New county growth tool is sent to board
By Greg Pearson STAFF WRITER

Terry Paris gets in some fishing time on the Swift Creek Reservoir.

On a 4-1 vote last week, the Chesterfield Planning Commission recommended the county adopt minimum standards for roads and schools that may be used to deny residential rezonings to better manage growth in the Upper Swift Creek Plan area. The 57-squareacre area starts at the intersection of routes 288/360 and goes west and north. Midlothian Commissioner Reuben Waller voted against the amendment without comment but in a separate motion, joined his fellow commissioners in calling for levels of service (LOS) countywide.

The amendment establishes grades for roads in the areas of rezonings based on the kind of road, traffic volume and safety. It also requires schools not be more than 20 percent over their maximum capacity to prevent overcrowding. If approved by the board, it could be listed as one reason a rezoning could be denied.

According to a development community source, a group of local homebuilders met the day of the commission meeting and decided to oppose the LOS amendment because standards are being proposed in just one plan area and not countywide. Homebuilders were advised that LOS, when combined with some other reason, was probably legally defensible.

Gecker

The amendment, first recommended by Midlothian Supervisor Dan Gecker when he chaired the commission last year, is patterned after language in the comprehensive plan for the city of Chesapeake. The commission wrote it into its recommendation for the Swift Creek plan to the 2007 board, but the supervisors then struck it.

At the commission meeting last week, there was no staff presentation on LOS and the written report was only one and one-half pages. The planning department favors LOS countywide but has not publicly indicated its position on just the Swift Creek plan area.

Will Shewmake, a zoning attorney and former commission member, felt strongly enough about the process that was being used to speak twice on the subject - during the public hearing and at the end of the meeting during the public comment period. Shewmake said the plan "wasn't good because it was rushed" and didn't have adequate input from the community. He recommended not implementing it "on a piecemeal basis," adding that the planning staff did not support the amendment.

Shewmake

During the past four years, there has been some discussion of LOS at community meetings while the focus was on water quality issues in the Swift Creek Reservoir.

Of the nine speakers during last week's public hearing, citizens supported LOS while the development community asked for a countywide comprehensive plan. Developer Dave Anderson said limiting LOS for just the Swift Creek plan is "problematic."

Andrea Epps with Magnolia Green, speaking on her own behalf, said specialty centers and programs for the gifted at Chesterfield schools have children crossing attendance zones, skewing the attendance figures.

"You already have the tools to manage growth," developer Casey Sowers told the commission.

The areas of county services overlap, and LOS shouldn't be applied to just one area of the county, noted Kevin McNulty, president of LifeStyle Builders and Developers. The voters want "an overhaul of the rezoning process," and not just one area, he added.

Three citizens endorsed LOS. "The band-aid approach is needed, which can be modified later," said Betty Hunter Clapp of Brandermill.

Traffic backups are a common sight on Hull Street Road.

Pointing out that there are already thousands of residentially-zoned lots in the Swift Creek area ready for homebuilding, the commission's Vice Chairman Wayne Bass said, "In the interim we have to hang our hat on something."

Virginia follows the Dillon Rule, which says local governments only have the legal authority specifically granted by the state. In a Dec. 15, 2003, letter, then-Attorney General Jerry Kilgore wrote State Senator John Watkins (R-Chesterfield):

"There is, however, no express statutory authorization that expressly grants to localities an ability to specifically require developers to provide adequate public facilities or defer development until such services are provided…Statutory authorization is clearly required to permit a local governing body to deny a rezoning based solely on the lack of adequate public facilities to serve any development of rezoned property."

Kilgore's letter italicized the word solely. Developers fear failure to meet LOS standards for schools or roads along with some other reason will cause the county board to deny rezonings that would have previously been approved.

In addition to applying LOS to the rest of the county later on, Planning Director Kirk Turner has said LOS standards will also be developed for other county services - parks, libraries, police, fire and EMS services. Developers have reluctantly accepted the cash proffer system of a maximum of $15,600 per home to cover the cost of providing county services. But they don't want to contribute for the existing needs in services - particularly the $1 billion for county road improvements - as Chesterfield tries to catch up.