The following is a sneak peek from our June issue, heading to newsstands now.
Photo at right by Ash Daniel; remaining photos by Parker Michels-Boyce
A tall, slender, middle-aged man wearing a beige suit jacket and wire-frame glasses clears his throat as he squeezes his way to the center of nearly three dozen men and women gathered outside a suite in a Chesterfield County office building, many wearing buttons sporting a red strikethrough symbol and the words “No Mega Site.”
“Everybody, thank you for being here,” Chester resident and real estate agent Mike Uzel begins, clearing his throat again. “Linda is going to lead us in prayer.” He’s hardly finished the thought when members of the grassroots group he reconvened nearly eight months before this May 3 morning — the Bermuda Advocates for Responsible Development (BARD) — have their heads bowed, eyes closed and hands clasped together.
“I’ve been praying for this for a while now, and — and we’ve got to be confident, though, that everything is panning out,” Linda Gagliardo prefaces, tugging at her cardigan before she begins.
Behind closed doors, members of the Chesterfield Economic Development Authority are holding a hastily called special meeting to discuss the project around which these residents have rallied in opposition for the better part of a year: the rezoning of 1,750 residential and mixed-use acres to heavy industrial use in hopes of attracting an unspecified manufacturer. Dubbed the “Matoaca mega site,” this property is not actually in the Matoaca District, but rather abuts, or in some cases, cuts straight through, the Bermuda District’s neighborhoods, subdivisions and farmland.
Soon, they would know for certain whether this would be a day when David triumphs over Goliath.
“Cautiously optimistic” is how Uzel describes his outlook before the special meeting. Until about a week earlier, many BARD members had been resigned to the EDA’s rezoning request sailing through the county’s approval process — first the Planning Commission and then the Board of Supervisors. Uzel is optimistic because three major political figures sided with the opponents in recent days, but cautious because the group had seen momentum stall before.
Johnnie Humphrey says Chesterfield County wants to buy her property, where she’s lived more more than a half-century, for road development. (Photo by Parker Michels-Boyce)
Gagliardo draws a deep breath and looks around. There’s lifelong Chesterfield resident Johnnie Humphrey, a 74-year-old widow whose home the county has sought to buy since November to accommodate a new road; and Allen Wilson, a chemical engineer and project manager who hasn’t been able to sell his property because buyer after buyer is scared off by the prospect of living across the street from an industrial site; and Murtaza Khan, the only millennial in attendance this morning, who’s leveraged his economics background to help the cause, because for him, the numbers don’t add up with this proposal.
“We pray the right decisions will be made, Lord,” Gagliardo continues, “decisions that are maybe not agreeable to those on the EDA, but, Lord, we are citizens and we desire our homes and our county to be the way [they were when] we moved in.”
Faces reemerge and the group breaks into hopeful smiles interspersed with hugs and pats on the back. Soon, they would know for certain whether this would be a day when David triumphs over Goliath.
When EDA members reopen the meeting after nearly an hour in closed session and announce they are withdrawing the rezoning application, the news rockets around the region: The county listened to its residents; the democratic process won the day.
Still, as the opponents leave the meeting, many appear poker-faced and somber, looking more like boxers awaiting the next round than winners taking a victory lap. The county has too much invested in the project to give up that easily, some say.
“They’re just trying to catch us off guard,” mutters BARD member Phil Lohr.
•••
Uzel, a real estate agent in Chester, originally coined the name BARD for the dedicated group of Bermuda District residents in 2007. The membership was smaller then, but the activists were concerned about a rezoning proposal for the same parcel of land. At the time, a private developer intended to build the “Branner Station” project, which would require rezoning then-agricultural and light-industrial acreage owned by a prominent family named Shoosmith — county titans who established the Shoosmith Bros. landfill and Shoosmith Construction Inc. — to residential and mixed-use property for 5,000 new homes.
The county Board of Supervisors approved the rezoning, but the project fizzled after the economy sank into recession in 2008.
Then, on Aug. 31 of last year, Uzel received a phone call from a reporter who had covered the proposed development a decade ago and told him of then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s surprise announcement about the EDA’s planned acquisition of about 1,700 acres of “prime real estate” near Chester. Officials said the site could attract a large manufacturing company that could bring more than 5,000 jobs and billions in investment dollars to the county. The project was just a rezoning away from being developed to fruition.
“I looked at the area and realized there was going to be an enormous impact on those surrounding neighborhoods — some of them are only a couple hundred feet from the edge of the proposed site,” Uzel says. More troublesome to him was that I-3 heavy industrial zoning for that property is inconsistent with the county’s Comprehensive Plan and would be considered “spot zoning” — at odds with the surrounding area. The Chesterfield Zoning Ordinance also states there can be no I-3 zoning adjacent to residential land.
In May, the Chesterfield Planning Commission was set to consider revising the Comprehensive Plan’s land-use chapter to allow limited heavy industrial uses near residential property, on land with light industrial zoning. County Planning Manager Steven Haasch told Lohr, one of the BARD members, in an email that staffers drafted the change in November 2016 at a meeting with the EDA.
