CHESTERFIELD – Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe joined the Economic Development Authority of Chesterfield to announce the acquisition of 1,675 acres of prime real estate in the county to be used to attract a large industrial manufacturing company that could bring 5,000-10,000 direct and supplier jobs and billions of dollars in investments to Chesterfield County.
“I am pleased to take part in announcing the creation of a significant new economic asset that will drive job creation and economic activity for Chesterfield and the Richmond region,” said Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. “This site gives Virginia something unique and allows us to compete for projects on a level we haven’t had before.”
Mega sites are project locations capable of attracting large automotive, aerospace and other advanced manufacturing plants. These projects often bring 2,500-5,000 well-paying direct jobs and up to 10,000 total jobs, including quality jobs from suppliers.
“The Board of Supervisors is excited by the opportunity to attract another high-quality manufacturing company to Chesterfield County,” said Board Chair Dorothy Jaeckle. “While the Board and Planning Commission will conduct a thorough review of the rezoning application with input from residents, I am confident we can make this happen in a way that protects the character of the communities near the site. Certainly, this will have less impact than the 5,000 residential units allowed under the current zoning,” Jaeckle said.
PLAN OF SO CALLED MATOACA MEGASITE ALTHOUGH ITS NOT SO NEAR TO MATOACO AND ONLY ABOUT ONE MILE FROM CHESTER CENTER AS THE CROW FLIES, THE 1,675 ACRE SITE ALIGN WITH THE COUNTY’S COMPREHENSIVE PLAN THAT CALLS FOR A CROSS COUNTY HIGHWAY. PROPOSAL IS THAT THE HIGHWAY BE BUILT FROM I-95 TO EAST OF BRANDERS BRIDGE ROAD WITH ACCOMPANYING RAILROAD THAT WOULD CONNECT TO CSX RAIL SERVICE.
“A large advanced manufacturing facility of this scale brings so many benefits to the communities where they locate,” said Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Designee Kirk Cox, who represents the district in which the site is located. “This can bring thousands of high-paying jobs, but we will need to work closely with our educational partners in the area to ensure the workforce training programs are in place. Fortunately, we have outstanding education partners in the area at all levels.” said Cox.
“This mega-site announcement is another piece of the international supply chain infrastructure that we are building in Virginia to support large scale manufacturing and job creation,” said John F. Reinhart, CEO of the Virginia Port Authority. “The strategic location in Chesterfield County, near the Richmond Marine Terminal and I-95 takes advantage of the value and global reach of the port, will encourage growth, and enhances The Port of Virginia’s position as the East Coast’s global gateway.”
The President of the Greater Richmond Partnership, Barry Matherly said, “The Matoaca Mega Site will be a game changer for the Greater Richmond Region. It will enable the region to compete in an arena which we have not in the past. The jobs and additional investment opportunities that a major project attracted to this site can bring will benefit to all.”
Dr. Edward “Ted” Raspiller, President of John Tyler Community College described the importance of preparing the workforce for advanced manufacturing jobs. He said, “Building a strong, responsive workforce to meetbusiness and industry needs in sectors such as advanced manufacturing is a top priority for John Tyler Community College. At our Chester Campus, located in close proximity to the Matoaca Mega Site, we prepare our students for these in-demand jobs through programs that provide hands-on learning in high-tech labs and lead to industry certifications and licensures.
We look forward to partnering with the companies interested in this new site and to providing them with a well-prepared workforce.”
The project is currently zoned for residential use, and it wood need to be re-zoned to industrial use. The EDA has already submitted the re-zoning application. Industrial use is consistent with the County’s Comprehensive Plan for the site.
Matoaca Mega Site Project Description
Located in the southeast part of Chesterfield County, the proposed Matoaca Mega Site includes 1,675 acres currently zoned for residential use. The site was rezoned residential in 2007 as part of the Branner Station Project. When the economy suffered the large downturn, the residential project was no longer viable and has sat vacant since that time. The Comprehensive Land Use Plan now shows the parcel is intended to be used as Regional Mixed Use/Corporate Office/Research & Development/Industrial. The Chesterfield County Economic Development Authority currently holds an option on the parcels and is applying to conditionally rezone the entire property to I-3 as part of a strategy to attract a major employer to the region.
The major employers currently targeted by the Economic Development Authority require a site within a convenient drive of a well-educated and prepared workforce, higher education facilities, and an international airport, and that is served by highway and a major north American railroad. They also require a minimum of 1,500 acres to assure that their facility is properly buffered from existing or proposed residential communities. The subject site meets these and other site criteria typically used to evaluate the potential for landing a major employer of the quality targeted by the
Economic Development Authority. The plan proposed by Chesterfield County and the Economic Development Authority has been vetted by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and creates a very unique opportunity for the future.
