A request to extend a sewer line 220 feet near Governor’s Land prompted the James City County Board of Supervisors to have a lengthy discussion Tuesday of growth and how to manage it, with the supervisors agreeing it is time for a thorough examination of the issue.
The discussion centered on the Primary Service Area, which is the county’s principal tool for managing growth. The PSA, which encompasses broad swaths of the county, is a designation for land in the county where officials want to concentrate urban growth connected to services like sewer and water.
Lands within the PSA are supposed to have access to county buildings, receive county services and undergo growth, while lands outside are supposed to remain rural and emphasize farming and forestry activities.
Supervisor Jim Kennedy (Stonehouse) brought up early in the conversation the need for a deeper discussion of the PSA and whether it is still the best approach for managing growth in the county. He asked for at least one work session discussing the issue, saying there are some “meaty subjects” to discuss.
His comments were echoed by Supervisor John McGlennon (Roberts), who said Kennedy’s request to have the discussion about whether the PSA is still the right tool “hit the nail on the head.”
Supervisor Michael Hipple (Powhatan) advocated examining the PSA to see if it is still working, noting he thinks there are more optimal ways to manage growth in the county and that is time to develop a better plan. He advocated inviting the public, county staff and the planning commission into a process to discuss the PSA and potential changes to growth management.
Referencing remarks made during the election last year, Supervisor Kevin Onizuk (Jamestown) said the most common concern he hears from citizens is growth.
“We love James City County, and we want to maintain the character of our community,” Onizuk said. “We need to be very cautious about growth and determine who we want to be and how we want to look as we build out.”
Though he agreed it is time to examine the PSA to see if it is the best tool to manage growth, he cautioned it is “all we have.”
“Maybe [the PSA] is our best growth management alternative, or maybe we need to find something else to lead us into the future,” he said.
The supervisors voted 4-1 to defer the sewer extension, pushing it a month for the second time in a row. McGlennon was the lone no vote. During a discussion of the PSA and how it affects the sewer extension, he said a community conversation about the nature of growth would not be concluded within the next meeting or two.
When asked by Onizuk if approving the extension request would invalidate the PSA, County Attorney Leo Rogers said it would not, however it would establish a precedent for additional connections to county services and staff would need to devise an objective set of criteria to accommodate those requests.
Vernon M. Geddy III, an attorney representing the owner of the land that would receive sewer service, wrote a letter to the supervisors and gave them at the start of Tuesday’s meeting, he said the situation with his client’s parcel outside the PSA is unique and that allowing the extension would not set a precedent for other landowners outside the PSA to apply to receive water and sewer services.
Acting County Administrator Doug Powell said staff can research the assertions Geddy made in his letter and then present those findings to the board. Approving the extension would not set a precedent allowing “unbridled growth,” Geddy wrote.
Staff from the James City County Planning Division tasked with preparing a report about the extension application for the supervisors said that approval would establish a precedent for more properties outside the PSA receiving services.
Planner Ellen Cook spoke before the supervisors Tuesday and said other property owners outside the PSA would likely come forward and ask for water and sewer service.
“Should this occur, the county will lack a credible basis to deny those requests,” Cook said.
James City County Planning Commissioner Robin Bledsoe (Jamestown) told the board that at her commission’s public hearing for the extension, a property owner near the lot requesting service said she would immediately submit an application to receive the service.
The planning staff and the planning commission both advocated rejecting the extension.
The sewer extension would serve a 3.18-acre lot across the street from the entrance to Governor’s Land, which receives water and sewer service from the county despite its location outside the PSA. The owner of the lot wants to build a house there and has said the house will be built whether it receives sewer service.
The water and sewer lines serving Governor’s Land run beneath John Tyler Highway (Route 5) and enter the neighborhood beneath Two Rivers Road. The 3.18-acre lot is directly across the street from Two Rivers Road, and while it is connected to the water line, the sewer line veers into Governor’s Land before the water line, necessitating the extension.
Encompassed within the PSA is all of Grove, much of the area ranging from Kingsmill west to the edge of Governor’s Land, much of the area east of Centerville Road and select parts of the northern section of the county, including Stonehouse, Mirror Lake Estates and the Hankins and Jacobs industrial parks.
According to the James City County Comprehensive Plan, a document last updated in 2009 that county officials use to guide growth and development in the county over a 20-year period, there are 19,290 to 20,475 potential dwelling units that could be built in the PSA without expanding it. Between 1990 and 2008, an average of 804 certificates of occupancy for residential units were issued annually, which would put the PSA on pace to provide room for growth until 2025 to 2034.
The PSA exists to concentrate growth in a compact area to encourage the use of public services, ensure those services are available when needed, increase public benefit on dollars spent by the county, minimize response time for emergency services, minimize well and septic failures and preserve rural lands, according to the comprehensive plan.
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