An initial community meeting to discuss a proposed subdivision
on the west side of Hockett Road south of Songbird Lane was held at the Pickle
Barrel restaurant on March 16. The meeting was well attended by engaged citizens;
Supervisors Don Sharpe District 4; Neil Spoonhower District 2; Planning Commissioners
John Meyers, District 1, Curt Pituck, District 4; Director of Community
development Jo Ann Hunter; and representatives of the developer including legal
counsel Jennifer Mullen of Roth Jackson Gibbons Condlin, PLC.
Kudos to organizers of the meeting for making it accessible
via Zoom for those unable or unwilling to attend in person. The information was
presented by the developer. If the application proceeds through the rezoning
process, county staff will analyze the proposal and present a summary of its findings
for the planning commission and supervisors. At least two public hearings will
take place before any vote by the supervisors. Additional community meetings could
be held before the proposal moves forward in the process. This is not a “done
deal”.
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| Proposed Songbird community. Hockett Road is to the right. |
Every property owner has the right to petition government for
zoning and/or changes in permitted land uses. No matter how much money the
property owner spends on preparing proposals, there is no guarantee that the
request will be granted. The Board of Supervisors has the final say on these
applications. While the Planning Commission makes recommendations on these applications,
the board does not necessarily heed them.
According to Goochland County Attorney Tara McGee, each
rezoning is treated as unique by the law and does not create a precedent for
future land use change applications.
Community meetings are the opening moves of a land use
change chess game that involves developers, county regulations, and citizens. Approved
projects are often very different from their initial proposals. Many factors
are taken into account during the process, not least of which is the county’s comprehensive
land use plan (https://www.goochlandva.us/250/2035-Comprehensive-Plan) a guide
crafted to foster orderly development.
The Songbird Lane preapplication proposes to build 137 single
family detached homes on approximately 64 acres on the west side of Hockett
Road. There would be two access points, one from Songbird Lane, the other from
Hockett Road, in the approximate center of the development.
According to Mullen, lot sizes would be no smaller than 70
by 130 feet. Homes sizes would range from 2,500 to 4,000 square feet and price
points are expected to range from four to six hundred thousand. Homes will feature
first floor master suites. This pricing may be low as currently surging lumber prices
drive new construction costs higher.
Mullen speculated that buyers of the homes would tend to be families
whose children are out of school or younger people who have not yet started
families. Using the county’s projections, the proposed community would produce 27
school aged children. When this number was challenged by an attendee,
Spoonhower said that actual numbers of school aged children resulting from new
development is a bit lower than projections.
People interested in sending their children to Goochland
schools might prefer homes further west. Randolph Elementary School is about
ten miles from the subject property, the high school/middle school complex at
least a 16-mile trip.
The proposal requests that the zoning be changed from its
current A-2 agricultural, which would allow no more than ten homes, to
residential planned unit development (RPUD), which permits up to 2.5 units per
acre and allows town homes. It was unclear if the applicant will proffer (promise)
to build only single family detached homes. The Comp Plan indicates that this
area is low density residential. Mullen contended that it is in a designated growth
area. West Creek, prime economic development location, is on the opposite side
of Hockett Road. The area currently has farms and homes on large parcels of
land.
To accommodate small lots the proposal assumes that the land
in question would be added to the Tuckahoe Creek Service District.
Created in 2002 to provide water and sewer service to the
eastern part of the county the TCSD was intended to support economic development.
The TCSD includes part, but not all, of the West Creek business park, and is generally
bounded on the west by the east side of Hockett Road, the south Rt. 6, and the
Hanover County line to the north. A 32 cent per $100 of assessed valuation is
levied on all land in the TCSD whether it has access to utility service or not
in addition to the county-wide real estate tax. Much of the TCSD remains
undeveloped. The ad valorem tax and connection fees are used to service debt
incurred by the county to build the utility system.
The proposal includes open space and buffers between the homes
and Hockett Road and surrounding parcels. Existing trees, many of which are
pines, constitute part of the buffer. Sidewalks and street trees will be
installed in front of homes as will walking trails in the open space.
