Hopewell-Prince George land swap nears conclusion

A land swap between Hopewell and Prince George County is closer to being a done deal.

The Hopewell City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved an agreement with the county to adjust the boundary line along Interstate 295, a decision that had been postponed for two months.

Under the plan, Hopewell will receive about 30 acres of land east to the interstate. The city's soccer complex is on that land, which is inside the current Prince George line.

In exchange, Prince George will gain about 24 acres west of the interstate, land that is owned by the city but is part of the Appomattox River Regional Park, between 295 and the Riverside Regional Jail.

The plan was originally scheduled for approval at the June 9 council meeting -- the day the Prince George Board of Supervisors approved the agreement. But Councilman Gerald S. Stokes at the last minute asked the city administration to renegotiate the agreement.

He asked for the administration to pursue gaining an additional 1,000 feet of land as part of the deal. The strip he was interested in is considered a profitable spot for the city sheriff's office, which issues numerous speeding citations along the interstate. Stokes, a deputy with the sheriff's office, said Tuesday that the speeding enforcement was not the reason behind his request.

Prince George declined to make any additional changes as proposed by Stokes and on Tuesday the city officials approved the original agreement.

A few more procedural steps, including taking the matter before the Circuit Court, need to be done before the trade becomes official, said John M. Altman Jr., Hopewell's assistant city manager for economic development.

The land swap plan came about some years ago when officials from both jurisdictions realized that Hopewell owned the land that is part of the park, and that the city's soccer field is inside the county line.

If the city wanted to have any construction at the soccer field, it had to go through the Prince George permitting process, and Prince George had the same complications if it pursued construction at the park, Altman said.

"It just made sense to trade," said Councilman K. Wayne Walton.

The "friendly land swap," as Walton calls it, is the first since a dispute in the midto late 1980s, when Prince George engaged in a costly and long legal fight to keep Petersburg and Hopewell from annexing land.

"This was a friendly agreement. Both localities won on this," he said.

Contact Luz Lazo at (804) 649-6058 or .