Supervisors approve two residential projects, add to School Board budget

Short Pump resident Karen Hamilton settled into a seat near the front of the Henrico Board of Supervisors Room June 12 with a paper copy of the evening's agenda in hand, furiously scanning it for items of objection.

“They hate me," she said of the supervisors. "You’ll see."

This was not Hamilton’s first time attending public meetings. She goes regularly, she said, to call out what she considers corruption. Several items on the agenda that night fit her definition of it. Among them: two rezoning requests – one to allow luxury apartments near the Cox Road/I-64 overpass and another to permit townhomes at the intersection of Neale Street and Mechanicsville Turnpike in Eastern Henrico.

The luxury apartments, proposed by CR APT Land LC, are designed to house no more than 407 units within two gated housing buildings. The project also would include a parking deck, an enclosed courtyard and an outdoor venue that could host as many as four events a year.

Land One, LLC, proposed 95 townhome units as part of the Eastern Henrico project. The community would retain extra green space by building fewer units than are permitted on the land and offering restricted construction hours to provide a quieter living environment for residents.

Firm timelines were not discussed for either project.

After supervisors heard each case and invited public comment, Hamilton stood up and delivered nearly to the same speech, describing her vehement opposal of any further development in Henrico County. It would be unconstitutional for such development to happen, she argued. The destruction of habitat for development would kill endangered species of migratory birds, which she claimed violated laws and international treaties protecting them.

Though Board members assured Hamilton that environmental studies are conducted for each development application, Hamilton believed those studies were falsified. She continued to object the rezonings on grounds of overpopulation and increased levels of traffic.

“Not every human can live in Henrico County,” she warned the board members. It was becoming dangerous, she said, to walk where she needed to go since she did not have a vehicle.

Supervisors ultimately approved both projects unanimously as part of a full agenda, which also included a unanimous vote to redefine Henrico County Code to allow a variety of brewery, distillery, and winery uses. The move could help the industry grow within the county.

A request to turn the three multi-purpose fields at Deep Run Park into a $150,000 cricket field met more resistance from board members, however. Supervisors wondered how useful such a field would be for citizens and what would happen to the sports teams that are currently using the three fields.

In the end, the back and forth debate over the usefulness of such a field tabled it to a future work session, where the board will consider Henrico County sports as a whole and where expansions should be considered.

Supervisors also approved an additional $3.2 million for the Henrico School Board's 2018-19 budget that will be used to increase the retention rate of teachers, though the addition of a last-minute provision of $350,000 for raises for bus drivers raised the eyebrows of several supervisors, including Varina's Tyrone Nelson.

Nelson wasn’t upset with the idea of giving bus drivers pay raises but said he was concerned about the addition being made so late in the process – long after budgetary conversations between the School Board and Board of Supervisors took place. He didn’t like the idea that the School Board members were withholding their financial needs from the Board of Supervisors during those talks, he said.

In the end, Nelson conceded that School Board members might not spend every last cent of the appropriations.

“We don’t have any control after we give it to them. We’re writing them a blank check," said Nelson, who voted for the additional funds but did so after voicing a warning to the School Board about withholding information.

“We have five elected School Board members,” he said. “Hopefully, they will not be afraid to have conversations. They do not work for the superintendent. We do not work for the county manager. We work for the people.”