Tax increase would fund Midlothian Turnpike project

If Chesterfield Towne Center-area business owners want the middle of Midlothian Turnpike to be beautiful, they'll need to pay more in taxes.

The Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors this month will consider a proposal to increase the property-tax rate for businesses along the mile-and-a-half stretch of Midlothian by 2 cents per $100 of assessed value.

The estimated $140,000 annually from tax district, to be established for 10 years, would go toward beautifying the median from Alverser Drive to Johnston Willis Drive with trees, shrubs and flowers. The stretch includes Chesterfield Towne Center, CJW Medical Center (Johnston-Willis) and the Holiday Inn Koger Center.

"This is a first investment in maintaining and improving this as a key economic development area of the county," said Thomas E. Jacobson, the county's revitalization director.

Jacobson said the county had learned a lesson from the decline in the area around Cloverleaf Mall in the eastern Midlothian Turnpike corridor.

The project is estimated to cost $340,000 for landscape installation and $68,000 annually for maintenance to be paid for by about 340 commercial property owners in the area.

Area business group Midlothian Initiative to Revitalize Rights of Way has led the yearlong effort.

"The area is now 30 years old and beginning to show its wear," said Ray Birk, chairman of the group and vice president of Super Radiator Coils. "When you go down Midlothian and stop at a stop sign, look in the median and it's full of cigarette butts, that reflects on the businesses."

Birk's group and county staff members have held more than a dozen meetings with affected property owners. "There has been very little opposition," Birk said.

In later years, the roadsides could be landscaped and sidewalks considered. Improvements to Courthouse and Huguenot roads also could be included.

"We're hoping that this is going to be a larger project," Birk said.

Under the proposal, Chesterfield would finance the landscaping in the short term and be reimbursed by the service district over five to seven years.

"I'm hopeful that with the support of the businesses, the board will pass it," said Midlothian District Supervisor Daniel A. Gecker.

Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or .