Rezoning positions 55-acre Powhatan site for ‘business ready’ industrial development

Powhatan has rezoned a multi-acre site off Anderson Highway for light industrial. (Courtesy Roxanne Salerno)

A land assemblage along Powhatan County’s main thoroughfare is being teed up for development.

The Powhatan Board of Supervisors last month gave unanimous approval for the rezoning of 55 acres on the north side of Anderson Highway directly west of the Walmart from an agricultural designation to “light industrial.”

The rezoning means the site can now be marketed as a “Tier 4” site by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s business ready sites program, meaning it is positioned to allow construction in 12 to 18 months or that plans for necessary improvements are deemed “deliverable” within that time frame, per the VEDP.

It marks the first Tier 4 site of that level in Powhatan County’s history, said county director of economic development Roxanne Salerno.

The four contiguous parcels are currently a mix of wooded and open land. The largest of the four parcels, which spans 46 acres, contains a location for Yard Works, a manufacturer and distributor of mulch, gravel and other landscaping supplies.

The other parcels house several single-family dwellings, which can remain until further industrial development occurs, according to a Powhatan County staff report.

The rezoning applicant was Robert Urbine, owner of Urbine Family LLC and COO of Yard Works.

The 55-acre site can facilitate a “light industrial park” that could have multiple users or a single, large user.

The rezoning application from Urbine included several proffered conditions, including prohibiting building or parking areas within 75 feet of the front property line along Anderson Highway and buffering to retaining existing trees and vegetation in the front setback, along with buffering between the parcel and the adjacent Walmart at 1950 Anderson Highway and buffering on both sides of a stream in the northern portion of the site.

Other proffers include limited signage and site access limited to an existing commercial entrance and a potential “right-in, right-out” entrance on the eastern portion of the property.

Along with the 55-acre rezoning, the Board of Supervisors also approved the gifting from the county to the EDA of a commercially-zoned, 20-acre site on Feb. 24. That site is also along Anderson Highway and is next to the 55-acre site, Salerno said. The property is adjacent to the South Creek Shopping Center and South Creek Industrial Park.

Powhatan County previously purchased the 20-acre site for $850,000 in 2021. It is zoned as “commerce center” and is currently assessed at around $1.7 million.

Powhatan EDA has been gifted 20 acres for some new development. (Courtesy Roxanne Salerno)

This is the biggest property the Powhatan EDA has owned in recent history, Salerno said.

Salerno said it’s not yet certain what the EDA will do with the property, but it will likely go on the market soon, along with the 55-acre site.

“Those are two big opportunity sites in very popular industrial areas around Powhatan that we now have free and open that we’ll be looking to market as soon as possible,” Salerno said.

Other sizable industrial projects are in the works in Powhatan.

Last October, the Board of Supervisors approved a $2.7 billion data center campus across nearly 120 acres off of Page Road.

The three contiguous parcels for that project were rezoned from agriculture to light industrial, and the board voted 3-2 in favor of granting a conditional use permit to the developer, California-based Province Group. The vote went against a previous planning commission recommendation to deny the permit.

Province Group’s project would include three data center buildings totaling 1.5 million square feet to be built over five years. Salerno said Province Group is still working on finding an end user for the data center.

Also in October, a 43-acre parcel, also on the north side of Anderson Highway, was approved by the board to be rezoned from agricultural to light industrial and single-family residential.

“As an overall, it’s starting to shape up to look like Powhatan is getting more serious on attraction on the business side,” Salerno said.

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