The Agenda: Local government briefs for 6.2.25

City Council to receive updates on water treatment plant, finance department

Richmond’s water treatment plant. (BizSense file)

Richmond City Council will hold several meetings Monday that were rescheduled due to last week’s water service disruptions.

At 4 p.m., council’s Organizational Development Standing Committee will receive an emergency incident response assessment from Hagerty Consulting and consider a resolution to establish policies and procedures for the city’s Civilian Review Board. An informal council meeting will follow, with updates on the water treatment plant and finance department.

At the 6 p.m. regular session, council’s consent agenda includes an ordinance to accept $1.5 million from the Virginia Resources Authority and to amend the wastewater utility budget to fund a thickening and dewatering facilities improvements project for the wastewater treatment plant.

The regular agenda includes an ordinance to establish a disposable plastic bag tax of 5 cents per bag distributed by retailers, grocery stores, convenience stores or drugstores.

The full meeting agendas can be found here.

Townhome infill at Union Hill church on Richmond planning agenda

A recent site plan shows the 15 townhomes in the Venable Street lot. (City documents)

The Richmond Planning Commission meets Tuesday at 6 p.m. Full agenda here.

Business on the consent agenda includes a special-use request for 15 townhomes at 2111-2119 Venable St. The homes are part of a larger plan for 19 new townhomes at property owned by Great Hope Baptist Church at 2101 Venable St., which also is planned to be converted into 19 apartments.

The four other townhomes are planned to replace a parking lot across Burton Street. UrbanCore Construction is leading the project, with Keel Custom Homes lined up to develop the townhomes.

On the regular agenda is a special-use request deferred from March for The Lawson Cos.’ plan for 180 income-restricted apartments on a 10-acre site at 5015 Snead Road in the Piney Knolls area.

Henrico issues request for interest in GreenCity arena, commercial section

The former Best Products headquarters building, which is to be repurposed as part of the GreenCity development. (Henrico County images)

Henrico County last week put out a formal request for interest from development firms that would pick up – and potentially rework – the commercial development planned for the arena-anchored GreenCity mixed-use project at Interstate 95 and Parham Road.

Master developers, arena operators and other interested parties have until July 28 to respond to the RFI, the county said in a release.

The project’s master plan now calls for 1.9 million square feet of office, 135,000 square feet of retail, three hotels with 600 rooms apiece, and just over 2,100 residential units, in addition to the 17,000-seat arena, parks and green space. The project also would involve rehabbing the former Best Products building on the site.

The county is recommending that developers revise the master plan “to reflect current development and industry trends, with likely more density, less office space and an adjustment to the arena’s location to maximize its visibility and connectivity within the development.” The county is seeking an accelerated timeline for the arena, which it projects to generate 8,000 jobs and $1.4 billion in economic impact.

“Statement of interest” submissions will be reviewed by a committee of county offices that would make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. The Economic Development Authority and the Henrico Sports & Entertainment Authority are to be represented on the committee.

Chesterfield EDA gets approval for zoning requests tied to data center projects

Development in Tract A would be limited to data centers and related facilities. The Tract B area could be developed along the same lines as the western Upper Magnolia Green property that was zoned in 2022. (County documents)

The Chesterfield Board of Supervisors last week approved zoning requests filed by the Economic Development Authority that set the stage for two data center projects.

The EDA received zoning approval to allow the construction of the data center projects, one near Westchester Commons and the second on land that includes part of the western Upper Magnolia Green site near Moseley. Together, the sites consist of more than 1,300 acres.

The Upper Magnolia Green West site is comprised of 980 acres on the property’s northern end. Of that, about 870 acres known as Tract A would be restricted to data centers and related accessory uses. The Tract B area of about 100 acres would be limited to industrial uses allowed under the 2022 zoning of western Upper Magnolia Green, which, in addition to data centers, includes offices, labs, pharmaceutical products manufacturing and R&D facilities.

The largely undeveloped project site consists of 4200 Moseley Road and other properties either owned by or under contract to the EDA.

Included in the project would be transportation infrastructure, such as the construction of a two-lane road connecting Mount Hermon Road and Westerleigh Parkway.

The project site near Westchester Commons is a 350-acre site called Watkins Centre South, which includes 750 Watkins Centre Parkway and other parcels that the EDA intends to buy. The development of the site would be restricted to data centers and related accessory uses, such as substations.

The Watkins Centre project’s proffered conditions also include a traffic signal, roundabout or something similar, if deemed necessary, at the Route 288 interchange with Watkins Centre Parkway.

Portions of the Upper Magnolia and Watkins Centre sites were already zoned General Industrial (I-2), which allows the proposed data center projects, but both sites also have areas that needed to be rezoned to I-2 to allow the projects to proceed.

The exact size and number of data center buildings planned for the two sites haven’t been publicly announced. The county also has not specified exactly where on the two tracts the data center buildings would be situated. Chesterfield officials have said the rezonings were motivated by conversations between county staff and an unidentified prospective data center operator.

Hanover supervisors appoint retired educator, psychiatrist to School Board

William Sroufe (left) and Frank Shelp

Hanover last week announced new appointments to the county’s seven-member School Board.

William Sroufe was tapped to represent the Cold Harbor district. Sroufe will replace Steven Ikenberry, who wraps up his four-year term June 30.

Sroufe is a retired educator who since October 2023 has been the community partnerships director for Action in Community Through Service, a Prince William-based nonprofit. He was the superintendent of Colonial Heights Public Schools from July 2019 to July 2023. He was also superintendent of Patrick County’s school district for five years, according to a Hanover news release.

Frank Shelp was appointed to represent the South Anna district. He will take over from Robert May, whose four-year term expires this month.

Shelp is a psychiatrist who has been Centene Corp.’s senior medical director for nearly a decade. He is on the faculty of four medical schools and two nursing schools, and has been the remote medical director for Dickenson County Behavioral Health Services for more than 10 years, per Hanover’s announcement.

Shelp has degrees from VCU and North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed his residency at Duke.

There were four candidates each for the two available School Board seats. The Hanover Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the appointments. Unlike most localities in Virginia, Hanover’s School Board members are appointed by the Board of Supervisors rather than elected by voters.

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