When the county scheduled a public information meeting last September, more than 200 people turned out to learn more about the project. To their dismay, there was no presentation — only stations with tri-fold displays.
In hindsight, Uzel says, it seemed that the county expected the project to be pushed through with little opposition — and emails obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests indicate the plan was in the works for at least a year before it was publicly announced.
In August 2016, the EDA entered into a special option agreement with The Thomas Co., registered to Nina V. Shoosmith — whose late husband, Jack, was the president and chief executive officer of Shoosmith Brothers, and who owns the 1,675-acre parcel comprising most of the potential site. The option agreement lists the purchase price as $14 million to be paid in cash at closing.
An initial option fee of $75,000 secured the land with the EDA for one year, during which time the authority agreed to pay the real estate taxes on the property. County Economic Development Director Garrett Hart signed a renewal agreement, and the EDA wrote a second check for $75,000 to The Thomas Co. on Aug. 2, 2017. The decision to extend the contract took place after a second special option went into effect.
In this case, the EDA paid an entity called Holland Associates LLC, which has no affiliation with Board of Supervisors representative Jim Holland, $25,000 to secure the option to buy 138 adjacent acres for more than $1.5 million. Holland Associates is in the same building as the Timmons Group, a consultant the EDA contracted in 2016 for the project.
At the first public meeting about the mega site in September, Uzel demanded answers, and many in attendance approached him afterward asking how they could help. BARD assumed a “divide and conquer” strategy, leveraging each member’s area of expertise — in construction, politics, engineering, higher education and real estate — to the group’s advantage. The group’s core members attended every public county meeting; met with and submitted long lists of questions to county officials; researched and submitted FOIA requests. They canvassed neighborhoods, informing bewildered subdivision residents of what the county had in mind.
Julie Ranson looks through documents and news reports related to the mega site. (Photo by Parker Michels-Boyce)
“It was like they were trying to pull a fast one on us and that’s not acceptable,” says Julie Ranson, one of the residents who approached Uzel at the meeting. “I spent years on my Ph.D. Research is something I kind of know how to do.”
•••
Not only did BARD members have concerns about the traffic and environmental impacts, but a rail line would cut through existing neighborhoods. Similarly, a proposed East-West Freeway would require relocating Harrowgate Elementary School to a park across the street — and would require the county to purchase, or invoke eminent domain to obtain, properties through that strip. (Through eminent domain, government can take private property for a public purpose, but must provide “just compensation.”)
It also puzzled activists that the East-West Freeway had not been acted on by the Board of Supervisors prior to the rezoning request, despite the road’s inclusion in the county’s Thoroughfare Plan since the 1980s.
“Personally, I have a huge issue with corporate welfare,” says Ranson, a career businesswoman and educator. “And this would essentially be using public funds and resources to benefit private entities and industries.”
The proposal also caught the attention of Murtaza Khan, a Bermuda District resident who studied economics and worked with “shovel-ready” development site research in the McAuliffe administration. He says the risk/return analysis is not sufficient to justify the county’s investment, referencing a report prepared for the project by Mangum Economics, which estimates a net fiscal impact of $75.7 million to $151.3 million over 30 years, after accounting for expenses. The EDA has estimated it would cost $200 million to develop the site through a mix of public and private funding sources.
“If just one or two assumptions in this report are incorrect, it could easily lead to a net loss,” Khan says.
•••
“My name is Johnnie Humphrey, and I have lived here for 53 years,” says a steely-eyed woman who stands barely above 5 feet tall, at the start of an interview. A coy smile pulls at the corners of her mouth when she speaks; Humphrey knows a little something about everybody in her orbit, and she’s not afraid to remind them of it. “We moved into this house in 1967, and my sister lives next door,” Humphrey explains from a seat in her recently remodeled kitchen. Framed family photos of her children and grandchildren cover the walls in the living room.
After the mega site announcement, some residents living near the perimeter began getting phone calls from the Chesterfield Department of Transportation and a relocation company called DPRM informing them that the county sought to move forward quickly with acquiring the land needed to build accessory elements such as the East-West Freeway.
Humphrey says she received a call from “my very good friend Jesse Smith,” the county transportation director, shortly after the August announcement. She began dropping in at Smith’s office to glean information about the fate of her home, particularly after receiving a voicemail from “Jeff with Relocation Services” right before Thanksgiving.
“I never called him back,” she says flatly. She walks over to the phone and retrieves a hot pink sticky note tacked next to the landline. “I put a little note with his name and number next to every phone in the house, so nobody picks it up when they call,” she says, grinning. “They’ll have to get the rezoning done first, then we can talk.”
•••
Allen Wilson is counting on selling his 7.5-acre property for retirement income, but buyers have been hesitant because of the mega site proposal. (Photo by Parker Michels-Boyce)
By late winter, it seemed to some residents that the county was at a crossroads, or, in the view of Allen Wilson, a project manager and chemical engineer for Chesterfield-based construction company ITAC, an identity crisis.