Traffic concerns were expressed by many attendees. Eric
Strohacker, a traffic consultant retained by the developer to study the impact
of the proposal on Hockett Road traffic, said that the Songbird community would
generate 1,390 vehicles trips per day. This number, said Strohacker, was
arrived at using databases for similar communities.
Folks who live in the Hockett Road corridor said that the traffic
is horrible during rush hour, especially at the south end as home bound commuters
seek short cuts to turn east on Rt. 6. Strohacker, who has worked with other communities
in the area contended that congestion at Rt. 6 will be relieved by a traffic
signal. The Hockett/Broad Street Road intersection in the Centerville Village
is already “failing” said Hunter. She reported that a realignment to connect Hockett
and Ashland Roads has been approved and funded and is expected to be built in
approximately five years.
Goochland roads are built and maintained by VDOT—the state agency
whose motto is “Oops!”—and it decides when traffic signals are needed. According
to Strohacker, VDOT uses a 24-hour traffic count to determine when a traffic
signal is warranted. He did suggest that the county request that VDOT do a
traffic study of Hockett Road between Broad Street Road and Tuckahoe Creek
Parkway to determine if a lower speed limit is appropriate.
The Songbird project will pay maximum permitted cash proffers
of $9,810 per home. Go to https://www.goochlandva.us/DocumentCenter/View/4330/Goochland-Capital-Impacts-Study?bidId=
for the study used to compute this amount. The county was divided into east,
central, and west zones to determine appropriate amounts.
This money is used to fund capital projects for education,
public safety, transportation, and parks. In 2017, Goochland County crafted a 25-year
capital improvement plan to identify and put a price tag on big ticket items
needed during that period. The total was more than $146 million. Even with the
built-in cost escalators, the price of some of those items, like the new
Goochland Elementary School, have already increased dramatically. The $1,343,970 in proffer dollars that would be
generated by 137 homes on Songbird Lane is a mere drop in the proffer bucket. The
new West Creek fire-rescue station planned for a parcel on the east side of Hockett
Road just north of Tuckahoe Creek Parkway to be built in five years or so, is the
next capital project in the eastern zone.
Residential development consumes more than one dollar in
governmental services for each dollar it generates in taxes. New homes bring no
monetary benefit to the county.
Perhaps the most important question asked at this meeting is
what benefit this 137-home proposal brings to Goochland County.
There will be additional, hopefully constructive, discussions
about this issue.
1 comment:
Hi Sandy,
I hope the process has changed. I stopped going to those meetings many years ago (previous administration). I noticed that often, when there was a new development proposed, people would show up in droves and protest it, but the developments were almost always approved. I'm actually struggling to think of any that weren't - I think there was one off Whitehall that might have failed.
I remember sitting in a meeting of the Planning Committee for a new development. I was working away on my laptop while listening to the proceedings with half an ear, and the meeting wound down, and I found that I was the only person in left in the audience. One of the members of the Planning Committee was a new guy, and he mentioned that it seemed like there was a lot of opposition to the project. Another guy on the committee - possibly the boss, but I don't recall - told him that it was going to be approved. He said something to the effect that next month there would be another meeting and instead of an overrun crowd, a much smaller number of people would show up. Sure enough, at the next meeting, far fewer people came to protest. There may have been one more after that, I don't recall, but at the final meeting with very little resistance since nobody was there to protest, the developer trotted out neighbors he had lined up to speak in favor of the proposal. The Planning Committee said it looked like people were in favor - and so it was passed.
The same procedure, more or less, took place at the BoS, which is where these things go after the Planning Committee has their say. The same process occurred there - lots of voices in opposition - push the decision out - wait till there are no protests, run a few people who were drafted to speak in favor, and approve it. That was the modus operendi, and it was so discouraging that I stopped attending, and never really got back into following Goochland government. Back then, at least, the process was all a sham in my view.
Hopefully the process is better now. To any people in the neighborhood who might be against this - you better trot out your support again and again, as many times as it takes!
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