This week in county government; PC to consider changes to Zion Town Center at Nov. 10 meeting; Roundup of recent board appointments
This week in county government; PC to consider changes to Zion Town Center at Nov. 10 meeting; Roundup of recent board appointments
Engage Louisa is a community newsletter aimed at keeping folks informed about Louisa County government. It’s free, non-partisan, and powered by volunteers. We believe our community is stronger and our government serves us better when we increase transparency, accessibility, and engagement.
This week in county government: public meetings, Oct. 31 through Nov. 5
For the latest information on county meetings including public meetings of boards, commissions, authorities, work groups, and internal county committees, click here.
Monday, October 31
Finance Committee, Administration Conference Room, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 3 pm.
Tuesday, November 1
Louisa County School Board, Central Office Administration Building, 953 Davis Highway, Mineral, 7 pm. (agenda) A link to watch virtually is available on the meeting agenda.
Wednesday, November 2
Commission on Aging, Betty Queen Center, 522 Industrial Drive, Louisa, 10 am.
Other meetings:
Thursday, November 3
Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, Water Street Center, 407 E. Water Street, Charlottesville. (meeting materials) A link to watch/participate virtually is available in the meeting materials.
Additional information about Louisa County’s upcoming public meetings is available here.
Interested in taking your talents to one of the county’s numerous boards and commissions? Find out more here including which boards have vacancies and how to apply.
Planning Commission to consider changes to Zion Town Center at Nov. 10 meeting
In mid-October, the Louisa County Planning Commission voted 4-2 to recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve a controversial rezoning that would clear the way for a mixed-use development featuring luxury condominiums and a hotel on Lake Anna.
At their next meeting, commissioners will consider green-lighting changes to another mixed-use project that has stirred concerns among neighbors, this one on the opposite end of the county at Zion Crossroads. (land use application)
Emerson-Roper Companies, LLC, a Chesterfield-based developer, has contracted to buy the residential portion of Zion Town Center, a Planned Unit Development slated for construction on 113.8 acres (tax map parcel 52 12 4) at the end of Camp Creek Parkway behind Walmart and Lowes. Zions Town Center, LLC, the parcel’s current owner, won approval from the Louisa County Board of Supervisors in 2019 to build 599 residential units on the property combined with 274,600 square feet of commercial space.
Now, Emerson-Roper wants to put its own spin on the residential portion of the community, upping the number of dwellings to 723 and changing its layout and design. The development would include fewer single-family detached homes, more townhomes and swap a three-story walkup apartment complex for a pair of four-story, fully enclosed, elevator-serviced buildings. Zions Town Center would retain the development’s commercial component.
Emerson-Roper, which has developed The Highlands, Chester Village Green, and other communities south of Richmond, first unveiled its plans in March during a community meeting at the Zion Crossroads Best Western that drew about 70 people. Some in the crowd sharply questioned the proposal’s impact on traffic, schools, emergency services, and other infrastructure.
After formally filing a request for amendments to the project’s proffers and master plan in July, the developer previewed its plans again in mid-September at a neighborhood meeting hosted by the Louisa County Community Development Department. That meeting, the first step in the public process to secure Board of Supervisors’ approval, attracted a far smaller and more supportive crowd with several residents from the nearby Spring Creek community praising the proposal.
The next step is a public hearing in front of the Planning Commission set for Thursday, November 10 at 7 pm at the Louisa County Office Building. (The public hearing is one of seven on the commission’s agenda. Check out a full preview of the meeting in next week’s edition of Engage Louisa).
The plan
Emerson-Roper’s vision for Zion Town Center’s 90-acre residential component focuses largely on diversifying the area’s housing supply by featuring options either not currently available or in limited supply. Specifically, the developer wants to add 124 dwellings, increasing the number of townhomes from 99 to 275, decreasing the number of single-family detached homes from 164 to 112, and maintaining the number of apartments at 336 albeit with a revamped building design.
The townhomes, which would range from 1,700 and 1,900 square feet, would be taller than originally proposed and feature garages and slightly larger yards. They’d come in a variety of designs along wider streets that allow for both driveway and on-street parking. A section of the community previously dedicated to single-family detached homes would shift to townhomes and townhomes would also occupy space freed up by more compact multi-family housing.
