The county took formal action Aug. 18 to pursue the prospect of a 1.5 million-square-foot distribution center that would produce hundred of jobs in the Carmel Church area, although the supervisors are holding their cards close to the chest.
Little information is currently available about the project. A staff memo from the Board of Supervisors’ Aug. 18 agenda notes that the distribution center would be constructed in phases, with the first phase putting down 650,000 square feet.
By comparison, the Value City distribution center, also located in the Carmel Church area, is only 326,000 square feet in area.
Figures in the memo also note an investment of $95 million in the first phase of construction and state that 450 employees would be hired at an average annual salary of $38,000 “with benefits.”
The action taken by the supervisors Aug. 18 sets in motion an expedited public hearing on a rezoning of the property in question.
Although the property has not been identified, the Value City distribution center is zoned M-1 industrial.
Mattaponi Supervisor Floyd Thomas made the motion for the expedited hearing, and earlier in the evening, during opening comments, urged his fellow officials to approve the motion, actions that indicate the property lies in his district, which includes the Western Mattaponi and Milford precincts.
His motion justified an expedited hearing on the ground that “time is of the essence with regard to rezoning in order for the project to move forward within the company’s schedule and timeline.”
The property will be identified by the Department of Economic Development at a later date, before the public hearing.The matter was moved to the Planning Commission, which on Aug. 20 convened in closed meeting on the subject with Caroline Director of Economic Planning and Tourism Gary Wilson and county attorney Ben Emerson.
Tentatively, the rezoning will go to public hearing before the Planning Commission at their September 18 meeting and to public hearing before the Board of Supervisors Oct. 13.
The supervisors unanimously voted in favor of expediting the hearing.
Virginia state code permits public bodies to hold closed meetings for 44 different purposes, one of which is “discussion concerning a prospective business or industry or the expansion of an existing business or industry where no previous announcement has been made of the business’ or industry’s interest in locating or expanding its facilities in the community.”
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