NK supervisors take action on parking spaces, road plan

New Kent’s Board of Supervisors has approved an amendment to county law governing parking areas so that new lots with 50 or more spaces found on land zoned for agriculture or conservation must be paved. The old law required paving for 20 or more spaces.

In other action, the board approved a six-year secondary road improvement plan that lists sections of three roads scheduled for upgrades. In priority order, the list is Stage Road, Dispatch Road, and Henpeck Road. The board also shifted $18,000 in funding from the Henpeck Road project to Dispatch Road.

Supervisors took action on both matters during their Monday night meeting. Both matters passed by 4-1 votes with District 2 supervisor Tommy Tiller casting the dissenting vote on each.

Amending the parking lot standard won the blessing of both the county’s Economic Development Authority and Chamber of Commerce. The majority of board members, meanwhile, indicated they did not want to restrict any business from locating in the county.

In making a motion for approval, District 1 supervisor Thomas Evelyn said the amendment “will help some people in getting [development] plans approved and get development going in the county.”

Tiller, meanwhile, objected to the state’s six-year road plan and the $18,000 transfer in particular. He said he has received several complaints from constituents living along Henpeck and Sassafras roads who are taking issue with transferring money from Henpeck to the Dispatch Road project.

“The longer we put off Henpeck, it’s not going to get any better,” Tiller said.

But VDOT representative Mike Cade said the $18,000 “is just going to sit there for some time unless [board members] want to move it.”

He added that the Henpeck project is estimated at $1.5 to $2 million, and money for the work does not exist. That, however, could change somewhat under Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposed road plan, he said, although most state money is now being funneled into the interstate highway system and bridge rehabilitation.

Cade said work crews are slated to move forward with the Dispatch Road project, Cade told the board. Work on Stage Road has been completed and the road is being moved off the plan, he added.

Evelyn bemoaned the fact that only $65,000 in state money is designated for New Kent’s road plan in the next fiscal year.

“Don’t look for a whole lot out of this,” he warned.

Pointing to the money shortage, District 4 representative Ron Stiers complained that close to $1 million is being set aside for building a bicycle path along Route 155 to connect New Kent Courthouse with Charles City Courthouse (see story on $143 million in regional road funding in this issue).

When told the bike path funding is federal money, Stiers shot back, “It doesn’t matter. Funding is funding and tax dollars are tax dollars.”