The latest episode in the ongoing local saga titled “No one
told me” unfolded during the April 18 meeting of the Goochland Board of
Supervisors.
Despite a wealth of information easily accessible on the
internet, newcomers rarely look beyond the carefully crafted narrative of
builders, realtors, and developers whose only goal is to sell homes.
Spending an hour or so reading the county comprehensive land
use plan, which shows the location of planned development, could avoid
heartburn for all involved. People who have lived in the county for a minute
and did no research before they moved here, arrogantly claim to know better how
to run Goochland than those in charge.
At issue on April 18 was a rezoning application for five
acres on the east side of Hockett Road north of its intersection with Tuckahoe
Creek Parkway, part of the county’s designated growth area. The parcel was
given to the county by West Creek as part of a 2012 proffer amendment. The
county sought to rezone the property from West Creek’s M-1 zoning, which
permits fire-rescue stations by right, to B-1 to remove business park proffer restrictions.
Supervisors voted 4-1 to approve the rezoning application with District 3
Supervisor John Lumpkins in dissent.
The property surrounding the site, approximately 414 acres,
much of which fronts Hockett Road, also part of West Creek, will be developed
regardless of what happens with the fire-rescue station. It is beyond naïve to expect
that property here will remain open land.
The parcel in question was selected in 2019 by the county
for a fire-rescue station, only the second owned by the county. Centerville
Company 3 and Manakin Company 1, which are owned by the Goochland Volunteer
Fire-Rescue Association, Inc., were built long before I64 and Rt. 288 existed.
Residents of Kinloch Villas, an upscale residential enclave
on the west side of Hockett Road, don’t want a fire-rescue station in their
backyard. Fair enough. Several of its residents consulted with staff and put
together a presentation opposing the station.
They claimed to be unaware that a fire-rescue station was
planned across the road from their new homes and objected to its location. The
noted that Hockett Road, one of the few north south collector roads in eastern
Goochland, is narrow, winding, and already has too much traffic. This will not
change. Emergency vehicles currently use this road on a regular basis and will
continue to do so regardless of a potential new station there. Had the West
Creek Emergency Center remained open and expanded into a full-service hospital
as originally intended, sirens would have filled the air, and ambulances would
have travelled Hockett Road.
Lack of transparency in the site selection process, which
would probably not have troubled Villas residents had the location been
anywhere else, was also used to condemn the proposed location.
Some Villas residents reported that they had experienced
quick response times and were pleased with their experience with Goochland
Fire-Rescue. These remarks were cited to support the contention that there is ample
fire-rescue coverage in eastern Goochland.
Using Georgetown, Texas, whose residential growth rate is
higher than that of Goochland, a speaker accused the supervisors of wasting
taxpayer dollars for even considering this facility. Curiously, he did not
object to the $15 million increase in the cost of the new elementary school, or
its location.
Georgetown, Texas, north of Austin, is about 59 square miles
in area compared to Goochland’s approximately 290 square miles. Georgetown is
laid out in a grid pattern, which provides many alternate routes should a road
be blocked. Goochland is long, narrow, and roughly hatchet-shaped, with
relatively few roads. The distance from Randolph Square in the far southeastern
part of the county to Shannon Hill, at the far north west, is at least 35 miles
with very few road options for the trip. Complicated wrecks on I64, which are
becoming more common, often divert traffic to Broad Street Road for hours,
making moving around the county even more challenging.
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Georgetown, Texas grid layout (Google Earth image) |
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Goochland County main roads |
Unlike Virginia, where you are either in a city or county,
in Texas, cities are inside counties. The city of Georgetown seems to have only
three rescue squads in its seven fire houses. Williamson County, which
encompasses Georgetown, has 18 “frontline ambulance units” and ten back ups.
There is a hospital with a level 1 trauma center and free-standing emergency
room right in Georgetown.
Only 17.7 percent of Georgetown’s population is over 65. In
Goochland, that number is 23.4 percent and growing daily.
