Results of
studies undertaken by consultant Hill Studio of Roanoke intended to update the
Goochland County Comprehensive Land Use Plan for Centerville and Courthouse
Village underwhelmed and confused citizens. The county paid Hill Studio $184,000 for their work.
At a joint
board of supervisors planning commission workshop on January 11, staff
indicated that they are going back to the drawing board to find the sweet spot in
permitted development density. This could be a positive indication that the small
area plans will be—at least somewhat—in line with community expectations.
The “branding”
piece of the consultants’ work has been discarded. This is a good thing. The proposed
logos and slogans for both Centerville and Courthouse were contrived at best
and a little silly. Centerville does have an identity issue. Too many people
refer to Centerville as Manakin because the Broad Street Road corridor has a
Manakin Sabot zip code. This cannot be remedied by the comp plan.
Following
comments that changes to the village plans presented by the consultants were
generic, staff will focus on making updates to the Comp Plan Goochland centric.
Adoption deadlines for the proposed updates have been pushed back to late
spring after more tweaking and community meetings to “get it right”.
Courthouse
and Centerville are two very different animals land use wise, though both face
growth pressures. It may be too early
for increasing interest rates to have significant impact on the local housing market,
which could ease the pace of local residential growth.
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| Centerville Village |
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| Courthouse Village |
Courthouse Village
has a “there there” with elements of a true village: government offices; churches;
a library; recreational outlets including parks and the YMCA; restaurants; shopping;
and some services.
Centerville directly
in the path of steamroller development from Short Pump is another story.
Indeed, the part of the Centerville Village—its
boundary is the Henrico county line—east of Rt. 288 is attitudinally
Short Pump.
Unlike
Courthouse Village, Centerville is more of a blank canvas, its open land privately
owned. To make the Centerville small area plan work well, there must be “buy in” from land owners.
So far in the process, input from these entities has been opaque. We don’t need
to know that landowner x wants to build Y on parcel Q, but it would be helpful
to get a generic overview of what might be built. Other than interest expressed
by a landowner just west of 288 to locate a car dealership there, and perhaps more
low slung medical offices like the new urology center, this has not happened.
Maybe that’s
because landowners want to carpet the Broad Street Road corridor with various
forms of high-density housing like the ghastly mess behind Aldi, over the Henrico line.
The big issue
in both villages is residential density, how many “dwelling units” per acre
should be allowed. Before Courthouse Village had public utilities—water and
sewer—its density was no more than one unit per acre, and that might have been stretching
it given local soil hydraulics. Availability of utilities changes everything.
It may be time to lower the minimum lot size but restrict the kind dwelling
units permitted. Small lots with modest homes could increase the density and
keep the village feel.
In
Centerville, high land costs probably make this unlikely.
Developers
develop to make a profit. That’s okay. The trick is to craft a comp plan vision
where development is both profitable and enhances the community.
A big
concern about growth is adding traffic to already overburdened roads. The
county’s major thoroughfare plan has lots of lines indicating future roads to
ease congestion. Trouble is, these roads never seem to get built when land
around them is developed. Case in point is “Road A” south of Broad Street Road near
Sammary Forest. When an expansion of Readers Branch needed another access point,
traffic was dumped on to Whippoorwill Road, a neighborhood street, instead of
building Road A.
Stay tuned
for the next iteration of these plans. In the meantime, go tohttps://www.goochlandva.us/1201/Goochland-County-Village-Plans-2022.
6 comments:
What a complete waste of time and money. How much was spent on this effort? Seems like there is a lack of vision for our County. Sad.
FYI - The outside cost for this effort should be available with a FOIA request.
According to the contract, Goochland County paid Hill Studio $184,000 for the small area plan studies.
Where’s the accountability on this? Wasting tax payer dollars. People should be paying attention.
I agree that the village branding and retail study was not successful. The draft future land use plans proposing more density are helpful. Future development opportunities should concentrate for now on areas where roads and utilities are already in place. Guidelines for architectural language for new construction and historic preservation along River Rd. at the Courthouse Village are needed. If it is done thoughtful Courthouse Village has potential.
Not successful? All of the above is common sense and could have been completed by staff without using high dollar consultants. Everyone knows development occurs along with infrastructure, i.e. roads and utilities. Lack of common sense. Welcome to the new Goochland.
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