The James City County Board of Supervisors will consider a proposed sewer extension today, a request at odds with the county’s principal tool for managing growth.
Should the supervisors vote to approve the extension, it would extend the line outside the county’s Primary Service Area, a designation for land in the county where officials want to concentrate urban growth connected to services like water and sewer.
The supervisors already discussed the issue at their July 8 meeting, when Attorney Vernon Geddy III, who submitted the extension request on behalf of Bayshore Development, argued the house was going to be built either way. He referenced the sewer service to Governor’s Land, which like the property under consideration is outside the PSA.
The extension of service into Governor’s Land happened in 1997, when the county approved the extension into the neighborhood and all of its surrounding properties despite their position outside the PSA. The land under consideration is separated from the end of that sewer line by one lot.
Supervisors Jim Kennedy (Stonehouse) and Mary Jones (Berkeley) both referenced the precedent set by the expansion of the line into Governor’s Land in comments they made July 8.
“We’re talking about one property, and they can only put one house on it and they’re asking to tie into the sewer line. To me it just sounds like the right thing to do,” Jones said. “It’s one house.”
But Supervisor John McGlennon (Roberts) said approval of the extension would constitute “killing the PSA.”
“The argument that ‘Well, it’s adjacent’ is also going to mean, ‘Well, it’s on the outside of the PSA, but it’s right there, so why not let it connect?’” McGlennon said.
McGlennon said he would be willing to consider creating a new policy to control growth in the county, saying that only after such a policy was in place would he consider Geddy’s request to extend the line.
Supervisor Michael Hipple (Powhatan) joined Kennedy and Jones in noting the precedent set by Governor’s Land in 1997, but he also voiced support for exploring alternatives to the PSA, which he referred to as “that imaginary line.”
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 county’s comprehensive plan, a document county officials use to guide growth and development in the county over a 20-year period.
Staff members from the James City County Planning Division tasked with reviewing the proposed extension said approval would “set a precedent for similarly situated properties outside the PSA where property owners seek connections to nearby public utilities regardless of cost or need,” according to a memorandum to the supervisors from the division. They recommended the supervisors deny the expansion and the property owner use a septic system — something the owner is willing to do, Geddy told the supervisors at the July 8 meeting. He also said the owner would cover the cost of extending the sewer line.
Encompassed within the PSA is all of Grove, much of the area ranging from Kingsmill west to the edge of Governor’s Land, almost everything 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 comprehensive plan, last updated in 2009, 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 supervisors will again consider the request at their 7 p.m. meeting in Building F of the county’s government center off Mounts Bay Road.
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