A Villas resident snarked that predicted county growth would
not fill a decent sized lecture hall at UVa. He was unaware that in the next
year or so, at least 1,000 people over the age of 55—the demographic most
likely to need EMS—will move within a few miles of the Villas. This does not
include Avery Point. Indeed, new residents in Goochland, and those already
here, skew older.
Duration of EMS calls—the bulk of fire-rescue “business”—varies
widely. Ideally, an ambulance arrives at a patient’s location soon after a 911
call is placed. The patient is stabilized, loaded into the ambulance, and
transported to an area hospital or even the Short Pump Emergency Center, which
is closer. After dropping off the patient, the ambulance returns to its
quarters ready for the next call. This does not always happen. During the Covid
emergency, for instance, a lengthy decontamination process was performed after
each call, removing that unit from service.
Goochland ambulances transport patients to medical
facilities throughout Central Virginia, including VCU in Richmond, UVa in
Charlottesville, and the Barfoot Veterans’ Hospital in south Richmond, so the time
that an ambulance is out of the county and unavailable to answer calls varies
widely. Goochland currently has nine ambulances, two each are assigned to
Centerville and Manakin, another is on order. There may not always be enough personnel
on duty to staff all units.
Suggestions were made that existing Companies 1 and 3 be
enhanced to handle increased call volume. Ferguson explained that when those
stations were built, Goochland was all volunteer organization, whose members typically
responded to calls from their homes.
Now, we have 24/7 career providers, whose working conditions
are subject to OSHA regulations. This requires more space per employee, and upgrades
in station air handling to remove diesel exhaust, a carcinogen. The sites of
company 3 and 1 are too small for meaningful expansion, though renovations to
improve their usefulness in the short term are under way.
This year’s county budget process included discussion about
recruitment and retention of fire-rescue personnel and resulted in salary
increases. Goochland competes with neighboring counties for employees. In
addition to salary candidates evaluate working conditions.
A suggestion to sell the Company 3 site, which the county
does not own, and use the proceeds to build a new station, has some merit. Nearby
parcels have been on the market for so long that their for-sale signs are
fading so this would not be a quick fix.
Following a 2021 bond referendum that specifically mentioned
construction of a West Creek fire-rescue station, which was approved by 85
percent of county voters, Goochland issued general obligation bonds in early
2022 for this purpose. What happens to the bond proceeds if that money is not
used to build a West Creek station? Goochland is paying interest on the bonds.
Would the county face arbitrage penalties if the bond proceeds are not used for
the purpose intended?
As Fire-Rescue Chief D. E. “Eddie” Ferguson explained, his
agency deals with all hazards. A major wreck on either, or possibly both, I64
and Rt. 288, could tie up several ambulance crews for extended periods.
Ferguson said that at current staffing levels, Companies 1
and 3 can handle one, maybe two calls at a time for the 10,000 people who live
in Districts 4 and 5 and thousands more come here to work, as well as thousands
more passing through on I64 and Rt.288.
Expected growth, commercial, more than residential, could
easily generate enough emergency calls to totally occupy Company 3 in the Broad
Street Road corridor and Company 1 in the Rt. 6 corridor, especially when the
southern prime economic development area (SPEDA) builds out in the next few
years. This would leave those in the middle, including all of Kinloch, Broad
Run, and other nearby residents, with fewer resources to respond to their calls.
The objection about the rezoning application that seemed to
have most resonated with Lumpkins, was the adequacy of the site—is five acres
too small for eventual expansion? He suggested that the county investigate the
purchase of more land from West Creek—the five acres is part of a larger parcel—to
perhaps move the facility back from Hockett Road.
Approval of the rezoning application paves the way for
detailed engineering of the site to proceed. A final plan of development will
come back to the supervisors for approval, after which they will need to
appropriate funds for construction.
The county cannot compel homebuyers to thoroughly
investigate their new surroundings, but newcomers should not be rewarded for
their ignorance.