Goal for inept government
The Goochland planning commission may have derailed agreements that would give GUSA some temporary playing space until both the methane problems at Hidden Rock Park and general dearth of county fields can be addressed.
Even before the February 19 public hearings began, an application by Collegiate School for a conditional use permit that would allow county kids to use its fields off of Blair Road was withdrawn.
In addition to Collegiate, St.Catherine’s and Benedictine, which have athletic facilities in the River Road corridor applied for similar CUPs.
Given its location, right on River Road, county staff advised that the Benedictine application be deferred pending some sort of traffic evaluation.
That left St. Catherine’s, which has operated in its location just west of Rt. 288 for several years.
The whole matter came up very quickly as an emergency fix to find field space to replace the out of operation fields at Hidden Rock Park, so that the soccer season for local kids could start on time, next month.
The CUP applications were fast tracked so that the planning commission and supervisors could consider and vote on the applications within a few weeks of each other.
Residents along the River Road corridor received little notice of the pending applications and we justifiably upset about the precipitous manner in which the CUPs appeared. They strenuously objected to additional traffic in their community.
During the course of the discussion about the CUP, the attorney for St. Catherine’s stated that his client would retain the right to decide who would use its facilities. Somehow, that assertion seems to have been misinterpreted by some of the commissioners who contended that the private school really wants to transform its facility into a public park attracting hordes of people, from who knows where, to regularly clog River Road.
The planners seemed to turn a deaf ear to St. Catherine’s athletic director who explained that, because the facility is expensive to maintain, the school is not anxious to encourage heavy use. The invitation to GUSA was extended as a gesture of neighborliness to help ensure that Goochland kids can play soccer.
After the comments made by the commissioners and residents, it would not be surprising for St. Catherine’s to withdraw its application and suggest that Goochland County perform an unnatural act on itself.
Discussion about the use of other field space in the county illustrated a total lack of familiarity with the fields, one of which is only half grassed several are too small or unusable for other reasons. Planners also had no clue that grass on new soccer fields must grow undisturbed for a good while to ensure a proper playing surface.
Mention was also made of money, up to $500,000, already in county coffers earmarked for parks and recreation. If the county is willing to spend that money on soccer fields, why has it not already been used to develop soccer fields behind the Towne and Country Shops in Courthouse Village? Still no answer to that question.
This is a clear illustration of how inept government comes back to plague everyone.
The folks in the River Road corridor are entitled to peace in their enclave. It was quite interesting to glean from their comments that many do not realize that Goochland has only one operating public park. Had county government been doing its job, fields for soccer, baseball and other sports would exist. The field shortage has bubbled over infecting even River Road.
The planners finally voted to recommend approval of a very limited CUP that would be cancelled as soon as the HRP fields are fit for play.
On March 3, the supervisors will hold their own public hearing on the application, if it has not been withdrawn. Because the planning commission’s role is advisory, the supervisors are under no obligation to follow its recommendations. Indeed, on many occasions, the board has blithely ignored the planners to approve hotly disparaged zoning changes.
At the end of the day, county kids are still being told to play in traffic, but not along River Road.
1 comment:
Dear friends,
County residents and Board are looking at a rare gift horse in the mouth and are now seemingly in the process refusing an incredible offer that many less fortunate would have jumped on by now.
At no taxpayer expense, the three local private schools graciously combined to offer all county residents and their local community sports leagues access to a total of roughly 20 soccer/football/baseball fields at their respective locations.
The value to the county citizens of having the three county private schools offer access to these fields totals well into the millions of dollars. Realistically, it is roughly a 20 million dollar value to the county.
A few River Road residents and the Planning Commission fought hard to narrow the scope of the offer to temporarily offer only St. Catherine's soccer fields to one local youth club who lost their field at HRP until that field is fixed.
Goochland has the fewest recreational acres per citizen in the state.
The schools understandably reserve the right to invite whomever they deem appropriate to use their facilities. They were all generous to a fault in offering their facilities to help local citizens in a bind and should be thanked profusely.
Interestingly, River Road is a significantly safer and better built road than either Fairgrounds Road or Dogtown Road (where current traffic flows access existing damaged and over-used field). River Road already handles weekday rush hour, which includes the private schools’ heaviest field use during its after school sports (3-6pm).
These facilities include state and county approved turn lanes and more than adequate on site parking.
The county (recently)estimated that it would cost us $3.5 million just to build four fields, the associated infrastructure of turn lanes and parking. And, this is on land already owned by the county behind the administration building.
At almost $1 million per field, this equates to a roughly $20 million dollar offer and includes free maintenance of the facilities, which by itself runs well into six figures per year.
Even if HRP is opened tomorrow, there is still currently not one publicly accessible regulation size soccer field for ages 13 through adult in Goochland County. That's right, zero.
Baseball and football are the next accident waiting to happen as those outstanding sports are at capacity and cannot grow either.
The county leadership and staff appear clueless about the big picture as well as the short term reality that games and seasons will likely be canceled even if HRP is opened tomorrow.
GUSA (youth) and CVSA (adult) need access to a few soccer fields in Goochland for this spring season and beyond. Strikers and Kickers, who also serve the community, cannot grow here either or manage a weekend tournament without relying on the City of Richmond.
We as citizens are busy arguing about public road traffic amongst competing neighborhoods while county government has been sleeping at the wheel with respect to any child or adult who plays a sport in this county.
Citizens, county staff, and board members just literally lost the very real value of a $20 million dollar offer of help for both a short term and long term acute field shortage problem in the county.
We couldn't even find a way to accept the donation of use of one field without strings attached. One field would cost us almost $1 million dollars in land acquisition and associated development costs to replicate.
Way to pass the buck as a regional partner, Goochland. I guess we are fortunate that this decidedly inward turn by county residents and the board occurred after Goochland requested regional support for the HCA hospital.
We seem to have already forgotten that the schools and sports community specifically organized and came to those community meetings, wrote letters, and supported Goochland’s “regional” player status at the request of several Board members last year. The sports community noted the regional aspect of having local leagues and schools active and bringing people and business to the West Creek area.
Yes, for the record, the Richmond Strikers, Richmond Kickers, local adult(CVSA)and youth soccer leagues all were present supporting Goochland's bid for HCA at those community hearings of last year, writing letters, and making phone calls.
Way to send them packing Goochland.
Respectfully submitted
Bob Marcellus
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