BY KATHRYN ORTH
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Sunday, April 9, 2006

Don't call Amelia County a bedroom community, even though it's the next
county out from the Richmond suburbs and is poised for substantial growth.
County Administrator Philip Vannoorbeeck instead envisions a community where
residents work close to their homes, rather than driving into Richmond. He sees
children who walk to school, houses that are affordable for young families and
retirees, and plenty of green space.

"We are the anti-bedroom community," Vannoorbeeck said. "We want to be a
full-service-type community, focused on a central core, with rural areas
preserved.

"Wouldn't it be cool if somebody living in a new development on Dunn Street
could walk up the street, check out a book, pay their taxes, take a crafts
class, then stop at the gym on the way home?"

There are more than 2,300 housing units in some stage of planning in Amelia
County, whose current population is just over 12,000.

What county officials don't want is runaway growth. They feared that there would
be subdivisions full of expensive homes, but without sufficient county services,
so last summer the county put into effect a zoning plan that divides the county
into rings of permitted housing density.

In the agricultural areas composing the largest part of the county, developments
must be planned to average 10 acres of land per house. Closer to the county
seat, the density rises to one house per 5 acres, then one house per 3 acres. In
the village area, lots are much smaller. Development along the Appomattox River
is buffered.

The zoning requirements are tough, Vannoorbeeck acknowledges.
"We have taken draconian measures out in the county - only one house per 10
acres. We have turned down a proposed development . . . and they were
half-million-dollar houses, because we couldn't provide emergency services to
them," he said.

Officials want the county to grow from the village area out.  Board of Supervisors Chairman
Frank Harris may not be as enthusiastic as Vannoorbeeck about the growth that both see
coming, but he is convinced of the need to keep it under control.  "You've got to plan for growth.
You can't stop it. You can manage it, though," Harris said.

He spent years involved with the development of the zoning plan. "I'm not sure
that our residents fully understand that we are growing," he said. "Amelia is
one of the fastest growing counties in [Southside Electric Cooperative's]
service area." He is public relations manager for Southside Electric.
Some of the growth already has come from people moving out from the city or the
denser suburbs of Richmond, he said.

"You have folk moving in . . . to get away from the very type of growth that is
getting ready to occur right next to them," in Amelia, he said.
In spite of the county's restrictive zoning laws, developers have proposed
thousands of homes.

Developments proposed or approved include 70 lots in Redfield South, just off
U.S. 360 not far from the Chesterfield County line; a 311-unit subdivision near
the Virginia Veterans' Cemetery on state Route 681; a 150-unit subdivision near
the golf course on U.S. 360; a blend of 1,598 single- and multi-family units on
state Route 38 near Scotts Fork, and a number of smaller subdivisions.
"We figure about 2.38 souls per household times 2,350 lots, proposed or platted.
That means an additional 5,593 souls who will call Amelia home," Vannoorbeeck
said. The increase in population could translate to an increase of about 50
percent in school population as well, he said. There are about 1,750 children in
the county schools now.

Vannoorbeeck's vision includes houses growing up around elementary schools.
"Let's site schools. Maybe a school is the centerpiece of a subdivision. Maybe a
child could actually walk to school," he said.

Patrizia Humphrey, Amelia's assistant school superintendent, said the system has
hired a consulting firm to advise it. Enrollment is going slowly but steadily
up, she said, and the system expects to enroll the equivalent of a third of a
child for every home built.  "We are not at the recommendation stage yet, but we are
studying what to do and where to put schools," she said.

Board of Supervisors member Elsworth Bennett strongly supports the zoning
ordinance and worries that too much growth will change the character of the
county and overwhelm the schools, the fire and police departments and county
utilities.

"We have many, many, many, many people coming out of Chesterfield. We as a
county can't stop the growth coming from Richmond, and even from New York and
New Jersey," he said. "Amelia is going to be swamped with houses."

One reason that people will want to live in Amelia is the county's real estate
tax rate of 52 cents per $100, less than half of Chesterfield's. Because of
reassessments, Amelia's rate may even drop by a dime or more, Bennett said.
Bennett estimated that the county's sewer system, limited to the area around the
village of Amelia, is operating at about 35 percent of capacity now. The
development near the Veterans Cemetery would take the system to more than 75
percent capacity, he said.

There is talk of having to build an additional wastewater treatment plant.
Bennett said he instead favors requiring developers to install sewage treatment
plants, which can cost several million dollars.

The Board of Supervisors is trying to make its brand of development attractive
by offering tax credits for conservation easements and by allowing developers a
few extra lots if large acreage is put into permanent easement for forest or
agricultural areas.

Unemployment is low in the county, but county planners are trying to attract
small factories and businesses, so that residents can work near home,
Vannoorbeeck said.

"We're trying every tool we can think of to create a full-service county,
instead of a bunch of folks who get up when it's dark, go to work out of the
county and come home when it's dark. We want people to grocery shop and to eat
in Amelia," Vannoorbeeck said.

"I think we can create a planned city. We'll have a concentration of people here
bigger than anything between Richmond and Lynchburg," he said. "I think our
experiment's going to work."

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