Road costs could stop the Watkins Centre
By Greg Pearson STAFF WRITER
Another $20 million or more of unplanned road improvements at the Watkins Centre could cause the developer to walk away. Zaremba Metropolitan Midlothian Group, LLC may pull out of the project because of higher costs for a flyover and widening the Route 60 bridge over Route 288.

"Our discussions have been with the county, but I've heard that," confirmed Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) Resident Engineer Dale Totten.

"Because we're in an ongoing permitting process, a comment would be inappropriate," offered Developer Cary Euwer of Zaremba Metropolitan.

It's been a nine year journey through the zoning process for the Watkins Centre, but the huge development is not out of the woods yet. Now with the county firmly on its side, the current hurdle is VDOT with the Army Corps of Engineers waiting in the wings.

VDOT officials want a flyover - a northbound onramp - from inside Westchester Commons, the retail portion of the Watkins Centre, over the southbound lanes of Route 288 and connecting to northbound 288. According to Totten, that would cost "$14 million on the low side."

The flyover was part of the plan approved in 1999 when the Commonwealth Transportation Board determined the road access options for Route 288. The flyover would eliminate the need for those vehicles exiting Westchester Commons and turning left onto Route 60 eastbound and then taking the off ramp to northbound Route 288. Whether the flyover is one or two lanes would be determined by a traffic impact study now in its final stages.

"Our district office is working with the county to find an approvable impact study," explained Totten. "If the study shows the flyover isn't necessary, VDOT could probably support that."

VDOT also wants to widen Route 60 over Route 288 by building an extra lane, making it three lanes and a merge/weave lane each way. Totten estimates that cost at $4-6 million. The county transportation department favors new striping of traffic lanes on the bridge to use existing space to create the extra lane.

VDOT doesn't agree with that solution, but Totten said the traffic impact study expected later this month will help answer that concern.

The third unresolved question is "geometrical issues being worked on by the engineer" where the southbound ramp from Route 288 connects directly into Westchester Commons.

Several county officials declined comment for this story, saying "discussions with VDOT were sensitive," though one Chesterfield leader said he was optimistic the impact study would support the county's positions on the remaining issues.

"If we don't require developers to pay for the improvements," said Midlothian Planning Commissioner Dan Gecker, "you have essentially created a deferred liability to the county. That's why Chesterfield's road needs are currently $1 billion."

The Chesterfield Board of Supervisors recently established its first ever Community Development Authority to pay for road improvements at the Watkins Centre at no expense to the taxpayer. The development's property and sales taxes will bear the burden but would be passed along to property owners and tenants.

Business groups in the county have strongly supported the Watkins Centre since it could include two million square feet of office development.

"The Watkins Centre is going to be a development magnet for the western part of Chesterfield," observed Brett Sheffield, president of the Western Chesterfield Business Alliance. "It brings in new tax dollars and takes the pressure off homeowners and our tax rate."

Westchester Commons is located on 132 acres in the Watkins Centre in the northwest quadrant of the intersection of routes 288/60, and could include 870,000 square feet of retail. Senator John Watkins, whose family owns the land where the Watkins Centre would be built, and the developer have said that the retail portion of the project must be developed first in order to pay for the much slower selling corporate office development. Without the retail, they have insisted there would be no office park.