By Michael Copley
Staff Writer

The board of supervisors passed a resolution last week that will pay for a third-party review of Walmart’s traffic impact analysis (TIA).  But the scope of the work cited in the resolution is short of what some supervisors had called for previously.

In a 3-2 vote January 11, the board approved hiring the consulting firm Martin Alexiou Bryson (MAB) to conduct Task I of the group’s proposed transportation analysis.

District 3 Supervisor Robert Cosby and District 4 Supervisor Scott Daniel voted against the resolution.

The county’s transportation study group asked supervisors in the Fall to ensure engineers conduct a “global study” that looks at the entire area in eastern Powhatan where the proposed Walmart would be built, including traffic impacts to the roads that feed Route 60.

But supervisors argued in December about the very idea of spending county money to review traffic conditions on and around Route 60, in light of Walmart’s push to open a store in the county.

Cosby said he wouldn’t support spending tax dollars for a study that focuses on Walmart.

“Walmart will have to get the roads in order,” Cosby said, before he considers the retailer’s rezoning request. “I’m not going to vote to allow tax money to be spent [on traffic consultants] so Walmart can come to the county.”

But District 1 Supervisor Joe Walton argued that eastern Powhatan, along Route 60, is designated for intensive commercial and residential development under the proposed comprehensive plan and he called for a “holistic” review of roads in the area.

“With so much going on- on both sides of Route 60- from Page Road to South Creek One, [Powhatan] needs a transportation planner to make sure the county gets the best deal,” Walton said.

He added, “This is a much larger issue than the Walmart thing. It will be a global study, not a Walmart study. It’s a community planning exercise.”

District 5 Supervisor Carson Tucker said having the study conducted “does speak to the goal of creating nodal development in the future.”

But the resolution passed last week only finances the first of three phases that were originally proposed. The county will pay $3,500 for the review of Walmart’s TIA- the first of the three phases.

Brandon Stidham, County Planning Director, in November said Powhatan can pay the consultant with unspent transportation money from last year’s budget. $20,000 remained earmarked for transportation services.

Instead of paying the consultant roughly $13,500 for the last two pieces of the transportation study- reviews of both the Page Road extension project and traffic conditions in the eastern Route 60 corridor- Walton said land owners on Route 60 will assemble for a “big, focused planning effort,” and he said a complete review of Route 60 will still be conducted.

Walton added that getting a review of Walmart’s TIA was essential and said the new direction of the now-modified transportation study separates a “controversial” aspect of the plan from the more general study of transportation conditions in eastern Powhatan.

Last week Walmart was granted another one-month deferral on its rezoning request, moving its hearing with the planning commission back to March. This rezoning application was scheduled for a hearing at the December planning commission meeting, but has been delayed by requests for deferral. Stidham said Walmart has communicated that they are continuing to refine their application in response to concerns from the county.

But some in the community think there might be more going on.

Stidham said he met last week with VDOT officials and a party applying to build a 163,000 square foot “free standing discount superstore,” on land on the North side of Route 60, between South Creek One and Luck Stone Quarry Drive. That entire property identified in pre-scoping paperwork is zoned C General Commercial and a big-box store could be built there as a by-right development without developers having to go through the public hearing process. Stdham said the property was rezoned C Commercial in the Spring of 2005.

Stidham said Walmart’s name has not been mentioned and he said he did not know what the applicant’s intentions are. Super Structures General Contractors is listed as the owner/developer on the paperwork, and Ramey Kemp and Associates of Richmond LLC. is identified as the consultant.

Walmart will have to go through a full public-hearing process to have the site currently identified in its application rezoned from R-C Residential Commercial, C Commercial and I-1 Light Industrial to C General Commercial. And between persistent traffic concerns at the application site and a vocal anti-Walmart contingency in the county, some in the community are speculating that the retailer is looking for another, less resistant, point of entry.

One Walmart representative who was not authorized to comment said he had not heard anything about an alternative building site and he said he would be very surprised if the store were looking around.

That representative said Walmart’s requests for deferral have been requested to give the retailer time to work on the transportation and architectural components of its application, and he added that the store has nearly completed an economic impact analysis for the county.

Check back for updates.