How is Chesterfield County's comprehensive plan process going?
It depends on whom you ask.
With work under way on the county's first plan to address countywide growth since the 1980s, there is still much work to be done before adoption, slated tentatively for January. And some people involved in that planning aren't happy with the process.
A few members of the 34-member citizen steering committee have threatened to resign. Others have suggested to county leaders that the consultants hired by the county should be terminated.
"I'm probably the most disgruntled of everyone," said member Charles White. "I do not think the process is going well. I think we spend a lot of time spending time."
White said he remains unconvinced that a plan can be completed in the next eight months, but he offered to stick with the process for now after a meeting last week where members aired their grievances.
"For the moment, I'm giving this the benefit of the doubt. But I've got to see something more," White said.
At the suggestion of county planning director Kirk Turner, the group spent more than an hour at Monday's meeting looking to resolve issues.
Turner said frustrations and disagreements are normal and productive in such a sweeping process, but he noted that things had reached a boiling point.
"We're at a point right now where it's not healthy," he said. "I'm sorry that it's come to this point."
To be sure, the project is a massive undertaking for the county, which is looking to unify its 22 individual area plans into one detailed land-use plan for the county's sprawling 446 square miles.
The task is made even more challenging -- and significant -- by the mistakes of the past.
In recent decades, a rubber-stamp approach to development has created sprawl, leaving infrastructure severely strained in many areas. The county's tax base, too, is heavily residential compared to other localities its size.
"I've been working as a planner for Chesterfield County for 31 years and this comprehensive plan is probably the most significant project I've worked on," Turner said. "It's extremely important."
But many steering-committee members expressed confusion over their role in the development of a new plan. Others expressed concern over the work being done that they weren't involved in at all.
"I think there's an awful lot of work going on behind closed doors," said committee member Norma Szakal, imploring planners and consultants to share everything they could with the committee. "I don't think we've always heard answers to the questions that we've asked, and we need to get answers to those."
Vlad Gavrilovic, a planner with Renaissance Planning Group, which the county paid $870,000 to help create the plan, assured members that there was nothing hidden.
"We're trying to share everything that we can as we get it," he said, noting that all of the work his group does with the county is brought to the committee for review.
Dave Anderson, a committee member and one of the developers of Roseland, said he, too, has concerns about running out of time and getting things right.
"What I'm fearful of is we end up with a document that doesn't pass political or public muster because it hasn't been vetted at the detail level," he said, adding, "We can't be advisers until we have something to advise with or against."
A draft of the land-use plan is due to the committee in June. They will then have until September to work on it before a first look is presented to county leaders.
Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or whester@timesdispatch.com.
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