Extending Powhite Parkway would spur more growth
By Greg Pearson STAFF WRITER

Page Dowdy/Chesterfield Observer Currently, the Powhite Parkway ends at its intersection with Charter Colony Parkway.

Extending the Powhite Parkway from its end at Charter Colony Parkway almost nine miles west to Route 360 would hasten both residential and commercial growth within a mile of the roadway's path. At build-out, it would add 22,662 homes and 10,842,618 square feet of retail and office space, reports a memo from Planning Director Kirk Turner to Midlothian Planning Commissioner Dan Gecker.

How long for build-out to occur is not known, but divided highways through rural areas hasten growth similar to what is occurring around the extension of Route 288 north of the Powhite Parkway. However, the growth rate would probably be slower since an extension of the Powhite Parkway would probably be a toll road. Even if the county wanted to extend the Powhite Parkway and if there was a willing builder for the extension, Turner estimated that it would take at least five years for the road to be built.

There are other impediments to growth. Almost all of the land surrounding the possible extension drains to the Swift Creek Reservoir. Next month, the county's environmental engineering department is scheduled to predict future levels of phosphorous runoff. Those predictions will be used to determine how much growth should be allowed in the Upper Swift Creek watershed. Chesterfield officials expect an even more stringent standard on runoff to be set by the state next year, which could further restrict growth. The goal is to preserve the manmade reservoir as a safe source of county drinking water.

Much of the area around the proposed Powhite extension is also without county water and sewer, which slows development. However, large developments have the means to bring the infrastructure to the area. For example, developer Lifestyle Homes of Norfolk, operating as Magnolia Green Development, LLC, will extend water and sewer about a mile along Woolridge Road and 1.5 miles along Route 360 during phase one of Magnolia Green. That rezoning requires public water and sewer, but passes undeveloped land that could connect to those lines.

"About half of the Powhite Parkway extension would go through Magnolia Green" where right-of-way is proffered to the county for the extension, said Bill Handley, county demographer.

"It's tough to forecast [when build-out might occur], but we're looking at the absorption rates," acknowledged Turner. "Hampton Park [in western Chesterfield] averaged about 80 sales per year and ranged from 15-110 [sales] per year."

Another factor is the real estate market. Chesterfield usually adds 2,500-3,000 new homes annually, but Handley expects about 350 fewer this year. Home sales have slowed down, said Handley. "The market works, and so there are fewer new homes coming on the market."

In 2003, Powhite Parkway Partners and Powhite Parkway West proposed using the Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995 to extend the Powhite Parkway as a toll road, intersecting Route 360 near Grange Hall Elementary School. In May 2004, then Transportation Director Philip Shucet returned their proposals, asking them to work more closely with the Richmond Metropolitan Authority (RMA).

The toll road proposals, according to several Chesterfield leaders, were derailed by politics. To make the $300 million-plus toll road financially feasible, both road-building companies were looking at the current Powhite Parkway (operated by the Virginia Department of Transportation) and the downtown expressway (operated by the RMA) as a financing mechanism. At the time, RMA General Manager Mike Berry told this newspaper the "RMA board of directors would make the decision to accept or reject a proposal involving the RMA."

Despite being in existence for more than three decades, the RMA has not been able to pay off the debt for the downtown expressway, and it continues as a toll road. Additionally, the RMA has made a number of improvements over the years.

Either VDOT or Chesterfield County could put out a request for proposal to extend the Powhite Parkway as a toll road, and Dale Planning Commissioner Sherman Litton said, "Personally, I think Chesterfield County should put it out on the street to see if there is anyone who wants to do it as a project."

Transurban, LLC, the Australian company that owns the Pocahontas Parkway, a toll road from I-95 to I-295, would be interested in "looking at it," said Megan Fletcher, Transurban's corporate vice president. "We look at opportunities across the U.S., but there would have to be a formal process that we're responding to."