“There’s a lot of single-family detached homes in Louisa already. We’d like to create that middle market housing opportunity. We believe townhouses provide us with that opportunity not only for young people finishing their education and looking to buy their first home but also the opportunity for somebody who is an empty nester and wants to downsize but wants to downsize into something they will own,” Emerson-Roper representative Jeffrey Geiger said at the March meeting.
Emerson-Roper also plans to reconfigure the development’s multi-family section by shifting from a cluster of 14 walk-up apartment buildings to a more compact design that includes two fully enclosed, elevator-serviced buildings. The rental apartments would feature various amenities including gathering spaces, a pool, and gym. Sixty percent of the apartments would be two bedrooms, 24 percent would be one bedroom and 16 percent would be three bedrooms, according to the developer.
“We believe this particular design is more attractive to a wider segment of the market: those that are coming out of college or finishing their education and looking for their first opportunity to live in a home but also empty nesters,” Geiger said, noting that the complex would provide amenities not currently available in the area.
The community’s remaining detached single-family section would retain much of its original design. Geiger said that single-family homes would average about 2,300 square feet.
Geiger said at the March meeting that the townhomes would start at $280,000, based on 2022 dollars, while the detached homes would start at $375,000. He declined to discuss the potential price range for the townhomes or single-family detached homes at the September meeting. As currently proposed, the developer expects to start construction in 2023 and reach full build out by 2028.
At both meetings, Geiger pitched the development as “workforce housing,” but said Emerson-Roper doesn’t plan to set aside any units as affordable housing. As a proffered condition of its request, the developer has agreed to build at least 24 two-story townhomes, which would presumably start at a lower price point than larger units.
“We believe that by including more townhomes we will be providing attainable housing for Louisa’s workforce. We are assuring that by making that commitment with respect to the two-story townhomes,” Geiger said in September.
While Emerson-Roper seeks to add units, Geiger said that the community would maintain the 30 percent open space, roughly 34 acres, included in the original proposal. That’s accomplished by compact design that uses land more efficiently, he said, noting that Emerson-Roper’s goal is to build a walkable residential community with ample green space that’s in proximity to restaurants and other service-oriented businesses. He emphasized that the new residents the community draws to Zion would help attract high-quality services while sustaining current offerings.
Geiger branded Zion Town Center as a throwback community that draws on design concepts prevalent before sprawling suburbs came to dominate the landscape. The developer’s land use application notes that compact development in Louisa’s designated growth areas protects the county’s rural character, allows for more efficient delivery of services, and conforms with the vision laid out in the 2040 Comprehensive Plan.
“Concentrating economic growth and new housing opportunities in this strategic area is a key element of preserving and protecting the rural, agricultural, historic and forested lands. Without this strategy, road stripping would be used to meet commercial and residential demand in the county and degrade the rural character of the county. Road stripping would also increase the cost of services as growth occurs in the rural areas of the county,” the application states.
Questions about ZTC’s impact on services and infrastructure
At both the March and September meetings, residents asked about the impact of Emerson-Roper’s proposed changes on county services and infrastructure including schools, Fire/EMS, traffic, and the area’s water supply.
The adequacy of Zion Crossroads’ water supply, currently drawn from ultra-deep wells in the Green Springs National Historic Landmark District, was a key point of contention during the 2019 rezoning as some residents argued there isn’t enough water to support the hundreds of new dwellings planned for the area. In the face of mounting development pressure, supervisors crafted a policy that year to cap withdrawals from the wells at 75 percent of their capacity.
Geiger said in March that Emerson-Roper contracted Dewberry Engineering to perform an analysis of the available water supply and the firm determined that there’s enough water for the additional units and continued economic development. But he noted that the developer’s proffers include an acknowledgement that water is provided on a first-come, first-serve basis and the county will limit building permits based on availability.
On average, the Green Springs wells use about one-third of their 587,000-gallon daily capacity as determined by the Virginia Department of Health. Earlier this year, the county received VDH approval to tap two additional wells, which draw from the same aquifer. Those wells would increase capacity by about 204,000 gallons per day.
