Taken from the official minutes of the August 2009 Board of Supervisors Meeting (http://www.powhatanva.gov, see for yourself)

“Mr. Cosby stated that the Board as a body has not met with Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. He stated that only landowner/developers have met with certain members of the Board. He stated that these issues must be advertised and go to public hearing and any decision by the Board would be done in the correct and legal way.”

The Board of Supervisors is doing everything it is legally obliged to do, as they stated here. No decisions have been made as of yet, at least not that the Powhatan County Government is aware of.

It is worthy to note that at that same meeting, interestingly stricken from the minutes, Mr. Carson Tucker stated that neither the Board of
Supervisors nor the Planning Commission had any sway in the purpose of a business to be built in the Commercial corridor surrounding Route 60. He stated that as long as the developer who is planning on bringing WalMart or any other “big-box” retailer into the county follows all of the rules, dot’s their i’s and crosses their t’s, then there is NOTHING they can do as a governing body.

The right to create and build a business cannot be legally denied.

What remains to be found out, though, is this… can the citizens of Powhatan County form a strong enough popular opposition to a big-box retailer breaking ground in Powhatan? Will it be enough to stymie the advances of a multi-BILLION dollar business such as WalMart? Last year alone, Wal-Mart had more than $378 Billion (http://www.Forbes.com) in revenue. Compare this to Powhatan County’s Budget, which barely broke $68 Million for the FY 2008 budget(http://www.powhatanva.gov).

WalMart is worth over 5,500x the budgetary worth of Powhatan County.

I’d love to see how many protesters it would take to stop that juggernaut. Has anyone called Disney yet?

How did Wal-mart get approved without my even knowing about it?  Maybe we need to change our Board of Supervisors if they’re not working for the people and the nature of this rural community.  I came here eight years ago to get away from these big companies and prefer the atmosphere of a rural community.  What Wal-mart will bring to Powhatan isn’t likely to be what the people of this community will want. Drive 30 minutes if you need to shop at some of the big businesses, I expected and planned to do that when I moved here and did not plan or expect to have them brought to me.

It’s ok to have a big chain like Sheetz or Food Lion that’s making thousands of dollars here but not a Walmart yeh that sounds fair what makes them so special.  Besides isn’t that area like 2 lights shy of being out of Powhatan so it wouldn’t be close to many of Powhatan residences and that area is already mostly business.  If the county keep the business restrictions to land facing route 60 only no side streets or off of 60 I don’t see the problem it will still be a very rural area.  Don’t sell homes here if you don’t want people to live here just make it a wilderness and everyone can move out.  They talk about tourisum what is here to see.  Would you bring your young children to this town for a weeks vacation to do what there isn’t even a hotel here for them to stay at. Keep businesses confined to route 60 only and we can grow and live together.

How did a Walmart get approved without us knowing?  I am not the only one in the dark.  It will be across from Henry’s market.  I hear they are breaking ground.  I can’t believe it.  I would think there would have plenty of flack over this one.  We didn’t get a chance to even think about it?  I don’t know what I think of it.  I mean we need more businesses out here, but honestly a majority of the citizens of this county do not frequent most of the businesses we have already.  They leave the county to shop else where.  I guess a Walmart will mean some of them will shop here now.

hey dave why dont u move there maybe its people like you who is killing our wildlife cause of all these buildings and also if you think a walmart is going to ease county taxes go and ask chesterfield.

i have been liven in powhatan for a long time and i thought it was something just to get a mcdonalds. then the trend started everything else is going up what about the wildlife and all you see more deer getting killed on the road and all.  when i moved to powhatan first you could ride for hours and not see a cop. it was great there was no mall mays store was open where did all that go to.  i just drove through powhatan not to long ago and its a disgrace to see all the buildings going up. woods being tore down for what cause you have city people coming there and you need to pamper them.  you wont give a teacher a raise but you will build a million dollar business or other things look i dont know who approved all this building crap but you need to stop. yall talking about the murders in powhatan what about the wildlife. no one takes up for them if you dont like the country get out go back to chesterfield where you come from dont ruin our scenery give the teachers a raise there the ones that need it not some dam wal mart or any other business i see empty buildings in chesterfield rent one of them thank you stop killing the WILDLIFE

It bothers me that so many here drive right by the businesses that we already have and head to richmond, midlothian, etc.  Why do so many wish for Targets and WalMarts and ignore the small businesses that provide the small town charm that so many claim to love?  THEY are the ones that want you to be a happy satisfied customer.  I do not like the idea of Powhatan being just another county with less and less to make it special and I know I am not alone.