The property, as currently zoned, would allow for thousands of single family homes to be constructed before significant upgrades to the County utility and road infrastructure were required.
Preliminary calculations suggest the proposed use will generate less traffic than if the site were developed within the current zoning designation. The Chesterfield County Economic Development Authority intends to construct necessary sewer, water, and road infrastructure, consistent with County Thoroughfare Plan and Overall Utility Master Plan, commensurate with the schedule of the major employer. Not only will this infrastructure allow for the creation of thousands of jobs, the existing citizens of Chesterfield County will benefit from the upgraded infrastructure.
Virginia has not been seriously considered for any of the large-scale automotive, aerospace, or other advanced manufacturing companies projects in recent years because we lack a site with close proximity to a large labor force. The Matoaca Mega Site will be Virginia’s best opportunity to utilize the unique characteristics of this site to attract a major employer to central Virginia.
Interested individuals may sign up for notifications and project updates at MatoacaMegaSite.com.
3 Comments
The sales pitch given by the Chesterfield County Economic Development “Authority”, Dorothy Jaeckle, ,Kirk Cox and anyone else saying this is good for Chesterfield County and its residents in and near this location are obviously driven by dollar signs. These dollars will never in anyway benefit the residents of the area unless you include the afore mentioned parties and the Shoosmith family which is selling the property. In no way will this project benefit the current population in this end of the county. The current residential medium to upper medium priced neighborhoods and agricultural properties surrounding this site are already occupied by people with jobs and based on the current values of those homes and they are not going through foreclosure or abandonment indicates these people already have employment that likely matches and in most cases exceeds any salary of an upstart factory worker. We already have jobs.
Since the leadership of this county and the State of Virginia obviously cannot seem to conduct nor publish a real impact study or likely don’t even care, a living scaled down model of this type planning already exist. Any interested party or citizen can just look about 14 miles East to a community that is to this day and well into the future suffering from a similar plan. The readers of this post might be interested to know that the afore mentioned list of players including Chesterfield County Economic Development Authority were active in this other development as well.
The site I am referencing known as Rivers Bend and Meadowville Technology Park already had major highways including 295 and not so distant I-95. This site by the way still has numerous undeveloped industrial and commercial sites that can house news worthy size company’s similar to current company’s like Amazon, and Capital One. Much like the Matoaca site, this site had a large amount of residential neighborhoods that actually consisted of (in most cases) newer and more upscale priced homes. After the residential areas were developed starting about 20 years ago, the commercial and industrial sites were enticed to the area and now lessor quality homes are being built instead. Obviously falling residential property value in the area can be argued that “it was the economy” but my personal knowledge of people leaving because of the industry and traffic situation has been shared by more than one.
Move forward that 20 years and compare to the sales pitches now listed on this Matoaca Mega Site advertisements and all the comments about “it shouldn’t be a major impact” Just on the one topic of traffic. The Mega Site traffic situation is supposed to be relieved by the (one) new limited access road. Route 10 which ties about 4 miles between the “two” limited access roads is now handling in excess of 22,000 cars per day and is now in process of being widened. Our county leaders should take a ride on Rt.10 between 6-8 AM daily and get a report of the number of accidents (and even deaths) as a direct result of the increased traffic.
Everything stated by the developers and the county /state politicians on behalf of the Matoaca Mega Site can be disputed and proved false through a very simplistic review and comparison of the scaled down sampling that exist at the Meadowville Park.
No amount of infrastructure improvements, buffers, roadways, claim of code compliance nor empty promises can sustain or even come close to matching the residential environment that the current residents of the area have desired, built and paid for for years.. Its just so sad the developers can just buy their way into a community and get absolutely no resistance from our public officials in the face of the tax paying citizens that elected them to office.
This is right on top of our neighborhood! It’s zoned as residential because we live here. Zoning it as industrial is not in the best interest of the people that live here at all. Tax payer money has been spent on fancy PR material to try to ease our concerns, but in no way is this good for the residents who live here.
Interesting how they chose to name it Matoaca and put that on the mailed out notice, but failed to clearly tell folks IT’S NOT IN MATOACA, IT’S IN CHESTER, SMACK ON TOP OF RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOODS!!! Rezoning the residential land next to us to INDUSTRIAL??? Bet the county leaders wouldn’t do this in their own neighborhood. I spoke to some of them at the meeting at Carver middle. My neighbors and I had the same question about big drops in our home’s values, I asked several times what did their economic impact study indicated the effect on adjacent home/property values would be. THEY HADN’T EVEN BOTHERED TO DO A STUDY. THEY HAD NO ANSWER WHAT IT WOULD DO TO MY HOME’S VALUE. THEY ACTED AS IF THEY HADN’T EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT THAT. Pretty clear they don’t care who they squash by stealing massive amounts of our home’s equity to create value in their INDUSTRIAL PARK.