. For example, the former Federal Reserve facility in West Creek, a beautiful turnkey headquarters, has been on the market for a while.

Serious concerns about sound, including constant humming and especially from generators were raised. The explanation was that generator use is regulated by the state, but data centers must operate 24/7, so in emergencies, generators would run continually, not for intermittent testing. More detail on this is needed. Many of the examples cited by opponents seem to be based on older facilities and those that were retrofitted from other uses.

Concerns about emissions from data centers and generators were glossed over by saying that they will dissipate in the air. Really?  This reply was lame at best. The impact on air quality within perhaps a half mile of generators running for extended periods should be compared to that within the same distance from vehicle emissions on 288 during high traffic periods to put it into perspective.