Richmond Times Dispatch
Sunday, October 22, 2006

A planned housing development in far western Chesterfield County is finally coming to life.  If completed as designed, Magnolia Green would be the Richmond area's largest community, with 4,886 housing units. By comparison, the largest subdivision now is Brandermill, which has 3,920 residences.

The Magnolia Green property, north of Hull Street Road and west of Otterdale Road, was fairly isolated when it was rezoned in 1991. Not anymore.

In the past 15 years, development has continued to creep west, said Steve Valdivieso, operations manager for Lifestyle Homes LLC, the parent of Magnolia Green Development LLC. Should the county accept the revised plan filed recently by the development company, the first 686 homes will go up next year in Magnolia Green, which is about 3 miles west of Brandermill.

Everything is knocking right on the door to Magnolia Green, Valdivieso said.  But some residents worry that Chesterfield cannot support another large development in an area already coping with significant growth. They wonder how the county will be able to support schools and roads once Magnolia Green, dubbed the Green Monster, is there.

That development is going to produce more children, and there isn't sufficient school space for them to go now, said Shelly Schuetz, a resident of the Hampton Park subdivision just east of the Magnolia Green site. Part of my concern is that people are going to purchase these homes from outside the county not knowing the full scope of what's going on in the county.

Valdivieso said his company will limit the development's impact by providing sites for public facilities, such as a library or fire station, and by making on- and off-site road improvements. Those include turn lanes on Hull Street Road and an upgrade of the Woolridge-Otterdale intersection.  The whole intersection is going to be improved, he said.

The property has changed hands several times over the years, which in part explains the delay of development.  Overall, the community could encompass almost 3,900 acres. Plans call for an initial phase of 686 single-family homes on 315 acres near Otterdale and Woolridge roads, as well as an unspecified amount of retail and community recreation facilities.

Housing lots are expected to be available by next fall. Initially, home prices could range from $275,000 to $600,000 for condominiums and $300,000 to $600,000 for single-family homes, Valdivieso said.

Eventually, the development's main access will be from Hull Street Road, but that connection is not expected to be completed until late 2007 or early 2008, Valdivieso said.

Some residents and county officials worry about the potential impact of Magnolia Green because the property was rezoned without cash proffers.

The rezoning application was filed in June 1989. That was just before Chesterfield began accepting cash proffers, which are per-lot payments made by a builder that help mitigate the impact development has on public services and infrastructure.

One condition of the Magnolia Green 1991 rezoning requires a contribution of land or improvements equivalent to $2,800 per lot to offset development impacts but that is a far cry from the current cash proffer of $15,600. Chesterfield officials are considering raising that amount to more than $22,000.

Supervisor Art Warren said he is troubled by the lack of cash proffers, as well as the limited local and state funds to make necessary road fixes in the county.

It shows, on the one hand, how long some development projects take to get off the ground, he said. On the other hand, it represents what we have feared for a long time in the county -- that the gorilla, if you will, in terms of massive projects is now stepping forward, and our ability to influence the process now is very limited.

Warren was on the Planning Commission when the rezoning was approved, but he voted against it.

County records indicate that Lifestyle Homes owns 1,896 acres of the Magnolia Green tract, which the firm acquired from Loudoun County-based developer Salvatore J. Cangiano, who owns the remaining 1,988 acres. Cangiano said he has not decided what to do with the land.

We're working on it. We've got engineers working on it. Had we had any definite plans, we would have submitted them, he said.

The path of the long-proposed Powhite Parkway extension, from its current terminus at Old Hundred Road to Hull Street Road, cuts through a portion of the Magnolia Green tract. A condition of the rezoning requires that developers dedicate right of way for the extension.

Valdivieso said the Powhite would cut through land owned by Cangiano.

That thoroughfare is just one of the pressing road needs in the area that Chesterfield is struggling to fund in an era of dwindling dollars from the state Department of Transportation, said Marleen Durfee, executive director of the Responsible Growth Alliance of Chesterfield.

Everybody thought Magnolia Green was far into the future, but it is here and now, she said. The problem is, the county's infrastructure is insufficient to handle existing development, let alone a project the magnitude of Magnolia Green.

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