HOW SHALL WE GROW?

Make no mistake. Growth is the most urgent issue for the 20-thousand citizens of Goochland County as witnessed by the standing-room-only crowd that packed into the Goochland Library on Wednesday night. This outstanding event, organized by Concerned Citizens with Goochland's Growth, brought Board of Supervisor candidates in Districts 3,4 and 5 before the voters to address all issues pertaining to residential and commercial development. For more than three hours, candidates made appeals for votes, answered tough questions, and (best of all) had to listen to a comment period where those in attendance were allowed to speak out without a response from the candidates.

Undoubtedly the most heated, competitive and expensive race is in District 5, where incumbent Jim Eads is trying to fend off a strong challenge from Pat Turner. Looking relaxed and confident, Eads tried to assure the growth conscience crowd that his criteria for assessing development will be, "Does it enhance the health, safety and welfare of the county?" He said he "wanted to reflect the will of the people" and that he "absolutely" supports the comprehensive plan (see here), stating that the "comprehensive plan will be your plan" (referring to the updated version soon-to-be released). It was disappointing that Eads admitted he was not even aware of the planned development behind Satterwhites Restaurant. Eads said he believes that infrastructure should be in place before commercial development goes ahead in "Centerville Village." He agreed that traffic at Broad Street and Manakin Road is a safety hazard, but made no assurances that improvements would be made before the planned strip mall project moves forward. There's an obvious problem here and it's a big one. Traffic at the intersection of Broad and Manakin Road is already dangerous and will become a serious public safety problem when you add hundreds of more cars coming and going. So, how can the Board of Supervisors even consider giving the green light to such a project before a traffic light is installed and other improvements are made? VDOT says it won't get around to fixing things until 2009. Eads needs to shoot straight and let us know - does that "infrastructure" he says is so important include traffic? Will the roads be fixed and a light be in place before the Satterwhites development goes ahead?

Perhaps the most interesting candidate is Pat Turner, who began his professional career as the county real estate appraiser in Chesterfield some thirty years ago. Realizing he was speaking before a highly skeptical audience given his current occupation as a private real estate appraiser, Turner demonstrated considerable charm in making a case for his 35 years of experience being an advantage. "I know good development from bad development," said Turner. The challenger discussed the need to generate more tax revenue from business, estimating that Goochland's residents likely provide more than 90% of the tax base. Turner's campaign message seems to be that growth is both inevitable and needed, and he is the guy who will provide leadership to make sure that growth is done smartly. He bluntly stated that he believes the comprehensive plan has already been taken off the table, and suggested that the "village concept" is antiquated, based on his discussions with those who conceived it in the first place. It was a good performance by someone who's never run for public office and Turner comes across as refreshingly honest, but he's going to have an uphill battle convincing District 5 voters that he's not going to do the bidding of developers. If Mr. Turner wants to dump the whole village thing, he had better come up with a good alternative and spell it out - fast! Those blue water and sewage pipes are sitting in front of Food Lion right now.

The only real fireworks of the evening erupted when District 4 Supervisor Rudy Butler charged to the podium and came out swinging to defend himself against yours truly, for questioning his oft-quoted pledge to Keep Goochland Rural, and his inaction in responding to the building of the Peace Palace. Although he is the only candidate running unopposed, Rudy was fired up and feisty. He said that it was the duty of the citizens to check the comprehensive plan to see how the land surrounding them is zoned before they move in, therefore we shouldn't complain when the bulldozers get going if it's zoned commercial. Well......the comprehensive plan calls for something called "Centerville Village," which doesn't sound anything like the strip mall plans behind Satterwhites Restaurant that were unveiled last week!

These candidates all need to get a grip on the exact definition of exactly what a "village" is. The big question for now is, how can you develop an aesthically pleasing "village," complete with streetlights, sidewalks, outdoor dining (not fast-food!), and cleanliness, while rezoning property within "village" bounds down to B-1.

B-1 is the least restrictive of all commercial zoning and the list for approved businesses under B-1 is very long. We're talking everything from fast-food joints, Walgreen-type drug stores (so long Gunn's Pharmacy), office spaces (Karate anyone?)....a serious case of hodge-podge. Thrown in a big ole nasty black-top parking lot, and there you have it, a STRIP MALL!

These guys wince at the sound of strip mall, and well they should. Every candidate bent over backwards to reassure us how valuable and vital our input is. We will soon see if they are listening or just pandering before an election.

Our thanks to Citizens Concerned for Goochland Growth for staging this important event. Candidates in Districts 1 and 2 have their turn on October 3rd.

(posted by Jim Hale)