It looks as if Carvana may be a victim of the economic impact from COVID-19.
The used auto reseller recently announced that it was backing away from its plans for a 184-acre site on Woods Edge Road in southeast Chesterfield County.
In a June 3 email, company spokeswoman Amy O’Hara said: “After further examination of current business priorities, Carvana is no longer pursuing an auto inspection center and storage facility in Chesterfield. The company appreciates the support and partnership it has received throughout the site selection process and extends its gratitude to the Chesterfield community.”
The Tempe, Ariz.-based company fought to get its development plan approved by the county supervisors. The planning commission initially deadlocked 2-2 on a recommendation in July 2019 before unanimously recommending approval in August. The supervisors approved a rezoning of the property last October in a 4-1 vote, with Jim Holland dissenting.
Carvana had planned to open the facility by the end of this year. The project was expected to create around 500 jobs.
Many of the neighbors were undoubtedly happy to hear the news, as a number spoke out against the project during public meetings last year.
Melinda and Bob Foreman live in one of the two subdivisions adjacent to the Woods Edge Road property.
On Friday, Melinda said the neighbors are jubilant. “We get stopped on the street (while walking),” she said. “People are doing the Hallelujah dance. The most negative thing I’ve heard is, ‘We were promised a sidewalk from Southcreek to Walthall (Creek subdivisions).’”
She called the Carvana project “one huge parking lot with 9,000 cars and a corrugated metal building.”
Now that the project is apparently dead, what remains to be seen is what the future will bring.
North-South thoroughfare?
Last August, Bermuda planning commissioner Gib Sloan said Carvana’s project would delay a planned north-south thoroughfare in the area. Sloan noted that, with a “superstreet” project planned for Route 10, adding the thoroughfare and a development (such as Amazon) under the existing zoning on the 184 acres could have a tremendous impact on Woods Edge Road.
“It’s the lesser of two evils from a traffic standpoint,” Sloan said of Carvana.
Bob Foreman said the north-south thoroughfare is still in the Comprehensive Plan that was approved May 2019, although Melinda added, “We’re not too worried about it.”
Bob noted that Bermuda supervisor Jim Ingle talked during his campaign last year about getting the community more involved from the start of any development plans.
Melinda said the area in question is designated for regional mixed use in the Comp Plan. “There are so many opportunities for good things to go in there,” she said.
“There’s hope we can do something good,” Bob said.
Mike Uzel, who helped found Bermuda Advocates for Responsible Development and Chesterfield Citizens United, said he is happy with the outcome. “The citizens really had valid concerns. I felt it wasn’t a good fit with traffic and noise concerns especially,” he said.
Uzel added that the north-south thoroughfare “doesn’t seem like a real viable option. The funding for these big projects is always a big issue,” noting that an east-west thoroughfare through the Mataoca district comes up every few years. “It’s like a lot of other things in the Comp Plan. It might rear its head again,” he said.
Uzel said he thought that Sloan’s comments about Carvana holding back the north-south thoroughfare “was more rhetoric to get support (for the project) than the reality.”
