Town Center West - What Happened?

Town Center West was supposed to be open for business in "Summer 2007" but this attractive retail development, right next to the mall, is deader than a doornail! Have developers miscalculated?

The only business operating is a very lonely hair salon. On either side of the street, it's a ghost town. The sky-high rent must be scaring off some potential tenants, but if this prime piece of real estate is struggling, how much better can the prospects for business be two miles to the west?

Meet Will Shaw Monday Night

MEET THE CANDIDATE

MONDAY, OCT. 29 7:00-9:00 PM
GOOCHLAND LIBRARY, GOOCHLAND

WILL SHAW
CANDIDATE FOR HOUSE OF DELEGATES

This is an opportunity to meet the Democratic candidate for the 56th District House of Delegates seat, Will Shaw. The 56th district includes all of Goochland County, all of Louisa County, and 8 precincts of western Henrico County.
Meet Will and hear where he stands on a variety of topics. Informal setting, questions & answers.

DEVELOPMENT? TRANSPORTATION? ENVIRONMENT? HEALTH CARE? TAXES? ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION?
EDUCATION? RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT?

Authorized by Will Shaw for Delegate
P.O. Box 244 Louisa, VA 23093 willfshaw@juno.com 540-832-3578

Vote for Bill Burnet In District 3

If you live in District 3 and are concerned about runaway development, Independent candidate Bill Burnet deserves your vote to serve on the Board of Supervisors. At Wednesday's Meet The Candidates event at Goochland High School, Burnet made a strong showing by demonstrating a clear understanding and vision for how our county should develop. A Mechanical Engineering graduate from Virginia Tech with an MBA from Carnegie Mellon, Burnet ran circles around the two other candidates in District 3. So far, Burnet is the only candidate to take us up on our offer to share his views on how to Keep Goochland Beautiful. Following is his essay:

The current pace of rapid residential development is on the verge of overwhelming our fragile infrastructure. The impacts that this residential development is having on the county is manifesting itself in myriad ways with symptoms becoming more and more apparent. The recent spurt in residential growth is already straining our county’s fragile infrastructure in our public schools, volunteer fire/rescue, sheriff’s department, county administration and roads. The county currently targets population growth of between 2-2.5% annually. In 2005, the county’s population growth was in excess of 5%, which is completely unsustainable going forward. As growth continues, it should be focused within the identified villages to help preserve open space in the surrounding rural area and we must ensure that our infrastructure is adequately funded to keep pace with the growth that the county is experiencing. This is exactly why we need to diversify our tax base, to help fund the county’s growing infrastructure needs while subsidizing the impact on county taxpayers and allowing for the purchase of open space to preserve the county’s rural character.

Evidence of the strain of residential growth and its impacts are readily evident with our volunteer fire/rescue already filling gaps in volunteer staffing coverage with contract EMS support during the day and on some nights/weekends where staffing shortages may jeopardize public safety. I believe that career fire/rescue will be required in the future (this is not a question of if but a question of when). This must be done delicately so as to ensure that the volunteers are not “run off” as they are the lifeblood on the firehouses around the county and must be kept in the fold. I believe that the county should pursue a hybrid staffing model where we augment our volunteer staff with career fire/rescue employees to ensure adequate staffing, reduce response times and ensure that all calls are answered. Our sheriff’s department is also being stressed by the continued growth and increased traffic that occurred with the opening of 288 through West Creek. Increased traffic from 288 having opened is causing increasing numbers of accidents requiring a deputy to respond.

The impacts that the residential development is having on our roads is a public safety risk. Our board says that public safety is their number one priority; however they continue to allow new cuts to be made in our roads without ensuring the safe flow of traffic by not requiring left and right turn lanes at these cuts from developers. I will ensure that any new developments protect the current and future residents of the county by ensuring that both left and right turn lanes are built when new entrances/cuts are made in our roads. I would point to “The Parke at Centerville” (Hockett Road, Rte 623, ~0.5 miles south of Broad Street) as the gold standard in providing both left & right turn lanes as well as a bike lane when constructing the entrance to the new subdivision. I would point to Bridgewater East and West as something significantly less than that (Route 250 ~1.5 miles west of Fairground Road). In this case, only a right turn lane was required for westbound US 250 traffic at the East entrance, and no turn lanes were required for Bridgewater West. Both of these cuts occur in a 55 mph zone near the bottom of a very large hill around a significant, blind curve. This is a public safety nightmare waiting to happen, and it was approved by our current Board.

