News Flash

On Tuesday, December 3rd, a team consisting of County staff and representatives from Timmons Group, 3TP Ventures, presented the results of the Southeastern Infrastructure Study (SIS) to the Goochland County Board of Supervisors.

The SIS was identified as a need during the creation of the County-wide 2040 Major Thoroughfare Plan (MTP), adopted in 2018. During the creation of the MTP, concerns were raised about the future roadways and interconnectivity between Route 288, Patterson Avenue, Hockett Road, Broad Branch Drive, and River Road.

Over the last year and a half, the group has met with the general public and key stakeholders including: landowners, Board of Supervisors members, Planning Commission members, Public Safety representatives, and other County departments to gather feedback.

The goal of the study was to provide a data-driven foundation that will help guide County staff and elected officials when considering future land use decisions as they pertain to infrastructure priorities and funding, as well as land use and zoning decisions. This was done by using local data and levels of service standards to better project the infrastructure impacts on the area based on various future development scenarios.

Using all the data collected, the team worked to develop a Development Impacts Estimator Tool to forecast the implications of three different growth scenarios - one that follows the Comprehensive Plan, one focused on Economic Development, and one for Mixed-Use.

"One of the things we heard from the citizenry was, 'How is the proposed development going to impact the County', and this development modeling tool has given us the ability to answer that question," said Jamie Sherry, Director of Community Development. "It has exceeded my expectations."

Now that the SIS has been completed, Planning staff are able to run applications for land use and development through the Infrastructure Impact Tool and provide additional information for the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors to consider as they make decisions.

"This is an outstanding leave behind tool, we will be able to utilize this for many years to come," said Charlie Vaughters, Chair of the Goochland County Board of Supervisors. "We are at the forefront of counties of our size, looking at a study of this nature. We are not following; we are leading in that regard."

For more information on the Southeastern Infrastructure Study, please visit https://goochlandva.us/1280/Southeastern-Infrastructure-Study-SIS.