Isle of Wight conditionally approves roundabout cost-sharing

Isle of Wight County supervisors voted unanimously on Oct. 17 to conditionally approve a cost-sharing agreement that would commit taxpayer dollars and money from private developers toward building a roundabout on Turner Drive by 2029.

The vote is conditioned on Smithfield’s Town Council, at a scheduled Oct. 28 meeting, also agreeing to commit taxpayer funds toward the project.

The county has until Nov. 1 to accept or decline a $2.2 million Virginia Department of Transportation grant that requires the county to come up with the remaining $4.5 million of the project’s estimated $7.6 million cost. The cost includes the roundabout and additional turn lanes from Benns Church Boulevard onto Turner.

Under a proposal that would pass a proportionate share of the $4.5 million cost onto taxpayers and any developers who build within a half-mile radius of the Benns Church and Turner intersection, the town and county would each be on the hook for $902,654, or 20%, to account for “background growth” outside the half-mile radius of the intersection.

According to County Administrator Randy Keaton, Isle of Wight has already received emailed commitments from Miami-based Frontier Development, which is proposing to build a Wawa gas station and convenience store at the intersection, and from Harrison and Lear, a Hampton-based developer Keaton said is planning to develop the farm adjacent to The Oaks Veterinary Clinic, agreeing to their respective shares. Sweetgrass, a 615-home development county supervisors approved earlier this year for the 250-acre Yeoman Farm by the Sherwin Williams store outside Smithfield, is also on board.

Under the proposal, Sweetgrass would pay $541,592, or 12%, of the cost. Developers who build on 28 acres in the southeast quadrant, dubbed “Turner South,” would pay just under $500,000 or 11%. Turner South includes the proposed 3.8-acre Wawa site.

The Oct. 17 vote remains a verbal commitment and does not yet authorize county officials to sign what VDOT has termed “Appendix A,” which would officially accept the VDOT funding.

“When we execute the Appendix A we’re committing to moving the project forward, and when we do that we normally accept and appropriate the funds at that time,” Isle of Wight Transportation Coordinator Jamie Oliver said.

“Even though VDOT had a deadline of Nov. 1, they’re not going to take any actions right away, it’s not like milk that expires on Nov. 1, and the town’s going to be supposedly taking action on the 28th, so conceivably the board could wait to verify exactly what the town is going to do and then take action either at your work session in November or your regular meeting in November,” Keaton told the supervisors.

Oliver previously told the supervisors that the county would have to commit to footing the entire $7.6 million, and then would be able to be reimbursed for VDOT’s $2.2 million share. Oliver said roughly $1 million of the total cost accounts for the project’s contingency budget and projected 2029 inflation. This could be decreased if construction begins earlier than 2029.

“If you don’t do it now, the need’s going to continue to be there in the future based on the (comprehensive) plan and land use, costs are going to rise and we’re going to lose a window,” said Supervisor William McCarty, “and losing VDOT funding and pushing it out to something that can go beyond 2034, for our citizens, losing that kind of financial impact is a catastrophic impact, in my opinion.”

Oliver said the town’s participation would be governed by a separate agreement solely between Smithfield and the county, in which the town would commit to fund up to $2.3 million to cover the traffic impact of any development that occurs on a 178-acre farm in the northwest quadrant of the Benns Church and Turner intersection, and the 262-home “Promontory” development proposed, but not yet approved, for the southwest quadrant. Smithfield’s Town Council would then be responsible for developing its own policy and agreements with developers that would allow it to recoup a proportionate share of the total cost from those developers, she said.

Town Attorney Bill Riddick contends the town’s ability to legally accept a proffered cash contribution from a developer for offsite transportation improvements depends on the facts pertaining to each development at the time of its rezoning application, and would have to be offered voluntarily by the developer.

County Administrator Randy Keaton said plans for the roundabout originated with the Wawa application in 2021. Plans for the Wawa stalled after Isle of Wight County’s Planning Commission, in mid-2022, recommended approval of a conditional use permit for the gas station and store, conditioned on its developers submitting an “alternative intersection design” for Turner Drive “such as a single-lane roundabout” and VDOT denied Wawa a requested exception that would have allowed left turns from the gas station onto Turner.

No public hearing preceded the supervisors’ vote, though county officials say both the town’s and the county’s respective comprehensive plans, which Isle of Wight used to formulate the cost-sharing agreement, were extensively vetted with multiple opportunities for public comments. Isle of Wight’s plan was adopted in 2020 while Smithfield’s was adopted in 2022.