JAMES CITY COUNTY — During the Feb. 25 James City County (JCC) Board of Supervisors (BOS) business meeting, Bob Dittman, Solid Waste Director, presented the need for the Grove Convenience Center.
The new center will address waste disposal needs and provide recycling options for the Grove area of the county.
“The Grove area has high incidents of illegal dumping. The closest convenience center is approximately 15 minutes away by car,” Dittman stated.
The proposed center would be located on 8429 Pocahontas Trail at the site of Fire Station 22, which is currently only used for storage and the building would be demolished.
The new site would utilize existing paved surfaces and allow for improved fire truck access to the existing fuel island.
Grove Convenience Center would be similar to the Tewning Road facility, which accepts recycling, household oils, trash and scrap. A trash compactor would be available.
A public hearing for a Special Use Permit (SUP-24-0030) will be presented to the JCC Planning Commission at its March 5 meeting.
“Pending that approval, we will be back here for the Board to approve the special use permit before moving on to the master plan — which I am hoping — can get that approved by the end of August,” explained Dittman.
JCC County Administrator Scott Stevens stated, “It makes sense because Fire Station 22 — I don’t know when it was built, but it does not represent James City — it is merely a storage site and the chief uses it for some training activities. But, it is not a good looking building. It’s on a main thoroughfare, it’s very visible, and I think there is value in removing that building (minus the loss of storage).
“I think cleaning it up so that site looks better and doing this — convenience center or not — will clean up the site so that it functions better and looks better, he continued. “If this site is not needed in the future for a convenience center — for whatever reason — if there is not a use on the solid waste side, there certainly would be on the fire side. So, for me this is not money wasted or thrown away.”
Residents can give public comment either in person, call 757-253-6762 to record a comment that will be forwarded to all board members for their consideration prior to the meeting, or submit comments via email to the Board of Supervisors.
The entire JCC BOS February business meeting can be viewed here.
