Revised logistics center presented to council

Editor’s note: This is the first part of a two-part story examining The Meridian Group’s presentation of a revised Tidewater Logistics Center project to the Windsor Town Council and the council’s feedback.

The Meridian Group presented to the Windsor Town Council on Tuesday, Aug. 27, a revised version of the proposed Tidewater Logistics Center warehouse project it is trying to develop on the outskirts of Windsor.

TMG is the parent company of Meridian Property Purchaser LLC, which previously submitted a rezoning application to the county proposing a multi-warehouse complex consisting of five buildings totaling 1.2 million square feet that would have been adjacent to the Lovers Lane/Keaton Avenue neighborhoods.

Influenced at least in part by vocal opposition to this version of the project from some Windsor residents and council members, the Isle of Wight County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on June 13 to reject the rezoning application.

Tom Boylan, of TMG, requested the Aug. 27 work session with the Windsor Town Council to present the latest iteration of the logistics center proposal to the council for its feedback.

THE REVISED CONCEPT PLAN

Boylan opened the work session with a brief presentation, outlining five key concept plan revisions he and his team had made to the TLC proposal:

1.) Eliminate Building A and associated stormwater detention.

This change reduces the logistics center from a five-building project to a four-building project.

2.) Reduce Building C by 153,360 square feet and increase setback from residential property line to 280 feet.

“So, (a) much smaller building and pushed back,” Boylan said.

3.) Reduce Building B by 37,800 square feet.

Boylan said this reduction is designed to make room for the changes throughout the rest of the park.

4.) Relocate landscaped berm and noise wall adjacent to access road.

Boylan explained that the landscaped berm would be 42 feet wide and 6 feet tall, and it would be topped by a 10-foot-tall noise wall along the entire perimeter between the logistics center and the Lovers Lane/Keaton Avenue neighborhoods. Evergreen trees would be planted on the berm, providing 10 to 14 feet of vertical coverage initially and approximately 30 to 34 feet at maturity.

“We pushed that (landscaped berm and noise wall) back to be immediately adjacent to the access road, which is coordinated on the existing traffic signal there at Dominion (Way),” Boylan said.

He also showed a graphic highlighting how the shortest distance from a residential property line to any building is 280 feet in the revised plan, and the shortest distance from a residential property line to the top of the berm where the noise wall will be located is 190 feet.

“I also included the same proffered landscaped berm with sound wall that was submitted previously,” he said. “No changes have been made to this. It still contemplates the enhanced landscaping buffer with evergreen trees and the sound wall, which would accompany the same acoustic conditions that we previously proffered.”

5.) Add community nature trail/walking path.

Directing council members’ attention to a large white space on the concept plan directly adjacent to the Lovers Lane/Keaton Avenue neighborhoods, Boylan said, “That’s now preserved open space that you see there in white on the northern side of the landscape buffer and noise wall, and (we) tried to come up with some conceptual plan for what could make sense as a community outdoor use there. We’re suggesting a walking path or jogging trail. (We’re) open to ideas there as well but wanted to think about something that the community could enjoy in that preserved open space on the northern side of the buffer.”

Boylan noted that he brought the civil engineer and traffic engineer on his team to the work session.

Referencing the revised concept plan, Boylan said, “Obviously the traffic is much reduced in this scenario. The reduction in square footage on the tract closest to the Lovers Lane properties is about 50%.”

He also noted that the revised plan features slightly reduced square footage on the Holowell tract that is part of the project but not directly adjacent to the Lovers Lane/Keaton Avenue neighborhoods.

Summing up his presentation, Boylan said, “Those were some of the things we’ve considered as part of the potential resubmission to Isle of Wight of a plan that we still think makes great sense for the county, for the community. We see activity at the port continuing to increase, and the interest from prospective users we think will be great when we can fully market the site. The initial interest that we’ve gotten thus far has been meaningful, and we’re trying to potentially accommodate those users in a plan that would be in conformance with this one.

“A few of those are light manufacturing uses,” he continued. “The uses that we show here are still distribution uses, the difference being more dock doors for distribution uses. For manufacturing uses there would be less dock doors and potentially more outdoor lay-down areas.

“But again, that is separate from what we’re thinking about submitting for, which is the same use category that we submitted for last time, which includes Type 1 Manufacturing but predominantly warehousing and distribution,” he said.

Boylan made clear that in reference to the revised concept plan for the Tidewater Logistics Center that he was presenting to the Windsor Town Council, The Meridian Group had not yet submitted anything in terms of an application to Isle of Wight County.

“(We) wanted to submit this plan for this work session and get feedback as to whether we should consider additional changes and consider possible resubmission to the county’s planning staff,” he said.

Part two of this story will focus on the feedback provided by Windsor Town Council members during the Aug. 27 meeting.

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