In the pipeline

 

The first step in any land use change in Goochland is a community meeting. These sessions are run by the entity seeking the change, referred to as the applicant, to explain the proposed project and gather input from the community. Applicants often tweak proposals using feedback from these sessions to improve their chances of approval by the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, which has the final say.

Three community meetings were held in recent weeks, all for proposed projects east of Manakin Road in or near the Centerville Village. Robust attendance at all of these indicates that a proposed change to county policy to eliminate community meetings should be scrapped.

Honda Store

A meeting held on February 27 involved a proposal for a Honda dealership on land on the south side of Broad Street Road bordering the Henrico County line. Joey Huang of Ohio, who owns and operates Honda stores in the Midwest, explained that he was awarded this dealership by Honda as the result of a nationwide competition. The proposed dealership, said Huang, will be the first of a new prototype on the east coast and contended that it will comply fully with the Centerville overlay district rules, including dark sky provisions, and be a tasteful addition to Goochland’s  gateway corridor.

Proposed Honda store

On property zoned in 2015 for a memory care facility that was never built, the site plan includes an approximately 30K square foot dealership sales and service structure and a multistory parking structure at the rear of the property to store vehicle inventory. As the land falls off to the back, the visual impact of this structure on Broad Street Road will be minimal.

The dealership is expected to bring 50 to 60 jobs to the county and a capital investment of more than $20 million. The property is in the Tuckahoe Creek Service District and will pay ad valorem tax.

One attendee observed that the size of the subject parcel would be a “tight fit” for the dealership. Part of the parcel includes a county pump station and some wetlands.

As the paved median on Broad Street Road prohibits left turns, the dealership would be accessed by right turns only. This raised concerns about how large car carrier vehicles exiting the property could go left to return to Rt. 288 and access large fire-rescue apparatus.

Huang said that Honda expects to offer more electric vehicles in coming years. Concerns about fire suppression for electric vehicles stored in the parking structure were also raised. Fires in electric vehicles can be very hard to extinguish.  Huang indicated that the parking structure would be equipped with systems to address this issue.

Barring obstacles, this application could be on the May Planning Commission agenda, move on to the Board of Supervisors for approval by June. If all goes well, Huang anticipated completion near the end of 2024.

 

Medical Office Building

On March 14, a meeting for a proposed medical office building on 3.26 acres, currently zoned R-3 on the south side of Broad Street Road, just west of the southbound ramp to Rt. 288 was held. Again, attendance was robust. The applicant requests rezoning to B-1 with proffered conditions.

Applicant Dr. Harpreet Grewal proposes to build an approximately 33K square foot two story medical office building on the site. Access to the parcel would be through the existing road to the Gardener Nursey, which is located south of the subject property.

One floor of the building will be occupied by Grewal’s cardiology practice, the second would be leased to other doctors.

Nearby homeowners expressed traffic concerns. Residents of Bellview Gardens, on the opposite side of Broad Street Road, contended that turning on to Rt 250 is already treacherous as drivers exceed the 45mph speed limit. The recent addition of medical offices at the entrance to their subdivision worsened existing safety issues. They advocated for signalization of the intersection or accessing the property from an adjoining parcel.

Operators of the nursery contended that the proposed project would interfere with deliveries being made to their business by tractor trailers on the existing somewhat narrow access road.

This property is in the Tuckahoe Creek Service District and will pay ad valorem tax.

Another warehouse project on Ashland Road

On March 21, citizens filled the meeting room at St. Matthew’s Church to learn about a proposal for a warehouse/office project at 2212 Ashland Road. The site is a bit north of the “Project Rocky”. A pre-application filed by Crescent Communities to rezone 43.8 acres from A-2 to M-2 with proffered conditions to build two warehouse/office structures on about 30 acres of the subject parcel was the subject of this meeting.

The structures, one 181K square feet, the other 154K square feet, would be divided for use by multiple businesses into 25k to 50k square foot units. Having different users, explained the applicant, divides the investment risk. If rezoned, the property will be in the TCSD and pay ad valorem tax.

If approved by the Planning Commission and supervisors, the project would not be in operation before 2026.

An adjoining property owner said he was never contacted by the applicant about the project. He is worried about the negative impact from construction on his property, especially his well, which is near the property line.

The property is “under contract” and not yet sold. A representative of Crescent Communities said that the site was selected over West Creek because it was available from a “willing seller” at a certain price.

Preston Lloyd, the attorney representing Crescent Communities, explained that proximality of the Ashland Road corridor to I64 is attractive to warehouse operations. He contended that truck traffic generated by the proposed project would travel only between the site and I64 to the south.

As with any rezoning in Goochland, especially in the Ashland Road corridor, traffic impact raised the most ire. Before the meeting began, attendees swapped horror stories of how long it took them to navigate already snarled traffic on Ashland Road, north of Interstate 64.

A traffic engineer from the firm of Kimley Horn said that the proposed project would generate one tenth that of nearby Project Rocky and that its impact on Ashland Road traffic would be “minimal enough not to be noticed by drivers.” That comment produced a derisive reaction from citizens. The engineer said that  because additional traffic of about 60 vehicles per hour, is considered “almost  immeasurable”  it would not “move the needle enough” to require the applicant to chip in for the cost of the four lane diverging diamond over I64. The applicant offered to make whatever road improvements deemed necessary by the county and VDOT along its frontage on Ashland Road.

The assumptions used in the traffic analysis were conservative at the county’s request, said the Kimley Horn representative.

Level of service—how well a road operates—for a good portion of Ashland Road, which is poor and trending downward, was discussed.  Trucks, citizens contended, already run red lights in part because the large, heavy dump trucks that already travel these roads cannot stop on a dime.

The four lane diverging diamond at Ashland Road/I64, whose funding looks increasingly likely, will mitigate traffic issues in the area. Both the applicant and attendees seemed to agree on that. One gentleman pointed out that, even if the money is available tomorrow, it will take ten years to complete the work. In the meantime, traffic will get worse, made more dreadful by construction.

“Look at the people in this room,” he said of the group, which skewed older. “They’ll have to deal with miserable conditions maybe for the rest of their lives.”

The need for the project was attributed to greed by elected officials. One gentleman, who recently moved to Goochland, said he had attended the recent District 4 and 5 town hall. He learned there that the county budget was balanced and we had an excellent bond rating, so there is no need for economic development.

Other attendees said that the project is “nice” but not on Ashland Road. They contended that the human element of people who live and work in the area had not been taken into account.

Citizens wanted more details about buffers, tree save areas, and protection for Tuckahoe Creek and wildlife.

Another said that growth for the sake of growth is what a cancer cell does. Others contended that economic development will not add anything to the quality of life for Goochland residents.

Stay tuned to see how, or if, these projects move forward.