Citizens in action

Making waves

About two years ago, efforts began to rezone the parcel of land around and behind Satterwhite’s restaurant in Centerville with the stated intent of building a shopping center.

This came just a few months after the southeast quadrant of the Broad Street and Manakin Roads interchange was zoned for both age-restricted residential and retail use. To date, that retail parcel is still for sale.

Last Thursday night (May 28,) the latest of several community meetings about matter was held at the Company 3 fire-rescue station. Although attendance was lower than previous meetings, those who came expressed thoughtful and, for the most part, constructive comments about the latest iteration of the proposal.

The initial concept, your basic strip shopping center dumped on the property, has morphed, in response to vigorous constructive criticism from area residents, into an upscale commercial enclave. Proposed proffers, which, if the rezoning is approved, will become law and must be observed when developing the land regardless of who owns it.
One element that no amount of appealing architectural detail or lavish landscaping can change is its location.

According to Darvin Satterwhite, counsel for the owner Richard Nuckols, private traffic engineers and those from VDOT concur that an access point (represented by a stake with an orange streamer just west of the restaurant) on Rt. 250 that includes both left and right turn lanes is safe.

Area residents disagree, contending that the dip in Rt. 250 just west of the location and the tendency for motorists to drive well above the posted 45 mile-per-hour speed limit make the proposed access point a potential death trap.

The intersection of Rt. 250 and Manakin Road is already a dangerous bottleneck at many times of day. This development will add more cars to that mix.

People who use the intersection believe that a traffic signal there is badly needed. The county has the money to pay for the signal, but VDOT, which has the ultimate authority in the matter, contends that the traffic levels have not reached the thresholds that indicate the need for a traffic light. County officials have little to say in the matter. Other than begging VDOT for action they are helpless in the matter.

Changes in the concept of the proposed retail area are quite amazing and happened because a group of concerned citizens would not give up. The concession to build right and left turn lanes on both Manakin Road and Rt. 250, a pricey proposition, is a significant achievement.

Not too long ago, rezoning applications slipped though the county process with few ripples. Citizens might object at public hearings, but, the rezonings went through with little or no modification.

A few years ago, the board of supervisors mandated that developers hold community meetings with nearby residents before any rezoning application reached the public hearing stage.

Kudos to Paul Costello and his group from the Centerville area for thoughtful, careful research and constructive criticisms that “encouraged” the developers to go back to the drawing board.

Money talks. During the meeting, Nuckols indicated that if anyone wanted to buy the land and keep it in agricultural use, the price is $3 million.

Conceptually, the retail project would be similar to an upscale shopping center on Robious Road in Chesterfield, which will undoubtedly make it expensive to lease. It is important to remember that the attractive photographs are merely conceptual, there is no guarantee that a future developer will use the same architectural styles.

However, the county’s Design Review Committee, which oversees application of the village overlay standards, is quite adept at its job.

One major question about this project, which has yet to be answered, is who will locate there? If it is built, will it be leased?

With the myriad retail delights of Short Pump only a few miles down the road, it’s hard to imagine what sort of business would invest there.

The Chesterfield center, which is accessed from a signalized subdivision road, is quite charming.

Although its remote location has little competition, is not fully leased. Tenants include two medical offices, a day spa, a bank, several restaurants, a dry cleaner and a gourmet food and wine store.

If you can drive another few miles to Short Pump, and make no mistake most of the patrons of whatever businesses locate here will drive, why stop in Centerville?

The developer is not evil. Were it not for developers rezoning land from agricultural to residential use, few if any of the people protesting the rezoning would live here.

A larger question is why was that parcel included in the Centerville village in the first place? Manakin Road would seem to make a good natural western boundary for Centerville. Regardless of how many sidewalks any retail use there contains, traffic on both Manakin and Broad Street Roads will discourage anyone from walking into the rest of the village. Pedestrian access and walkability are supposed to be one of the hallmarks of a village. This falls short.

Nuckols has every right to develop his property profitably. The fault in this process is that his choices for development were limited to what he proposes.

The planning commission, which will hear the case on June 18 and the supervisors who will make the final decision on the application after their own public hearing, must balance the property rights of individual landowners with the health, safety and welfare of county citizens.

Thoughtful public comment is a valuable part of the process. People are too often discouraged if they do not get their way. If citizens had not objected to the original rezoning plan, it would be on the books by now. As it is, their input has given the developer more hurdles to cross. It’s too bad that the developer had so few options for his land.