I too am against any large scale developement coming to Powhatan. Make the drive to Midlothian, if you don’t like the drive then move closer to the big box stores you can’t live without. Better yet, pay a couple dollars more and support the stores already in the county. I would rather pay higher personal property taxes than allow chain stores to move in just to keep taxes low. Powhatan County should have longtime residents in the Planning Department and on the Board of Supervisors instead of “transplants” who’s best interest is not maintaining the rural character of Powhatan County.

I just received the tax assessment on my home and it is off the spectrum!  We as taxpayers are being charged so much more in taxes on our property and homes to make up for the taxes that the county could pull in from businesses.

It can be done, business and rural but we need to make sure it is done correctly.  A balance can be made.  And everyone will benefit including the future generations of this county.

There are intrinsic values we must also consider and try to keep, as it should not only be the bottom line or widening the tax base that concerns us.  It has proved out over and over that Walmarts and Targets, do not provide as much towards a tax value, as the whatfor and what all it takes to maintain their presence.  Walmart has built over top of the Wilderness Battlefield, up in Orange county, if that doesn’t bother them, why would it not bother them to wreck havoc here?  If it is of no consequence to them where they put their stores, perhaps they do not align themselves with communities afterall.  Yes, they do indeed provide good value to all who shop there, it goes without saying, but my golly they are just down the road, or up the road east,west, north south of where you live.  Can we no matter where we live in Powhatan, not bother to get a little organized, go out to what seeminly is already a devastated landscape of a mall, and do our shopping there???  Perhaps a road trip is suggested for those who may be considering proposing a call out to attract any of the big box stores, go on down to Florida, or Massachusetts, or just about any place now a days and see how very ugly a strip mall, is, how lacking and rude a Walmart or large mall can be with their blazing lights all night, miserable traffic lost landscapes given over to that!  Those communities so easily handed over their beauty of landscape, their open fields, replacing them with mall, after strip mall, each new one being built then bringing a vacancy to older malls which previously held tenants.  Let me propose, that if you know any soldier who may have has just come back from Iraq, go talk to them, ask them what it was they dreamed about at night when they tried to fall asleep over there?  Did their inner eye hold a memory of a beautiful sunset over a strip mall!!!, or some gloriously bird filled Walmart parking lot??  Did they sigh to themselves missing, row after row of cookie cutter subdivisions and all the accompanying “retail” mania that accompanies it?  I ask you truly, why are rural counties SO very quick to give it all up, just hand over our pleasant civilities, soft landscapes, smooth traffic, our quick and efficent response from our police and firemen/women?  I am not so convinced that a box store full of “iffy” products from China, are of more value to me, than a tree full of blooming wisteria, horses racing in their green fields, kids walking down the road, with their fishing poles, yep, I still see kids walking down my road, with their fishing poles, hearing peepers in vernal ponds, come spring, enjoying the fresh air, the wildlife, the dark skies at night, and sharing it all with trusting neighbors, all reasons why we live here to begin with.  Why would anyone be so ready to give all that up, because it will be lost, forever, it always, ALWAYS !! comes with the territory of bringing in, large retail, or the big box stores and all the rest of it.  I simply don’t find it such a travail nor very difficult a task to drive but a few miles to go shopping.  I would rather see woods, and fields, and hear the birds. Can we not hold on to something in these times of financial flim flam, that doesn’t cost us dearly, or make us cringe for it’s lack of good values. Stand up for your rural preferences, there’s no shame in it.