“People from this end of the county, they don’t want [heavy economic development] — they want it to be more rural — like, ‘Just go away and leave us alone,’ ”
Wilson says, laughing and looking out bay windows toward a pasture where two Tennessee Walkers are grazing.
Just 20 minutes south of downtown Richmond, the Wilsons’ 3,305-square-foot home at 15101 Branders Bridge Road is set on a 7.5-acre plot encompassing a barn for the horses, a pond filled with koi fish and a separate 682-square-foot apartment. The couple bought the property in 1999 as the house was being foreclosed on.
“I don’t think [the county] fully realized how much opposition they were going to get to the [mega site] project,” Wilson says.
He says he finds his situation a little odd: His company, ITAC, would benefit from bidding on contracts associated with the mega site build-out, but he is opposed to it for several reasons. Most significantly, the site is across the street from his property — only a football field’s length away. The other, he says, has to do with basic business principles. “You wouldn’t go to your board and say, ‘Hey, I’m about to spent $200 million of the company’s money and I have no one committed to doing this and here’s my plan.’ ”
He points to instances in which the county got stung: The once-trumpeted Tranlin Paper Co. development turned out to be a bust that cost taxpayers $5 million; the Meadowville Technology Park, home to an Amazon fulfillment center, has not attracted the high-paying jobs county officials envisioned, and more than half of the site’s 1,260 acres remain undeveloped. The county, Wilson says, should know better than to rush something through. “And the sad thing is, they’re allowed to do that the way things are structured now,” he says. “Nobody watches over these people [on the EDA].”
He says after Branner Station fell through, he and his wife decided to upgrade their home to maximize their investment return when they sell it. Anticipating a major source of retirement income, they installed a stainless-steel kitchen, hardwood floors and new plumbing. The renovations totaled thousand of dollars. More than once, a buyer placed a bid, only to research the mega site project and back out at the last minute. Even after dropping the price by $50,000, the couple found no takers.
“We’re OK for now – I mean, we’re financially damaged, but there’s no there’s no recourse for that,” Wilson says, “At least with eminent domain you’re getting — well, something. So, for now, until we know more ... we’ll just have to wait.”
•••
The EDA’s rezoning request withdrawal was an outcome that once seemed nearly impossible. Business and government forces were aligned in favor of the project, and the authority had sunk more than $1.2 million into pre-development site work and retainer fees.
McAuliffe said the planned mega site “allows us to compete for projects on a level we haven’t had before,” and the ChamberRVA board cheered its potential to attract major employers such as an automotive or aerospace plant.
Multiple homeowners associations sided with BARD, but those endorsements seemingly did little to change the county’s course. Then, in the last week of April, state Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, House of Delegates Speaker Kirk Cox, whose district includes part of the county, and Board of Supervisors member Chris Winslow all spoke publicly against the EDA’s plan — in large part, citing community opposition and lack of transparency.
Shortly afterward, the EDA called the May 3 special meeting. In explaining its decision, the authority, whose members are appointed by the county Board of Supervisors, acknowledged the need to build consensus around the project.
But authority member John Cogbill emphasized that the county should still purchase the Shoosmith property. “It’s the largest single site in the county that can be used for economic development purposes,” he said at the meeting.
Cogbill’s involvement with the mega site proposal has garnered scrutiny. Residents questioned how Cogbill, who joined the authority after his 2017 retirement as a managing partner with McGuire Woods, could be impartial when he had represented the Shoosmith family and its businesses in his law practice.
In a statement after the meeting, the EDA called on the Board of Supervisors to execute the purchase options on the properties. The county’s transportation department is also moving forward with the East-West Freeway. Smith, the transportation director, says he expects to hold a public hearing in July. Responding to questions by email, County Administrator Joe Casey said county staff has not made a recommendation on purchasing the Bermuda District properties. He added, “The overall goal of creating more high-quality jobs and a more diverse tax base within the county should be a shared goal amongst citizens, businesses, EDA and the county.”
•••
BARD members celebrate after the Economic Development Authority’s rezoning application withdrawal. (Photo by Adam DuBrueler)
When BARD members gather that evening, cheers and hugs fill the conference room where a wall-length map of the county is a backdrop to weekly brainstorming and work sessions.
“It’s truly amazing how all of this came together over that time and it’s because of you guys,” Uzel tells his peers as they prepare a champagne toast.
“Don’t cry!” someone spouts off, and the room breaks into friendly laughter before pivoting attention back to Uzel.
“When you think about meeting weekly for eight months — that’s 32 meetings, two hours a week — that’s just the beginning,” he says. “Everybody I know in this room spent many more hours than that — losing sleep, having nightmares.”
Again the group laughs, but this time, there’s a subtle sharpness piercing the light-hearted mood. The roughly dozen Bermuda residents sitting around the conference table know the celebration is only temporary. They’re not going to allow the day’s good news to distract them from the caveats the county had foreshadowed earlier that day.
“It’s important to remember, we just won the first battle — not the war,” Uzel says, as members nod and start pulling out notepads and documents, ready to get back to work. “This is by no means over yet.”
