James City County is proposing changes to its industrial district, modifications triggered by plans of a Newport News church to buy some industrial land in the county to construct a church, school, daycare, senior housing and possibly a gas station. The church is accusing the county of making the changes to block its plans and the county is saying it’s trying to correct a number of errors and omissions inadvertently made during a 2012 zoning overhaul.
The Peninsula Pentecostals, currently located in an industrial area of Newport News, wants to construct a 45,000-square-foot church –that’s about 50 percent larger than St. Bede Roman Catholic Church on Ironbound Road—to seat about 2,400 people. The housing and gas station would be spread across 40 acres of land at 9230, 9240 and 9250 Pocahontas Trail. The church signed a contract in March to purchase the land.
Proposed changes to the county’s industrial zone appeared on the Planning Commission Policy Committee’s agenda for its May 31 meeting. The proposed changes then went before the Planning Commission in a public hearing on June 5.
Tim Trant of Kaufman and Canoles, representing The Peninsula Pentecostals, spoke against the proposed changes at the commission’s public hearing. The church had been looking at purchasing land in James City County for more than three years because the current church facility – in a commercial area on the edge of a residential area of Newport News – is too small for its congregation.
“What happened relative to these ordinance changes as they impact and relate to the interactions my client has had with the staff are nothing short of nefarious and unconscionable,” Trant told the commission.
Trant set up a meeting with county staff on April 2 to discuss the church’s plans for the area, which included a church, daycare, school, senior housing and commercial and retail uses such as a gas station or convenience store.
“At that meeting we expressed our vision … showed them a conceptual plan and asked for feedback,” Trant explained to the commission.
He said Planning Director Paul Holt told him staff would look into the plan for the area, but did say churches and daycares were by-right uses, meaning the church could purchase the land and build a church and daycare without triggering a full county approval process as a special use permit would.
On April 29, Trant said county staff offered feedback on the plan.
“The consumption of that amount of [industrial] land for sort of non-business type uses and also the retail elements for less than the sort of intense industrial development that was sort of perceived for the industrial park across the street would present some concerns and the master plan as we presented it would be challenged to receive staff support and challenged, ultimately, to receive support by the Board of Supervisors,” Trant said to the commission.
Trant explained that in the time between April 2 and April 29 the church decided to sacrifice the overall plan to build a church and a daycare. On April 29, Trant said he told staff the church intended to proceed with the by-right uses planned for the property.
“Flash forward 30 days … I make a call to the zoning administrator … and the reaction was he was happy to work with us but we had bigger issues” that the zoning ordinances were pending before the board that night to eliminate churches as a by-right use in the industrial zone, Trant explained to the commission.
Trant was not able to provide comment for this article but did speak extensively before the Planning Commission at its June 5 meeting.
An email sent from County Administrator Robert Middaugh on May 1 to the Board of Supervisors and two members of the county’s planning staff explained planning staff had been briefed on the church’s plan and the planning and economic development staff had been asked to look into altering the industrial zoning in an effort to address the by-right uses “and focus more clearly on the industrial elements as we think was intended,” the email reads.
In an interview, Middaugh explained the changes were prompted by the church’s plans.
“It was a signal to me that we have a problem in the ordinance that we need to go look at,” Middaugh explained.
Clarifying, he said the county is not trying to block the church, but rather overhaul the entire use list. “That was one of the many problematic uses,” he said. “We’ve got a broken ordinance and we need to fix it.”
In all, about 40 uses are on the chopping block from the industrial district. When ordinance changes were made in January 2012, about 21 uses – such as manufacturing boats and aircraft – were dropped, said Planning Director Paul Holt in an interview.
Holt said parallel conversations were going on in the April to May timeframe relating to the zoning ordinance changes. He said staff had realized the uses were dropped from the industrial district and knew something needed to be changed. Between the January 2012 changes and the April to May timeframe that saw the church discussion begin, staff had been making a list of things that needed to be corrected in all the zoning ordinances, not just the industrial ordinance.
The email from Middaugh details some aspects of the proposed church project, including the plans to construct a church, daycare, school, senior housing and a gas or convenience store. It explains the church would be located closest to Skiffes Creek Townhomes with the residential part of the project in the middle of the site and the retail uses next to the Skiffes Creek Reservoir.
“There’s a church right beside this piece of property we’re trying to build on, there’s a residential community, this is not an intense industrial manufacturing area,” Trant said to the commission.
Middaugh’s email to the board also explains Peninsula Pentecostal was looking into possibly rezoning the industrial land to mixed use, to allow for their full plan.
“In discussing this with both development management and economic development staff, I am quite concerned that the proposed use would use one of very few large unused pieces of [industrial land] left in the county for what would likely be a tax exempt purpose,” the email reads. “We have many other areas of the county that would be suitable for this kind of use that would not consume the little amount of [industrial land] that is available.”
The county currently has about 1,000 acres of industrial land currently available; more than 600 acres of that is one piece of property currently owned by BASF Corporation.
Deputy County Attorney Adam Kinsman said he doesn’t think the county has done anything wrong with regard to trying to change the zoning.
“[They’ve] followed all the statutory procedures, done all the advertisements…I think they’ve followed all the steps,” Kinsman said in an interview.
The process for changing the zoning in the county begins with an initiating resolution by the Planning Commission or the Board of Supervisors directing staff to make a change. Sometimes, the initiating resolution and public hearing occur on the same night and sometimes they occur a month or more apart. Staff makes the changes directed and then the changes are required to go before the commission and the board for public hearings. As a matter of practice, Kinsman said the proposed changes first go to the Planning Commission Policy Committee.
The public hearings are advertised in a local newspaper and then public hearings are held.
In the case of these proposed industrial zoning changes, the Policy Committee reviewed the changes, sent them to the Planning Commission for a public hearing and the commission referred the changes back to the Policy Committee. The changes will go before the Planning Commission for a continued public hearing at its July 3 meeting.
The commission meets at 7 p.m. in Building F at 101 Mounts Bay Rd. The meetings are broadcast live on JCCTV Cox Cable channel 48 and online. The agendas are made available online.
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