Goochland Planning Commission recommends denial of 138-home ‘Highfield’ project

Markel | Eagle Partners is proposing a new Goochland development. (Courtesy Goochland County)

A Henrico-based real estate developer has hit a bump in the road in its bid to build a new subdivision in Goochland. 

The county Planning Commission last Thursday night voted 5-0 to recommend denial of Markel | Eagle Partners’ rezoning for a 138-home project at 2106 and 2114 Rockville Road.

The company, which is one of the busiest homebuilders in the region, is asking to rezone the 138-acre site southwest of Rockville Road and Interstate 64 from agricultural use to a “residential, planned unit development” designation. The land is currently undeveloped.

Called “Highfield,” the project would consist of single-family detached homes, with a density of around one house per acre. Project costs are not reflected in the proposal.

The Highfield proposal is consistent with Goochland’s 2035 Comprehensive Plan, according to county staff reports. The site is part of the Tuckahoe Creek Service District, and is located in a “designated major growth area.”

No building permit for the homes would be sought until 2027, and no more than 40 building permit applications would be submitted per calendar year, Markel | Eagle said in the rezoning application. 

An aerial shot of the proposed Highfield site, outlined in red. (Courtesy Goochland County)

Goochland residents have previously raised concerns about the project, in part due to the site’s location along the busy Rockville Road. 

According to the applicant’s most up-to-date filings, there would be three entrances into the property: two on Rockville Road, and one that is an existing stub road off of Tuckahoe Bridge.

Proffers also include a 100-foot buffer along Rockville Road, and a 150-foot buffer along I-64, along with improvements to Rockville Road like a regrading and completion of improvements recommended in VDOT’s safety and sight distance study of the road. 

Goochland Fire-Rescue Chief Dillard Ferguson wrote a letter to county Assistant Director of Community Development Ray Cash on March 6, stating that he did not support the Highfield development, nor any development of its size, at the location.

Ferguson noted in his letter that over the past 20-some years, there have been seven fatal traffic crashes along the road, including three within the area of the proposed development and four within one mile to the north and south of the development. 

“Rockville Road, State Rt. 622, is a narrow secondary road with blind hills, curves, no shoulders, and deep ditches that serves as a main route of travel between the Centerville and Rockville communities,” Ferguson said in the letter.  

Those concerns were echoed at Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting. 

“The amount of additional traffic produced by the new subdivision will make the intersection of Rockville Road and Ashland Road a failed intersection, sooner,” said one Goochland resident during public comment. 

“Is it good practice to approve a project when your fire and rescue professionals have issues which are unaddressed?” another Goochland resident asked the commission. 

Chief Ferguson told the commission at the meeting that he stands by his points made in the letter. 

Nathalie Croft of Markel | Eagle sister company Eagle Construction, who presented at the meeting, rebutted, saying that the company’s proffered Rockville Road improvements are a step in the right direction for safety along the road.

“Rockville Road isn’t getting any safer by doing nothing,” she said. “All of the comments I’ve heard are looking at Rockville Road in its present condition, not its condition after we do the massive, significant amount of roadway improvements.” 

After hearing the concerns of Ferguson and Goochland residents, Planning Commission member Dwain Cosby moved to recommend denial of the Highfield rezoning proposal. The motion was unanimously approved. 

“I think (Markel | Eagle) have done everything we’ve asked for…I just don’t know if it’s right, right now,” commission member Amanda Kowalski said. “Until we have infrastructure improvements, until we figure out that Ashland area, until we figure out the Rockville/Ashland intersection.”

“It just seems after two years that we’re still trying to put a square peg in a round hole,” commission member Curt Pituck said. “And for that, I’d like to agree for denial.” 

Markel | Eagle did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

The Highfield project follows a 20-year-long effort to encourage development in the service district, which provides sewer and water service to an eastern section of the county.

Markel | Eagle previously had a pre-application review with county staff for the rezoning in August of 2022. After several development review sessions and community meetings, the rezoning application was submitted last December. 

The group has held three community meetings regarding the project, the first of which was in January of 2024. At that time, the proposed number of units for the project was 199. 

As the county’s comprehensive land plan indicates the land is intended for medium residential density, with an average of one unit per acre, the number was later lowered to a maximum of 138 units before a second community engagement session last April. The most recent community meeting for the project was held in January of this year. 

The rezoning case is still scheduled to go before the Goochland County Board of Supervisors for a deciding vote on July 1. 

The proposed Highfield site is near other development projects, including Amazon’s “Project Rocky” site that broke ground last week, and the expansion of the Luck Stone quarry, which was recently approved despite opposition from area homeowners.

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