Sharing information

Hadensville fire-rescue station

Seems like every time you turn around there’s an announcement from Goochland County for yet another community meeting about a potential rezoning or conditional use application.  Some of these meetings are sparsely attended, others are SRO. Unlike neighboring jurisdictions, holding a community meeting to share details of a proposed land use change with adjacent property  owners and other interested parties—these are posted on the county website http://www.goochlandva.us/ for all to see—is the mandatory first step in the application process here.

Typically, developers and land owners use these meetings to present a conceptual plan that gives a very general idea of what they want to do. Citizen input gathered form these sessions often—not always—results in changes to an application before it proceeds to the planning commission and on to the board of supervisors for final judgment. Holding a community meeting does not indicate that the proposal is a” done deal”. Some applications were withdrawn in response to vigorous opposition at community meetings. More often, initial conceptual plans are revised to address the objections of citizens and neighbors seeking middle ground acceptable to most.

Goochland County tries hard to keep citizens informed about land use matters, but too few people pay attention. A recent comment on social media contending that new subdivisions are approved by the supervisors to get more tax money with no public input illustrated an astonishing degree of ignorance.

The county takes transparency seriously and does not exempt itself from the same process that all landowners must follow for rezoning and conditional use permits. A recent community meeting presented conceptual plans for the new Goochland Elementary School on Bulldog Way.

 Another discussed a possible location—no firm decision has yet been made—for a proposed West Creek fire-rescue station on Hockett Road about 900 feet north of its intersection with Tuckahoe Creek Parkway. In 2012, the owners of West Creek offered the county land for a fire-rescue station. This will shave perhaps $1 million or so off the final cost of the station.

The county is also looking for land to build a fire-rescue station in District 2 and a site to relocate the Crozier station. Due to growth in the eastern part of the county and a drastic increase in call volume there, the West Creek facility is up first. This will be the second fire-rescue station built and owned by the county. A few years ago, a new Hadensville Company 6 was put into service. Other stations in the county were built—in some cases literally—by volunteers with community support.

The West Creek station meeting took place on November 4 at Manakin Company 1 and was well-attended. Fire-Rescue Chief D. E. “Eddie” Ferguson, Jr., and Deputy County Administrator for Operations, Derek Stamey presented a conceptual plan for the proposed station, which could include space for law enforcement operations. The new facility will augment, not replace, existing fire-rescue stations in Manakin (Company 1) and Centerville (Company 3) they said.

New development in the eastern part of the county has increased fire-rescue call volume about ten percent in the last year alone, said Ferguson. Already, employees of businesses in West Creek and the Rt. 288 corridor, including Capital One and CarMax, nearly double the daytime population of the county. Call volume is expected to increase as projects under construction, both commercial and residential, are completed. Since October 1, when all six Goochland Fire-Rescue stations were staffed 24/7, response times have improved a great deal.

Site selection criteria included both north-south and east-west road connectivity located provide enhanced support for the 288 corridor and areas served by Companies 1 and 3 to maximize response time. Senior citizen communities, including Avery Point (see Richmondbizsense.com story on November 18) is also expected to increase demand for fire-rescue services. (Avery Point is estimated to add approximately $2 million in annual real estate tax revenue to county coffers.) Attendees at the meeting, many live in the Hockett Road corridor, raised concerns about adding emergency vehicles to the traffic mix on a road gridlocked at rush hours.

Ferguson said that fire-rescue works those roads every day and is very familiar with traffic issues. He said that VDOT will be heavily involved in creating safe and effective access points for a station at the proposed location. It is too soon to know if deployment of a station in the proposed location would trigger installation of a traffic signal, said Ferguson. Fire-rescue will be a good neighbor, working to minimize disruption with lighting, taking care with sirens at night, and scheduling routine maintenance activities during daytime hours.

A woman said that she had lived next to a fire-rescue station in another jurisdiction when she had small children, who were never woken in the middle of the night by a siren. She also said that when one of her children was taken ill, they were on the way to the hospital in five minutes. “You’ll love having them close,” she said.

Ferguson predicted that all three stations will be very busy. He also said that personnel and equipment could be added at Companies 1 and 3 before the new facility is built. A ladder truck for the east end, for instance, which has a price tag of at least $1 million, could be acquired by the county before the new station is completed—roughly estimated as some time in 2025—and stationed at Company 1, whose bays can accommodate this type of apparatus.

No firm cost estimates are yet available, but $7.5 million has been earmarked for the facility in the county capital improvement plan for the FY 21-23 time frame. Land for the proposed station, a five to eight-acre portion of a 24-acre parcel, will be given to the county.

Ferguson explained that, as Goochland Fire-Rescue also responds to calls on Interstate 64 and Rt. 288, it serves many people who are not county residents. The cost recovery policy, put into place a few years ago, charges for ambulance transport to area hospitals, providing an additional revenue stream to fund operations. In the current fiscal year, cost recovery is estimated to generate approximately $700,000. Goochland, said Ferguson, uses a compassionate approach to collections and will not file with a collection agency for non-payment. Insurance companies usually pay these costs.

The property must be rezoned for use as a fire-recue station. This will involve more detailed presentations and public hearings before both the planning commission and board of supervisors. Additional community meetings could also be held. The PowerPoint presentation for the meeting is available on the county website http://www.goochlandva.us/ under the proposed West Creek Fire-Rescue station tab on the left side of the page.