The county’s long-term solution to Zion’s water woes is a pipeline to the James River that, when complete, will channel millions of gallons of water to development along the Interstate 64 corridor. The project, a joint effort with Fluvanna County via the James River Water Authority, has been stymied by delays, most of which stem from an initial plan to build a water pump station at a significant Native American historic and cultural site. In early March, JRWA opted to move the station to a different location slightly upstream, triggering a new federal permitting process. According to the latest timeline, the pipeline is expected to be complete between 2025 and 2027.
Louisa County has took on more than $40 million in debt to pay for its portion of the project. The county anticipates spending at least another $15 million to complete the pump station and a four mile stretch of pipeline to connect it to an existing water main.
Emerson-Roper’s application notes that the development will increase the Louisa County Water Authority’s customer base, lessening the burden on current ratepayers. ZTC’s residential and commercial component will contribute more than $3 million in one-time tap fees to connect to LCWA infrastructure, per figures in Zions Town Center’s 2019 application.
With respect to traffic, Geiger said that changing the community’s design, including decreasing the number of single-family detached homes, would limit the traffic impact of additional units. He said that residents in single-family detached homes tend to have more children than townhome dwellers, meaning more car trips to take them to school, sports, and other engagements.
Geiger said a traffic analysis paid for by the developer concluded that the revised plan would add 30 trips during peak morning travel times and 10 trips during peak evening travel times over projections for the 599-unit proposal. The analysis estimated that the commercial and residential development would together generate an additional 6,101 vehicle trips per day both entering and exiting the project and add between 373 and 475 vehicle trips per hour during peak morning and afternoon travel times.
To mitigate that impact, Geiger said that Emerson-Roper agreed to implement the same transportation improvements recommended during the 2019 rezoning. Those improvements include extending the right turn lane on Route 15 at its intersection with Camp Creek Parkway, re-striping to add a left turn/through lane on Camp Creek Parkway at its intersection with Route 15 while modifying the traffic signal from eight-phase to split phase, and changing a right turn lane at Camp Creek Parkway and Market Street to allow both right turns and through traffic toward Route 15.
At both meetings, community members asked how Emerson-Roper’s plans mesh with the Virginia Department of Transportation’s vision for the Route 15 and Camp Creek/Spring Creek Parkway intersection.
VDOT and its consulting engineers, Kittelson and Associates, earlier this year proposed an innovative bowtie configuration for the intersection that would eliminate left turns on and off Route 15 by routing traffic to a pair of roundabouts at Camp Creek Parkway and Market Street and Spring Creek Parkway and Wood Ridge Terrace. Alternatively, Kittelson’s proposal recommends a hybrid configuration that implements elements of the bowtie with the more traditional quadrant intersection. Kittelson engineers said both configurations were designed with an eye toward future growth, pointing to the bowtie as their preferred way to improve safety and congestion.
In August, Louisa County applied for money through SMART SCALE, the commonwealth’s primary vehicle for funding local transportation improvements, for upgrades at the intersection. The application draws on Kittelson’s recommendations. The Commonwealth Transportation Board is expected to announce funding allocations for SMART SCALE this spring.
Geiger said that VDOT green-lighted the developer’s proposed improvements during the 2019 rezoning, and he sees no reason for the department to back away from those plans. VDOT would have that option, however, as Emerson-Roper’s new proposal moves through the approval process.
“We don’t feel that VDOT will have any concern with what we are doing because we will be making those improvements to Camp Creek—either they are intermediate improvements or they are forever improvements—in order to mitigate our impact on that intersection. What VDOT does down the road? I can’t answer that,” Geiger said in March.
Geiger said that Emerson-Roper’s proposed changes wouldn’t significantly impact Louisa County Public Schools, noting that both townhomes and fully-enclosed, elevator serviced apartment buildings are less likely to attract families with children than single-family detached homes. Emerson-Roper’s application estimates that the additional 124 units would add only 9 school-aged residents to the 165 anticipated from 599-unit development. In total, the 723 units are projected to add 78 students to Moss-Nuckols Elementary School, 41 students to Louisa County Middle School, and 55 students to Louisa County High School.
A March 2022 letter from Ted Figura Consulting, submitted as part of Emerson-Roper’s application, notes that neither Louisa County High School nor Moss-Nuckols Elementary School would exceed their capacity based on those projections. While the letter acknowledges that additional students would push Louisa County Middle School beyond its 1200-pupil capacity, it argues that the school already uses mobile units as classrooms and could add additional units to accommodate ZTC students.
