After a split decision Tuesday night from the James City County Board of Supervisors, Jamestown Beach has been rezoned for public use and a special use permit has been granted for all future development of the area.
The 3-2 decision, with Supervisors Mary Jones (Berkeley) and Jim Kennedy (Stonehouse) voting against the proposal, kicks off the Shaping Our Shores master plan, which lays out a design plan for revitalization and improvement of the Jamestown Beach, Jamestown Yacht Basin and Chickahominy Riverfront properties.
In December 2006, the county purchased the Jamestown Beach property without rezoning it for public use. Instead, the area’s zoning allowed for general business yet the county had plans for public recreation facilities on the property, which would be in violation of the county’s zoning regulations.
Speakers at Tuesday’s public hearing before the Board of Supervisors had mixed reactions to the proposal to rezone the area. Of the 13 speakers, four spoke in favor of the rezoning.
Julian Lipscomb, vice chair and Stonehouse representative of the James City County Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, supported rezoning the land. He said the Shaping Our Shores plan was an option because the board understood “one of the county’s greatest assets is its waterfronts and one of the greatest shortcomings is access to the waterfronts.”
The Shaping Our Shores master plan was supported by the James City County Board of Supervisors in June 2009; the plan was released in December 2009. The plan was written to include the Jamestown Beach, Jamestown Yacht Basin and Chickahominy Riverfront Park properties. At the time, the board had a slightly different makeup: Kennedy and Jones both served as their current districts’ representatives, and John McGlennon and Jim Icenhour then served Jamestown and Powhatan districts, respectively. Then, Icenhour voted against the resolution; all other members voted to support it.
Jack Haldeman spoke on behalf of the James City County Citizens Coalition in support of the applications, as well.
“Keep in mind what Yorktown is experiencing right now with their development down there on the water side. Would that happen here? I certainly hope it doesn’t,” citizen Ed Oyer said. He asked the board not to compete with private enterprises by keeping the zoning as-is.
Several items are in the master plan for the Jamestown Beach property, any of which could be completed, deleted or altered to meet the current needs of the county. As it stands, the plan includes handicap accessible trail access, a drop-off loop, a performance venue, special event area and an environmental education area.
“I see this as a black hole, a money pit for this county,” Sue Sadler, James City County resident, said at the public hearing.
The first phase of the project to be executed will include shoreline restoration, adding additional parking, a handicap dropoff loop and trails to the beach. A staff memo to the board indicates these planned improvements are not intended to attract new visitors but to improve conditions.
“Now is not the time to build a Disney World at Jamestown, Virginia,” county resident Roseanne Reddin told the board.
Each board member made comments on the project. Roberts Supervisor John McGlennon, Powhatan Supervisor Andy Bradshaw and Jamestown Supervisor Jim Icenhour supported the rezoning and special use permit, while Berkeley Supervisor Mary Jones and Stonehouse Supervisor Jim Kennedy opposed it.
“I have been open from day one on this, prior to being elected to this position, that I don’t think the government should be in the land acquisition business,” Jones said.
Jones asked the board to hold off on rezoning the property and to eventually sell it. She said she did appreciate a suggestion Kennedy made about “re-wilding” the property by planting trees.
Kennedy supported a passive use for the property and said he would support the applications if stipulations could be written in for future uses on the property.
“Lipstick on a pig is just a pig, and I think that’s what we could get here,” Kennedy said.
Prior to the vote on the applications, Bradshaw outlined the concerns with the project he had heard and explained his stance on and understanding of the project. He said the Jamestown Beach area was a location he considered to be both a historical and “sacred” entrance to the community, which needed to be protected. Icenhour said Bradshaw touched on his concerns, as well.
McGlennon reviewed the entire Shaping Our Shores master plan and said the 400-page document was a true expression of open government. The plan outlines many aspects of research and discussion that went into the project, but McGlennon said it is important to recognize that the community changes rapidly and a 10-year-old conversation does not have much bearing on what is happening today.
“What we have here is exactly what we were trying to give to this community in 2007: a legacy that we could be proud of, that we preserved historically significant land from the earliest settlers of this community that other communities had let slip through their fingers,” McGlennon said.
Jamestown Yacht Basin
The bulkheads at Jamestown Yacht Basin have been brought up in the course of discussion about the Jamestown Beach project, but the area is not under consideration for any major improvements at this time.
“Some of the questions that I raised back in 2009 about the marina I’m reading more and more about now that the bulkheads aren’t as secure as what we thought back in 2009 and the price there may be a lot more to repair those as what we had anticipated,” said Stonehouse Supervisor Jim Kennedy at the Feb. 26 James City County Board of Supervisors work session.
Bulkheads are boards used to stabilize the shoreline to keep the land from falling into the water; they are weathered with holes in some places and are in need of repair or replacement.
There is no safety issue with the bulkheads at this time, said James City County Parks and Recreation Director John Carnifax. Some of the dock support is provided by the bulkheads, but there is no imminent danger of collapse. If a large storm came through and the bulkheads failed, they would be replaced or repaired at the board’s request.
In 2009’s Shaping Our Shores master plan, staff wrote, “The bulkhead is in generally poor condition, as there is evidence of bulkhead failures indicated by deteriorated sheet piling and loss of backfill behind the bulkhead and beneath the dock structure.”
Shaping Our Shores also indicates the non-bulkhead portions on the shore are stable and had some small areas of minor erosion.
County staff is authorized to do minor repairs at the yacht basin, using the lease money Eco Discovery Park owner Steve Rose pays to the county. Any amount exceeding his lease would require authorization from the board.
“The board is not interested at this time in spending any large amount of money,” Carnifax said.
Eco Discovery Park leased the land for the park from James City County and also operates the yacht basin. Eco Discovery Park owner Steve Rose has a three-year lease with the option of a two-year extension, which would be authorized by the James City County Board of Supervisors.
“Steve’s done a good job of cleaning the place up,” Carnifax said.
Rose declined requests for comment on this issue.
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