Jeff Driskill is the county’s new EMC. 
By a 4-1 vote with Jim Holland dissenting, the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors approved the Carvana project last week.
The Tempe, Ariz.-based developer plans to build a car inspection and storage facility at the 184-acre site on Woods Edge Road.
The supervisors had delayed the vote for a month in October.
“I feel like there are proffers in here to address [citizens’] issues,” Bermuda District supervisor Dorothy Jaeckle said. “We have the challenge of balancing out residential, commercial and industrial so we can have a reasonable tax base.”
Referring to buffers along Woods Edge Road, Jaeckle said, “The site may not be 100 percent blocked [from view], but certainly 90 percent blocked.”
She noted that one of the proffers includes a noise study that requires mitigation if the noise level reaches 65 decibels. County officials said that results of the noise study will be shared with area homeowners’ associations.
In addition, revenue from the development will be used for any necessary road enhancements.
In a separate vote, the supervisors once again asked the Virginia Department of Transportation to approve a truck restriction for Woods Edge Road. This request, with modifications suggested by VDOT, includes Lawing Drive and the section of Woods Edge Road from Lawing Drive to Ramblewood Drive. VDOT turned down the supervisors’ original request in 2015 and responded with a suggestion following the board’s second request in July.
Airport lease
By a 3-2 vote with Holland and Chris Winslow dissenting, the supervisors approved a new 40-year land lease and a 30-year fixed-base operator extension for Dominion Aviation Services at the Chesterfield Airport.
Dominion has been at the airport since 1991 providing fueling, aircraft maintenance, hangar storage and aircraft management services.
Deputy county administrator Scott Zaremba said Dominion’s hangars are at or near capacity.
Dominion would build at least a 10,000-square-foot hangar on pad site No. 3 at the north ramp, according to the staff report.
Zaremba said the company would build a minimum of 10,000 square feet of hangar space on the new southeast ramp, which would serve as the company’s new headquarters.
Zaremba said the county has accepted a $220,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Aviation for an environmental assessment related to the southeast ramp. The 80/20 state/local grant requires $55,000 in local matching funds, he said.
The project would include a parking lot and 8,000 square feet of additional ramp, although wetlands could limit hangar size on the southeast ramp.
Mark Hackett, CEO of Richmond Executive Aviation, asked the supervisors to delay a decision for a month so that his company could make a proposal for the paid site No. 3 on the north ramp. The company broke ground at pad sites 1 and 2 at the north ramp three weeks ago, he said.
The supervisors approved a land lease and fixed-based operation agreement with REA last November. That agreement calls for the construction of two 10,000-square-foot hangars within 12 months.
Winslow said the new Dominion lease and FBO agreement arrived in his email at 11 a.m. the day of the supervisors’ Oct. 23 meeting.
“The agreement is mostly good,” he said, although he had three issues with it.
He wanted the supervisors to postpone the decision until their Nov. 13 meeting, in part because the board is supposed to consider approval of a new capital maintenance fee on FBOs in the near future.
Jaeckle called Winslow’s concerns “minor” and motioned for approval of the agreement as written. Steve Elswick seconded her motion, and Leslie Haley joined them in voting yes.
Residential overlay district
In spite of some concerns about 6-story buildings being allowed on 6-acre or larger sites in a 2.5-mile stretch of the Jefferson Davis Highway, the supervisors voted unanimously to approve a new residential overlay ordinance to provide for high-density development in that corridor.
“There’s not a perfect answer for affordable housing,” Jaeckle said, adding that a 6-story buiding would be a “sign of success” given that a developer has enough funds to build something that large.
There are six sites in the corridor that could be as large as 6 acres each.
‘Pete the Ramp Guy’
Supervisors honored Bermuda District resident Pete Adler for community service related to his work in building more than 180 wheelchair ramps in Chesterfield, Dinwiddie and Prince George counties and in Petersburg, Hopewell, Colonial Heights and Richmond.
Adler said someone put a “bug in my ear in 2005,” and building the ramps “became a calling for me.”
He said the calling is “a true blessing for me.”
“He’s just really one of those silent warriors,” Jaeckle said.
Driskill is new EMC
The supervisors voted to appoint Jeffrey A. Driskill as the county’s new emergency management coordinator, replacing Emily Ashley, who left for a job in Henrico. Ashley has worked in the position from August 2011 until May 2019, according to fire department spokesman Jason Elmore.
The responsibilities of the position include the coordination of disaster mitigation, preparation, response and recovery efforts.
Driskill was chief of police in Wardensville, W.Va. for eight years. He previously served as a deputy emergency management coordinator for Alexandria, and most recently worked as a lead planner for the National Guard Bureau’s PATRIOT Exercise program.
