The sky is not falling

 

The county logo, industry and agriculture

In the month or so since Goochland County proposed changes to county code and its comprehensive land use plan to help attract high revenue tech companies to the designated growth area, mostly the West Creek business park that hugs the border with Henrico from Rt. 6 to Broad Street Road, a firestorm has erupted.  Residents of Readers Branch, a relatively new subdivision on Hockett Road, for instance, seemed to believe that a data center was on the verge being built in West Creek south of their neighborhood. There is no truth to this rumor.

(Go to https://www.goochlandva.us/1408/Technology-Overlay-District-Technology-Z for details.)

Goochland County needs significant commercial revenue to bolster its tax base, which largely dependent on real estate taxes. The goal is to achieve a 70/30 split between residential and commercial taxes. Currently, the ratio is closer to 80/20 and slipping backwards. People complain bitterly when their tax bills go up due to rising assessments but want no commercial investment. The money must come from somewhere to pay the bills.

The internet—whose existence and ubiquity drive the need for data centers—is awash with horror stories of places overrun with enormous data centers built a stone’s throw from existing neighborhoods replete with ugly photos of anonymous buildings marching over the landscape.

Data centers have been a by-right—essentially prezoned—use in West Creek for several years. Without changes to existing regulations, a data center 80 feet high could be built, if equipped with a fire suppression system, 500 feet from land zoned for residential use. A football field is 360 feet long.

Adding a technology overlay district (TOD) and technology zone (TD) allows the county to offer incentives to attract desperately needed commercial investment in the county and strengthen existing zoning regulation for setbacks, landscape buffers, and design standards to ensure greater compatibility with nearby homes.

Provisions of the proposals, including by right building heights up to 120 feet, depth of setbacks from adjacent residential properties, lack of clear mechanisms for enforcement or consequences of violation of noise regulations, and no public input or supervisor oversight for placement of large buildings, raised red flags for citizens.

The county held a community meeting on July 7 (See GOMM “In search of a bigger worm”) to present the TOD and TZ. Although the boardroom was filled for that meeting, many complained that it was poorly advertised.

On Monday August 4, County Administrator Dr. Jeremy Raley, Ed.D.; Assistant Director of Community Development Ray Cash; and Director of Economic Development Sara Worley met with some residents of Readers Branch, Mosaic, and the Citizens Planning Committee to discuss the initiative.

Raley began the meeting by announcing that the TOD/TD amendments, originally scheduled for review at the Planning Commission’s August 21 meeting, would be postponed to the September 18 meeting to allow more time to gather citizen input and perhaps modify the TOD/TZ.

He also said that a second community meeting on the topic will be held in the next few weeks. Notice of this session will be mailed, advertised on social media, the county website https://www.goochlandva.us/  and distributed through other mechanisms to get the word out. The community meeting will also be livestreamed and archived on the county website for those unable to attend in person. This was done in response to sentiments that the proposals were being “rushed” into approval without adequate time for citizen input and thorough investigation of the long-term impact of unintended consequences. This postponement will allow the county to dispel misinformation and address legitimate concerns about the TOD/TZ.

Continuing and extending by right approval for uses, including data centers and bio tech manufacturing, which are new to the county, were high on the list of objections. Mandating approval by elected officials to ensure that these uses are properly sited to protect residential enclaves and scaled appropriate to the area was high on the list of requested changes to the proposals.

Allowing by right, rather than requiring conditional use permits for heights up to 120 feet was also a major concern for its impact on the viewshed. Insight into the rationale that included this in the TOD/TZ is needed to help citizens understand the proposals.

Noise, as currently drafted, the TOD/TZ set 65 decibels as the maximum permitted sound level. There are no details as to how, when, and by whom sound levels would be measured and violations enforced with meaningful consequences in addition to more stringent controls on backup generator testing noise.

During citizen comment at the start of the evening session of the August 5 board meeting, many residents, mostly from Readers Branch, made their feelings known and the TOD/TZ. Some of their comments were on point, others unfounded at best.

First of all, West Creek is not a nature preserve, or a mixed-use residential enclave. It was created in the 1980s to be the economic engine to generate business tax revenue Goochland and allow the rest of the county to remain rural. A Motorola chip plant was planned for West Creek Parkway, near the current Striker Soccer facility. Only parking lots were built before the chip operations moved offshore. The site is being marketed. The building on West Creek Parkway that housed the Federal Reserve, which did not pay real estate tax, has been vacant for some time and is currently for sale.

The notion that industrial uses in West Creek, most of which is zoned M-1 and has been for decades, should not be allowed is wrong. If the other requirements for data centers, like water and power are in reasonable proximity, the east side of Rt. 288 would seem to be an ideal place to put them. Traffic noise is about 70 decibels, higher than permitted by the TOD/TZ.

We do not know how many sites in the proposed TOD/TZ could support a data center. Aside from the need for water—the Tuckahoe Creek Service District has a 25 MILLION gallons per day allocation and uses about 5 million gpd—and power, which could be supplied by Dominion or turbines tapping into existing natural gas lines, seismic challenges from blasting at rock quarries to the north and south limit suitable locations. More clarity about this is needed.

Bio tech research and development and advanced manufacturing using 3D printing techniques are also by right uses.

Remarks made by some new residents suggest they performed little due diligence on the area before moving here. They naively believe that, despite the Hockett Road corridor and West Creek being the county’s designated growth area, they moved to a rural area and are surprised and outraged to learn that there will be robust commercial development nearby.

Kudos to the county for allowing more time to gather and evaluate meaningful feedback on the TOD/TZ proposals and dispel the bizarre rumors floating around.