Louisa County’s current five-year Capital Improvement Plan includes $15.1 million in FY25 for a 400-student addition to the middle school and nearly $14 million for a career and technical education center adjacent to the high school. The county’s 20-year CIP doesn’t anticipate building any new schools. With the addition of ZTC students, Moss-Nuckols’ enrollment is expected to fall just 27 students short of its 700-pupil capacity while the high school’s enrollment is expected to fall 28 pupils short of its 1700-student capacity.
Emerson-Roper’s consultants also contend that the proposed changes won’t significantly impact other county services including Louisa County Fire and EMS. The letter states that the county needs a new ladder truck to service taller buildings, like ZTC’s four-story apartment complex, but the department expected to replace its 30-year-old ladder truck regardless of Emerson-Roper’s proposal.
Moreover, Ted Figura’s letter argue that ZTC’s 723-unit residential component would positively impact county coffers though it doesn’t base that assertion on an economic impact study specific to the development. Instead, the letter points to a study conducted for a similar community on the outskirts of Richmond, which concluded that the project would produce $2.65 in revenue for every dollar spent in services over its first 15 years. That revenue would be derived from property taxes, fees like vehicle registration, and taxes generated by residents eating at local restaurants and spending money at other neighborhood businesses, among other sources.
Emerson-Roper’s application additionally includes an economic impact study completed by Magnum Economics for the 2019 rezoning, which doesn’t account for proposed changes to the residential section. The study concluded that the development, with an estimated assessed value of $139.7 million at full build out (2019 dollars), would generate nearly $1.9 million in direct revenue annually while costing the county about $1.74 million in services. The development’s commercial section is expected to include both sit-down and fast food restaurants, a 100-room hotel, day care, retail, and mini-storage, per Magnum’s analysis.
More than $1 million of the projected revenue is expected to come from real estate taxes, roughly $268,000 from sales tax, and about $321,000 from meals tax. Of the expenditures, more than $826,000 cover annual education costs while the remainder pays for other county services.
The study projected that the development’s commercial component would directly generate 489 jobs, $10.8 million in associated labor income, and $20.4 million in additional economic output.
At both the March and September meeting, several community members asked when the county could expect the project’s commercial component to take shape. While Emerson-Roper’s application only involves the residential section, the developer said it will put infrastructure in place, including an access road, that paves the way for commercial development.
“One of the reasons (this area) hasn’t developed is because there’s no infrastructure in front of it. One thing, our project does is build a road all the way through so, when a user does come there, they can move there very quickly,” George Emerson, one of the project’s lead developers, said at the September meeting.
According to its current timeline, the developer plans to begin construction on initial infrastructure next year, pending the project’s approval.
Roundup of recent board appointments
The Louisa County Board of Supervisors appoints citizens and county officials to several dozen boards and committees, which inform policy decisions and oversee the operation of publicly-funded institutions, among other duties. These boards and committees often garner little attention but play a key role in local government administration. Below is a roundup of the board’s appointments from June 2022 through October 2022.
The board appointed Doug Campbell to the Ag/Forestal and Rural Preservation Committee.
The board appointed William McLaughlin to the Thomas Jefferson EMS Council.
The board appointed Tina Garr to the Community Policy Management Team.
The board appointed Raymond Crosen to the Community Policy Management Team.
The board appointed Diana Burruss to the Monticello Area Community Action Agency Board of Directors.
The board appointed Joanna Hoyle to the Jefferson Area Board for Aging Advisory Board.
The board appointed Dawn Lipscomb to the Parks, Recreation, & Tourism Advisory Committee.
The board appointed Susan Brommage to the Commission on Aging.
The board appointed Curline Bell to the Commission on Aging.
The board reappointed Rachel Trombetta to the Louisa County Broadband Authority.
Click here for contact information for the Louisa County Board of Supervisors.
Find agendas and minutes from previous Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission meetings as well as archived recordings here.
Click here for contact information for the Louisa County School Board.
Click here for minutes and agendas for School Board meetings.
Click here to access past editions of Engage Louisa.