Rules of the road

 

Goochland is at the mercy of VDOT when it comes to transportation. Many of our roads follow ridges, wagon trails, and other ancient routes. However, the county can impose development standards more stringent than those of VDOT, including turn lanes and rights-of-way dedication during the rezoning process.

For the past few months, the county has been working to update the access management provisions of the zoning and subdivision ordinances to create consistency between ordinances and planned roads to improve safety. Ray Cash, Assistant Director of Community Development, said that the proposed changes will protect improvements for future road expansion and be consistent with the major thoroughfare plan, which was last updated in 2018. (Go to the county website goochlandva.us, click on the transportation tab and scroll to the 2040 major thoroughfare plan for details)

 As presented, the proposed ordinance amendments include standardization of road access for commercial property and alley ways for townhomes. There are also provisions requiring subdivisions that abut arterial roads to have an internal access road that connects with the arterial road to eliminate driveway access onto arterial roads. Ultimate rights-of-way should be determined during zoning to ensure that setbacks are determined early on to protect the investment of all involved.

A connectivity provision requires proposed subdivisions to include “stubs” to coordinate with existing, proposed, and planned streets outside the subdivision. These “stub outs” to the edge of a subdivision may be truncated with a temporary turn around. This stub feature was a bone of contention for a recent rezoning at the edge of Courthouse Village because it suggested that the higher development density permitted inside the village could ooze out into rural enhancement areas voiding sprawl preventative measure of the “village concept”. This stubbing seems to reinforce the sloshing of traffic from one subdivision to another as with the proposed Highfield on Rockville Road, which proposes a single access point for more than 100 homes on Rockville Road using connections to internal roads in the Phase II of Tuckahoe Bridge as its “second” access point increasing traffic volume of residential streets.

Cash mentioned recent improvements made to Whippoorwill Road in Centerville when it was designated as a connector road between Readers Branch and Broad Street Road over the objections of longtime residents.

Last fall, action on the ordinance amendment was deferred until March 5, at which time the “new board” held a public hearing on the proposed changes.

Proposed amendments include mandating left and right turn lanes for all major—five or more lots—subdivisions and right-of-way dedication to accommodate future road widening. Currently, the supervisors can impose left turn lanes for specific projects even if they are not required by VDOT or waive the requirement should they deem them not necessary. Turn lanes increase safety and development cost. Everyone can probably identify a few areas where turn lanes would improve existing road conditions.

There are provisions for private roads in mixed use development, buffer requirements, sidewalks, and road construction standards.

The proposed amendments included were crafted with input from the development community, which seem to have objected to the expense of building left turn lanes not mandated by VDOT. Cash said that the proposal is a balance between what the development community wanted and previous county policy. This is tricky. While all development in the county is funded by private sector investment, care must be taken to avoid unintended consequences that make it less burdensome for developers to build here but allow the county to reject proposed roads that could exacerbate or create traffic problems.

Other provisions mandated “spine” roads for subdivisions with more than 200 homes. (Does this, pardon the expression, pave the way for more huge Long Islandy residential enclaves?) A spine road allows the free flow of traffic through a subdivision but is not directly accessed by homes, increasing safety. Alluding to the main drag in Mosaic, which has many driveways, Cash said it is too narrow accommodate on street parking, which impedes access by emergency vehicles. The expectation was that Mosaic residents would either garage their cars, or park in the driveway, this has not been the case, resulting in heartburn.

Spine roads (yellow line) improve traffic flow and safety through subdivisions

Driveways along main drag decrease safety

Exactly when the new provisions would take effect was a point of concern for the supervisors after a developer contended that this would amount to changing the rules in midstream for projects well along in the development process. The developer also contended that more turn lanes increase non-permeable surface, which could exacerbate erosion issues.

Cash explained that land use regulations, like those regarding stormwater management, often change after approval of a project and that new rules apply at time of development.

There are quite a few approved subdivisions in the county that have been on the books for years but never developed. Requiring these to meet all current development standards is reasonable. Grandfathering active projects that have submitted plans of development also seems reasonable. Concerns that if the proposed changed were made effective on say, July 1, developers would rush to get projects in “under the wire” to avoid having to comply.

The board voted to defer a vote on the matter until its May 7 meeting at which time they will review the number of projects “in the pipeline” that will be affected by the changes.