To preserve the county’s rural character and open space under the onslaught of residential development, the county needs to be acquiring tracts of open land throughout the county (note that the Board of Supervisors currently sets aside $0.01 of the tax rate annually for land acquisition, yet has not announced a single purchase to date). In addition, the county needs to do everything that it can to help the farmers and agricultural producers preserve their land for agricultural production. Once that land is developed it will never become open space again. The “land use” taxation category is one means to help farmers pay a much lower tax rate on their agricultural lands and should be continued. If these lands were taxed at the normal “land” tax rate, the large tax bill could immediately force these farmers to sell their land to developers. The use of preservation easements and land trusts should be encouraged by the county to further help preserve open space through preferential tax treatment while maintaining right of agricultural use of the land. Without agricultural production in the county, Goochland will lose one of the major components of its rural character as well as significant chunks of open space and that would be a terrible shame.

In conclusion, the rapid residential development is on the verge of overwhelming our fragile infrastructure. Without swift and significant action, the unfunded service needs from all of this residential construction will be left to be paid for by all of the county’s residents in the form of rapidly escalating tax bills and further deteriorating infrastructure. To combat this, the county must diversify its tax base to become less reliant upon residential real estate tax revenue and personal property taxes by bringing additional business and commercial tax base to the county.

Bill Burnet
Candidate for Goochland County Board of Supervisors, District 3
http://www.voteburnet.com/
voteburnet@comcast.net

Down The Stretch They Come!

This is getting good! Growth and taxes dominated the discussion tonight as voters had a chance to "Meet The Candidates" at Goochland High School, and once again the slugfest between Pat Turner (upper left) and Jim Eads (right) in District 5 grabbed the spotlight. No doubt sensing that he's in trouble, incumbent Eads went on the attack. "I don't believe anybody should come in from outside Goochland County and tell us how to develop it," an obvious referral to Turner being a real estate appraiser. But the challenger hit back hard, noting that he found it amusing for Eads to criticize him when "I know of no residential development he (Eads) has stopped in the last five years." Turner seemed to be challening Eads when he announced that "I am the only candidate to publicly state I will vote against any rezoning application before infrastructure is in place."

Eads never responded, but spoke in general terms about his growth philosophy, noting that "Goochland is the envy of the entire metro area. From the time I was elected eight years ago, my motivation has been to keep people outside from developing Goochland County they way they want to develop it." Eads had no specifics to offer on exactly what he will or will not do to control growth.

The eight year incumbent is in the unusual position of having to attack a political newcomer running as an independent. If Eads was smart he would match Turner's bold pledge to reject rezoning requests with insufficient infrastructure (i.e., Satterwhites strip mall), but he seems to be playing it safe by not making any promises he can't keep.

Meanwhile Turner has the guts to say he would actually "shrink" the scale of the frequently debated "villages." Now, I don't know whether that's a good idea or not, but I give Turner credit for being honest, and based on many conversations I've had throughout the county, honesty is not something the current Board of Supervisors is known for. If I lived in District 5, I would be voting for Pat Turner.

Only two other candidates focused on growth during their opening remarks: Kathy Crockett, running as a challenger in District 1, and challenger Bill Burnet in District 3.

Crockett spoke eloquently about the passion she has for Goochland, noting that growth "is what this election is all about." Crockett acknowledged that development is coming whether we like or not, but "we can't let it outpace infrastructure." "I love the character of this county, but once it's gone, it's gone forever and the way things have been going, we're losing it." I may have missed it, but District 1 incumbent Andrew Pryor had little to say about growth.

Bill Burnet is an independent candidate in District 3 who no one had ever heard of until recently, but after an impressive performance tonight, Mr. Burnet served notice that he is no lightweight. With a mechanical engineering degree from Virginia Tech and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon, you could say the thirtysomething Burnet represents "new" Goochland. He's only lived here four years, but clearly has done his homework and delivered some of the most memorable lines of the night. "I believe the current Board of Supervisors is out of touch," said Burnet. He accused them of "rubber stamping" bad developments and charged that "everything that is great about living in Goochland is being threatened if changes are not made. If we foul it up, there's no do over!" Let's hope we haven't heard the last of this gentleman.

(posted by Jim Hale)

Important Public Meetings

Please spread the word about attending these important community events this week!

