Plans released on proposed Love’s Truck Stop in New Kent

After two years of development and planning, the Love’s Company presented its proposed plan for a travel stop off of Emmaus Church Road (Route 106) in New Kent to the county’s planning commission Monday night.

The hour long presentation came before the planners to provide first insight of a Love’s Travel Stop just off the Exit 211 interchange from Interstate 64. The travel stop would be located on the westbound side of Emmaus Church Road, across from the current Pilot Truck Stop. The Love’s Corporation is based out of Watonga, Oklahoma, and currently has 240 stores in 40 states.

“We see Interstate 64 as a viable route and that’s why we want to come to New Kent,” said project manager William Gleason.

According to Gleason, the proposed travel stop will be a $12-15 million investment towards the county. The project manager also said that an approval would result in 30-40 jobs during the construction phase, followed by the hiring 45-50 employees to operate the facility. Gleason continued, highlighting different Love’s facilities that sparked development that included hotels, shopping centers, and restaurants.

Project manager Jeremy Reese laid down the first specifics of the facility. Among the first major change is the relocation of an access road that would lead to the travel stop.

Originally, the access road was to be placed across from the proposed Wilco-Hess Travel Plaza. However, Wilco-Hess declined to proceed with those plans. Now, the access road is planned to be situated across from the main truck entrance of Pilot, something Reese said was done for safety. Turning lanes would lead into the facility, but also being proposed is a traffic light for the intersection, something that Reese said would be paid for by the Love’s corporation if Virginia’s Department of Transportation (VDOT) deemed necessary.

Diagrams shown as part of a 47-slide Powerpoint presentation revealed the travel plaza would consist of 73 parking spaces and 14 fuel stations for automobiles. Diesel trucks would have fueling stations on the most western part of the property. Layout for that area includes eight fueling stations and 89 truck parking spaces. A convenience story spanning just over 7,200 square feet as well as a fast food restaurant covering 3,100 square feet are also part of Love’s master plan. To protect the environment, a 100-foot buffer surrounds most of the property and a 100-foot Resource Protection Area (RPA) has been designated to ensure the wetlands in nearby Toe Ink Swamp remain safe in the event of an accidental gasoline spill or leak.

Managing director and real estate broker John Jay Schwartz commented on the financial gains the travel stop can bring to New Kent.

“The projections show that the county will make anywhere from $250,000-$300,000 in tax revenue per year, with at least $125,000 of that money stemming from the meal tax,” commented Schwartz. “There is no major truck stop between Hampton Roads and Richmond. We hope this will be a high quality truck stop between the two locations.”

At conclusion of the presentation, planning commission members raised questions and commented on the proposal.

“I like the way you have approached and presented this plan,” said District 4 commissioner Richard Kontny. “But I want to know how are you going to handle the traffic on the bridge?

“I see this huge bottleneck forming on [Route] 106,” he continued. “How do you propose we handle that traffic load?”

“I think if the roundabouts are built, they would work with our site,” responded Reese. “We ran every possible scenario about that with VDOT and they found it sufficient.”

“In order to get to the future, we’ve got to fix it now,” Kontny rebutted, talking about how the proposal focuses on the future projection of traffic. “I travel that way every morning at 5 a.m. and when I try to turn left onto Interstate 64 eastbound, I am often backed up by trucks coming from Pilot trying to get on the interstate either to go that way or to head westbound.”

Planning commission chairwoman Patricia Townsend said that the problem of traffic may be alleviated by the installation of the proposed light at the access road.

“If you had a stop light, you can regulate the amount of traffic on the bridges,” she commented. “I’m anticipating the stop light and turning lanes will provide some sort of gap.”

Reese agreed, saying the traffic light can be varied a number of ways to help traffic.

“The light would create a natural gap,” he said. “It will be about a balance of timing. We can also have a ‘no turn on red’ sign as well to keep the traffic flowing on Route 106.

“Our first function of the intersection is to make it safe and that’s what this plan does,” he concluded.

Planning commissioners will have two months to review the project and any changes. A public hearing on the proposed traffic stop is scheduled for the commission’s Dec. 21 meeting.