New Kent Charles City Chronicle

News for New Kent County and Charles City County, Virginia | March 29, 2024

Commission recommends zoning okay for PF business

By Alan Chamberlain | January 30, 2008 11:53 am

A request that will pave the way for a Toano-based contractor firm to build office, maintenance, and storage space in Providence Forge is heading to New Kent’s Board of Supervisors with a favorable recommendation from the county’s Planning Commission.

Commission members voted unanimously during their Jan. 22 meeting to recommend that supervisors approve Trinity Contractors’ request to rezone 3.65 acres from B-1 Business General to M-1 Warehousing and Limited Industrial. The site, known as the Carswell Estate, is located on Route 155 (South Courthouse Road), just south of the CSX Railroad crossing.

Trinity owners Phil Davidson and Dale Cava plan to demolish an existing house and outbuildings and construct a 40×60-foot office building and a 50×60-foot paved parking lot on the section of the site closest to Route 155.

A 60×80-foot workshop is to be built behind the office building and used for maintaining the company’s fleet of four large trucks. Eight pickup trucks and nine trailers are also to be housed on site.

A 32×160-foot pole storage shed is slated for the rear of the property. Land between the maintenance shop and storage shed is to become a graveled yard with a security fence enclosing the shop, shed, and yard area.

Commission members made their recommendation following a public hearing on the request.

Two other public hearings scheduled for last week’s meeting were postponed until at least the commission’s Feb. 19 meeting. One involved a request by P.D. Sweet to rezone just over 95 acres on the north side of Route 249 (New Kent Highway), just west of the Topeka Road intersection, from agricultural to single-family residential. Sweet proposes to build a 16-lot housing subdivision and designate one lot for equestrian use.

Also deferred was a request by Patriot’s Landing Management Corporation to add 13.5 acres to the Patriot’s Landing Planned Unit Development on Route 60 near Bottoms Bridge. There is to be no change in the number of housing units approved for the PUD, county officials say.

In other business during the Jan. 22 meeting, planners viewed a presentation on future development in the county that was prepared by a group of eight recent New Kent High School graduates who are pursuing education in land planning and uses while in college. Andrew Pompei, who attends the University of Virginia, led the group.

The students urged county planners to focus on architectural standards that help preserve New Kent’s rural character. New development should be allowed, but only in ways that complement the county, they told the commission.

In other matters, the commission:

–Elected David Smith as chairman and Patty Townsend as vice-chairman for 2008;

–Scheduled a Feb. 19 public hearing on performance standards for temporary land uses in the county that have been recommended by the county’s Zoning Ordinance Rewrite Committee. Temporary uses include carnivals, circuses, fairs, festivals, craft sales and shows, flea markets, and truckload sales along with temporary construction offices, trailers, pushcarts, and mobile food units.