Community Development

 

Community Development has  many moving parts

It’s no secret that Goochland is growing. After years when development, both commercial and residential, slowed to a crawl, things are booming. Houses now pop out of the ground like mushrooms after a spring rain, their completion slowed only by supply chain issues. Rezoning applications for more subdivisions are in the pipeline.

Deputy County Administrator for Community and Economic Development and Public Utilities Jo Ann Hunter presented her department’s annual report to the supervisors on September 7.

Hunter’s department oversees every step of the development process from a pre-application for rezoning, to issuance of the last certificate of occupancy for a new building. This includes community meetings, public hearings, lots and lots of discussion with staff, and permitting from the county and outside agencies.

Hunter began her presentation with an overview of county growth. (Go to https://www.goochlandva.us/DocumentCenter/View/8089/Goochland-County-Community-Development-Annual-Report---FY-2021-Presentation for details).

 Between 2000 and 2010, Goochland’s population increased from 16,863 to 21,717. Although this was a 29 percent increase, it’s still not a lot of people for a county whose 290 square mile land area is slightly larger than that of Henrico at 245 square miles. Preliminary 2020 census figures indicate the Goochland County population as of April 1, 2020, is about 25,000. (For comparison, the population of the 9.1 square miles considered to be Short Pump was 28,328 in 2019.)

In 2016 a Customer Service Center became the welcome center for the myriad of Community Development functions. It provides a friendly and efficient mechanism for customers—citizens, contractors, and others—to conduct their business with department under the community development umbrella.

To ensure that buildings follow code requires many inspections, in addition to plan review and permitting. Residential and commercial inspector skill sets are somewhat different. Both are in short supply in Goochland, and everywhere else, said Hunter.  Filling a recently approve inspector position has been challenging. She commended county building official Gary Fisher and his staff for keeping up with the deluge of inspections since and through Covid.

The number of inspections performed in FY 2021, which ended on June 30, soared 27.5 percent over the previous year, 17,781 inspections in FY 21 versus 13,943 in FY20. County staff performed an average of 17.2 inspections per day in the fourth quarter of FY21 exceeding a goal of ten per day recommended by the ISO (Insurance Service Office). Building official Gary Fisher explained that the lower number is to ensure that inspectors do a thorough job.

 (Fisher is currently the Chairman of the James Madison Building and Code Officials Association, which is Region 4 of the Virginia Building and Code Officials Association. Region 4 represents Goochland County, Fluvanna County, Cumberland County, Louisa County, Nelson County, Buckingham County, Albemarle County, Greene County, Orange County, Spotsylvania County, Madison County, Culpeper County and Rappahannock County and the City of Charlottesville and the City of Fredericksburg. As Chairman of Region 4, Fisher sits on the Executive Board of VBCOA, a statewide organization of code enforcement professionals with over 1000 members.)

Demand for inspections shows no sign of slowing down, said Hunter. Although a new inspector position was approved, filling that job has proved to be a challenge because surrounding jurisdictions need more inspectors too.

Hunter’s department also oversees transportation, which in Goochland, means roads. This includes working with VDOT and developers because the county does not build or maintain roads. This year, the county will receive its share of revenue from the newly created Central Virginia Transportation Authority. Hunter’s department will develop recommendations how to prioritize its use.

Later this year, Community Development will initiate “small area plans” for Centerville and Courthouse Village—areas designated for residential growth—using final 2020 census data. This planning process will take about nine months to complete. It will include significant community engagement. Perhaps this will clarify where and why higher density residential development is appropriate and hopefully discourage it elsewhere in the county. Census data will also be used for the next update of the county’s comprehensive land use plan, which also guides development.

A new permitting system for online permit submission, permit status updates, and scheduling and results of inspections will be implemented in the next few months. The new system will also accept credit card payments, further simplifying the permitting process.

Hunter expects the county’s subdivision ordinance rewrite will be complete next summer. Zoning digitization is also in process. This will allow citizens to view all proffers and conditions pertaining to parcels of land online as a “layer” in the county’s GIS system.

Environmental and Sediment Control is also part of community development to ensure that construction does not have a negative impact on our water shed. They work with the Monacan Soil and Water Conservation District and the Department of Environmental Quality. New flood mapping from FEMA is in the works. Hunter expects this will increase the amount of land in flood plains and will also include citizen input before adoption by the supervisors.

That the many parts of Community Development move together to benefit of Goochland does not happen by accident but is the result of hard work and constructive collaboration by many people.