By Michael Copley
Powhatan Today Staff Writer

Business news has been dominated recently by Walmart’s interest in opening a store in Powhatan. The community is divided with opponents of big-box development claiming Walmart will ruin existing county businesses.

But a unanimous vote by the BOS to approve a rezoning request submitted by a locally owned business exemplified desired growth and commercial development, according to supervisors and residents who commented publicly.

Weightpack Inc.- a company that assembles and customizes computerized bottling machines- opened on Dorset Rd. in Powhatan in 2001 as a spin-off of an Italian company. Weightpack moved its office and showroom recently from Dorset Rd. to the abandoned Sheehy Ford auto dealership on Route 60.

The company asked planners to rezone 9.37 acres of the total 19.37 acre lot on Route 60 to I-1 Light Industrial with conditions, to allow the company to undertake “more complex assembly of the machines” at the application site, according to planning documents.

Guiseppe Marannano, the owner, plans to renovate and use of the old Sheehy building and to build a new 15,000 square foot structure behind the existing building.  A second building phase could expand that future structure to 30,000 square feet.

During Weightpack’s rezoning hearing with the planning commission last month, resident Michael Potter commended the owners for keeping their business in the county and for working to renovate an existing building.

And this week Greg Ownby, a resident and leader of Powhatan Grow Smart, said “This is smart growth, this is what we need,” referring, he said, to a business filling existing empty space.

Weightpack’s annual sales have increased for the past four years, according to planning documents, and totaled $5-6 million in 2008. It was noted the company- with a sales territory in North, South and Central America- will give Powhatan international exposure “as a good place to do business.”

Further, planning documents indicate the company will service other local businesses and “80 percent of [the company’s] machine parts will come from local and area vendors…This is a strong company and exactly the type of industry identified as a target market during the Economic Development Authority’s strategic planning process…[and] mirror our objective to create a workforce with the advanced skills and abilities required for the existing and projected target industries.”

Another resident said the board should approve the application if only to hasten the removal of the bright lights left over from the car dealership, and District 4 Supervisor Scott Daniel said Weightpack is “moving into a site that desperately needs upgrading.”

District 5 Supervisor Carson Tucker said the company will create skilled and semi-skilled well-paying jobs and he “applauded” efforts at adaptive reuse.

Proffered Condition:Weightpack agreed to keep any additional storm-water runoff it creates off of adjoining properties and the owner agreed to use low impact designs for storm water management when possible.