The long and winding road to yes

After eight months of meetings between the owners and potential developers of approximately 98 acres between Manakin and Rockville Roads and nearby residents, the Goochland Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to approve rezoning the property to Residential Planned Unit Development (RPUD) with proffers at its July 2 meeting. District 4 supervisor Bob Minnick was in dissent.

 The vote came around 10 p.m. following a long silence after each board member made remarks. Board chair Manuel Alvarez, Jr., District 2, finally broke the silence and moved for approval. John Lumpkins, District 3 seconded the motion.

The result probably pleased few involved, so it may have been the best decision.

As approved, the rezoning will permit 98 single family homes—the number permitted by the density recommended by the 2035 Comprehensive Land use Plan. A connector road was removed from the proposal. “Tuckahoe Bridge” will have two distinct sections with separate entrances on both Rockville and Manakin Roads for 49 homes each. The “bridge” will most likely be a foot bridge of some sort, that will not be able to accommodate vehicular traffic.  The Rockville Road side includes a stub road leading to undeveloped land to the north. This road will be clearly marked that it could b extended in the future.

Developer Vernon McClure of Main Street Homes explained that the topography of each site will dictate lot size, which will be less than the one acre but vary in size. As the property will be served by water and sewer from the Tuckahoe Creek Service District, there will be no public health issues caused by small lot sizes.

He said that there will be left and right turn lanes at both entrances and Manakin and Rockville Roads will be improved along the subdivision frontage. Due to permitting and engineering, McClure estimated that it will take one and one half to two years before any dirt is moved. He expects there will be a seven year build out for the project. Construction will start on the Manakin Road side with extensions of water and sewer lines.

Although the zoning case was on the Board agenda as “decision only”, 30 minutes were allotted for additional comment. Speakers included those formerly opposed, who accepted the reduction in number of lots from the originally proposed 147 to 98; those opposed to RPUD zoning; and owners of the land who whined about how long it took to sell and paying the TCSD ad valroem tax.

Perhaps the strangest comments were made by realtor who sold the land. She contended that Goochland needs these homes, with a starting price point north of $550K, to bring young families to the county because we are running out of children. She based her remarks on the dearth of children she sees in the Centerville Food Lion. Even if young families can afford homes in Tuckahoe Bridge, it is doubtful that they would have the time or inclination to do things like become fire-rescue volunteers. She must also have missed the recent discussions about increasing the capacity of the new Goochland Elementary School to 650 students due to expected surge in school age population.

The density of homes and small lot sizes destroys any semblance of rural character in the area, opponents contended. Ken Peterson, District 5, observed that the case was somewhat akin to putting a square peg in a round hole and suggested that the county may need a new zoning district to deal with cases like this.  Peterson said that the final iteration of Tuckahoe Bridge—or bridgeless—has the 98 homes permitted by other residential zoning categories with deeper buffers so that passersby will see only the entrance and turn lanes and not homes on small lots.

Other zoning options for this land, which permit the same number of homes, require no buffers and make homes easily visible from the road, like Reader’s Branch under construction on the east side of Hockett Road. There was a good bit of comment about market forces and that today’s home buyers have little interest in large, high maintenance yards.

Minnick struggled with the notion that RPUD cannot support acre lots, because there are some of those in Kinloch, also an RPUD subdivision.  Even though sitting boards cannot take any action to encumber future boards, Minnick expressed concern that approval of RPUD zoning for Tuckahoe Bridge could encourage other landowners to follow suit.

Indeed, there is an approximately 136-acre undeveloped parcel just north of the land in question that is also in the Centerville Village and the TCSD. Property on the north side of Rockville Road is designated for economic development on the Comp Plan, both of which could drastically alter the character of the area. He also said that the Sycamore Creek golf course is another pressure point for development—there are no guarantees it will be a golf course forever.

Removal of what was touted as a connector road, just a subdivision street with many driveways, removed the possibility of “back flush” cut through traffic from Manakin Towne traveling north on Manakin Road to avoid Broad Street Road congestion. The pending downzoning of a rural preservation further north on Seay Road will reduce future traffic pressures.

Overall, the “process” of neighbors and developers interacting to find more or less mutually acceptable terms, worked. Going forward, developers need to recognize that they must listen to and work with residents in rezoning cases. Citizens need to engage and not whine that the filing of a rezoning application is a “done deal” and realize that land in the Centerville Village will develop in a way that may not please them.

The county is still in the process of updating its zoning ordinances. A community meeting on the topic will be held on July 16 at 6 p.m. in the county administration building.

Balancing the property rights of a landowner and those of neighbors who oppose significant change in land use is a delicate task and perhaps the most important, behind good stewardship of public funds, facing supervisors.