I have been a member of the Chester Business Association for many years.
I do not concur with their board’s letter to the editor that supports the Matoaca Mega Site in a residential area.
I initially thought that the Matoaca Mega Site made good business sense to be developed in Chesterfield County as proposed in August 2017 by Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
Since last summer there has been a major change on the horizon of Chesterfield County business development, i.e. the implosion of the Tranlin Paper manufacturing site at the James River Industrial Center as reported in October 2017.
In my humble opinion, it makes much more common sense and would be much more practical to locate an existing industrial site to an area that is already developed near Interstate 95, the James River, and the existing railroad line along Coach Road, or to the James River Industrial Center.
To claim the site originally intended for the Tranlin Paper Mill is not large enough to accommodate the size of a non-existent auto manufacturing or any other industrial site defies logic, common sense, and practicality.
I am one of over 1,300 citizens who have signed a petition to the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors that requests the Matoaca Mega Site not be rezoned to heavy industrial use due to the unnecessary burden it would place on current property owners whose property valuations will likely drop, not to mention the estimated millions of extra dollars needed to develop this site, which was previously zoned agricultural timberland and surrounded by residential communities.
W. Courtney Wells, Chester
