New year, more new homes?
By Greg Pearson STAFF WRITER

Page Dowdy/Chesterfield Observer Casey Sowers (above) and his father plan to develop Roseland at the intersection of Route 288 and Woolridge Road.

There could be more than 10,000 future new homes added to Chesterfield's inventory this year. That's in addition to the almost 40,000 lots currently zoned residential that haven't been built on yet.

"The increase in supply is far greater than the demand," confirmed Chesterfield Demographer Bill Handley. "We're selling fewer than 3,000 new homes a year while creating the potential for 7,000 [in 2006]. So the supply continues to grow."

The planning commission is expected to review two very large residential mixed-use developments- Roseland with 5,140 homes and Branner Station with 4,256 homes- early this year before sending them to the county board for consideration. Also in the pipeline are developments by Gray Land and Development Company near Lake Chesdin with 575 homes and in the Route 360 corridor where Robert Sowers wants to rezone 220 acres for 484 homes south of Swift Creek Village.

Other smaller developments are certain to seek rezoning.

Located near the intersection of Woolridge Road and Route 288, Roseland could become the largest planned residential and commercial Roseland could become the largest planned residential and commercial community in the Richmond metro. In addition to residential development, Roseland's developer, GBS Holding, Ltd. envisions at least 1.5 million square feet of retail and office space.

Further east near Chester along Happy Hill Road, HHHunt is already proffering signifi- cant road improvements for Branner Station for what could become metro Richmond's third largest residential development. New homes there would potentially appeal to the more than 7,000 military personnel and private contractors who are expected to move to the area due to a major expansion at nearby Fort Lee. Currently, 26.5 percent of Fort Lee employees live in Chesterfield, more than any other jurisdiction.

If approved, it would take more than 15 years for developers to reach full build-outs at Roseland and Branner Station.

"We continue to be concerned about infrastructure and the lack of balance," said Mike Harton, president of the Alliance for Responsible Growth for Chesterfield. "The balance between residential and commercial [development] is way out of whack, [which we need] for tax reasons and to provide for infrastructure. The proffer system is not working, and planning has been poor."

During the past 10 years, Chesterfield has accounted for 24-34 percent of all building permits issued annually in the Richmond metro, which includes four cities, 16 counties and the town of Ashland.

"People want to live in Chesterfield County," said Planning Commission Chairman Jack Wilson. "Zoning doesn't create the demand for new housing. If we slowed down the cases for new zoning, the demand would shift to earlier cases where there were no cash proffers or significantly lower proffers. These large cases pay full cash proffers [$15,600 per residence] and provide more infrastructure- like sites for schools and parks- that smaller cases can't dedicate land for."

One of those earlier cases is Magnolia Green. That rezoning was approved 15 years ago and will pay just $2,800 in cash proffers for each of the 4,886 homes planned for the development. Its developer recently filed a revision of its phase one site plan for 686 single-family homes.

Also in the Route 360 corridor, located south of Hampton Park, is Harper's Mill. Construction is already underway there on 2,392 housing units.

Another 1,600 homes and 350,000 square feet of commercial development are planned by Gray Land and Development Company on the northwestern border of the Watkins Centre at the intersection of Route 288 and Midlothian Turnpike.