Comprehensive Plan "Discussion" With The Goochland Business Community

Tuesday, October 23rd

10:00 AM

Redeemer Assembly of God Church

1700 Cardwell Road (Crozier)

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Candidates Night Forum

Wednesday, October 24th

6:00 - 9:00 PM

Goochland High School

Candidates for the Board of Supervisors will participate between 7:00 - 8:30 PM

Why I Am A Republican Protester

" A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardship—especially of the natural world—is not fundamentally conservative. "

-Rod Dreher

Those who knew me ten years ago as a conservative political firebrand would get quite a chuckle upon learning that I am now working on a grassroots effort to fight suburban sprawl! Before moving to Goochland two years ago, I worked five years in Washington on some highly controversial and emotionally charged issues. I was worn out and had no interest at all in becoming politically involved locally. But reading Rod Dreher's book "Crunchy Cons" opened my eyes to some things about my political past that forced me to examine my motives and stated beliefs in a radically different way. Dreher is a committed conservative who found himself increasingly at odds with the form of conservatism that had come to dominate national politics. Dreher realized that he was a "crunchy conservative" (read article):

"In the crunchy-con view, right-wing indifference to natural beauty extends to the man-made world. Today's conservatives don't say enough about the importance of aesthetic standards. Ugly suburban architecture, lousy food, chain restaurants, bad beer, and scorn for the arts are defended by many rank-and-file Republicans as signs of populist authenticity, as opposed to the "elitist" notion that aesthetics matter. In previous generations, it was taken for granted among conservatives that cultivating taste was a worthwhile, even necessary pursuit in building civilization. Nowadays, talking like that in front of a number of right-wingers will get you denounced as a snob."

What is surprsing to me is how many of my longtime conservative friends agree with Dreher at varying levels. Only one of my friends has accused me of "going wobbly." Indeed Dreher has been written off by some for being a traitor, but this stuff really hit home with me:

"A child who grows up in a neighborhood built for human beings, not cars, may think of man's relation to his world differently from one raised amid the throwaway utilitarianism of strip-mall architecture. One's sensitivity to and desire for beauty, and its edifying qualities of order, harmony, "sweetness and light," has consequences for the character of individuals and ultimately for civilization. It's perilous to forget that."

I challenge all conservatives to think about this, especially politically conservative Christians. We need to think about what God meant when He gave us dominion over all the earth and pray about what it means to us and our children.

(posted by Jim Hale)

VDOT Says No Traffic Light Planned for 621

Contrary to public statements made by District 4 Supervisor Rudy Butler, the Virginia Department of Transporation (VDOT) confirms that there are no plans to install a traffic light at the corner of Manakin Road (621) and Broad Street. On several occasions in the past two years, I've heard Mr. Butler say that VDOT was planning to install a light, and to flatten the notorious hill on Broad Street, just west of Satterwhite's Restaurant. Neither is true.

I sent an email to VDOT last week requesting information on exactly what is planned and received a very courteous response from Public Relations Manager Dawn Eischen the next day:

"Thank you for contacting us to try to clear up some of the confusion. I imagine your Web site will be a useful communication tool, especially when we start making improvements to Broad Street in Goochland.

We had a design public hearing for the Broad Street widening project on Nov. 29, 2006. Our chief engineer approved the design in May 2007 with the following modifications to the initial design:"

• Installation of OPTI-COM lighting system (provide by Goochland County) for emergency operations at the Centerville Fire Department; and



• Installation of a westbound left turn in at the approximate mid point between Route 621 and the fire department.

Here is what was originally posted on the VDOT website last December (read entire page here):

The section of Broad Street from about one-quarter mile west of the intersection with Manakin Road (Route 621) to one-tenth mile east of the intersection with Hockett Road (Route 623) will be improved and widened to a four-lane divided highway.

So, the bottom line is that NO traffic light is part of the plan! How could the county even consider a shopping center for the already busy and dangerous intersection of 621 and Broad Street?

Widening Broad Street without a traffic light could actually make things more dangerous because now you will have to cross two lanes of traffic when turning left onto Broad. With the addition of a busy shopping center behind Satterwhite's adding hundreds of more cars into the daily mix, this would be insane!

Today Project Manager Emily Peter called to let me know that plans could change and a traffic light could become part of the plan if the county advises VDOT of an increase in traffic volume. But this project is not even scheduled to begin until Spring 2009, and an eventual traffic light would no doubt come long after the opening of a new shopping center.

This adds up to a significant public safety issue for thousands of Goochland County residents. Voters should demand that all candidates for the Board of Supervisors pledge to ensure that safety considerations will take priority over generating tax revenue by allowing land to be rezoned for commercial development. To make it simple, a light must already be in place before any more land on Broad Street is developed commercially.

(posted by Jim Hale)