Developers who build within a half-mile radius of Benns Church Boulevard’s intersection with Turner Drive within the next five years could share in the cost of building a single-lane roundabout on Turner under a proposed 2029 master transportation plan Isle of Wight County staff presented on Aug. 15.

The Commonwealth Transportation Board, in June, approved a new six-year improvement plan through 2030 that includes a $2.2 million state revenue-share grant, which is conditioned on the county matching the amount dollar for dollar. The county received notice of the grant award on Aug. 1.

The six-year plan includes an additional $972,000 in Virginia Department of Transportation funding through Smart Scale, the state’s cost-to-benefit formula for funding roadwork based on regional need, which leaves Isle of Wight on the hook for $4.5 million, or 60%, of the roundabout project’s estimated $7.6 million cost.

The cost estimate includes the roundabout and adding dual westbound left turn lanes from Benns Church, a four-lane divided highway, onto the two-lane Turner Drive. According to county Transportation Coordinator Jamie Oliver, the county has 90 days, or until Nov. 1, to formally accept the revenue-sharing grant. If it doesn’t, VDOT will reallocate the $2.2 million to other localities.

“The concern from citizens that I hear the most with regards to growth and development, especially in my district, is traffic. … We cannot, I don’t think, let this money go,” said Supervisor Renee Rountree.

Supervisor William McCarty agreed, stating it would be “catastrophic” for Isle of Wight to lose the revenue-sharing grant “not only for the county but to each of the applicants” who have submitted plans to develop the area.

Oliver said accepting the grant would entail separate agreements, one between the county and VDOT, and individual agreements with participating developers, with the county on the hook for any cost overruns.

“The funding agreements that we make with the state must commit to any cost overruns that are required to complete the project when we initiate it; once you start you’re committed to finishing even if it goes over the original amount,” Oliver said.

County supervisors voted in 2023 to apply for the revenue-sharing grant, citing anticipated growth along the Benns Church corridor. That year, the town of Smithfield received, but has yet to approve, an application from Charlottesville-based Greenwood Homes proposing a mixed-use development, dubbed “The Promontory,” that would add 262 homes and five commercial parcels along the corridor.

In May of this year, county supervisors, in a 3-2 vote over the objection of Isle of Wight’s Planning Commission, approved mixed-use zoning for Sweetgrass, a proposed 615-home development on Isle of Wight’s side of the town border that would add up to 73,000 square feet of commercial space fronting Benns Church at its intersection with Turner opposite The Promontory.

The county previously received an application in 2021 from Miami-based Frontier Development and Henry Layden of Smithfield to build a Wawa gas station and convenience store at the corner of Turner and Benns Church, but that project remains stalled.

“We need to look at the bigger picture and not just look at these one at a time,” Oliver said.

 

How costs would be divided

The 2029 master plan, Oliver said, is the result of input from a stakeholder group that included landowners, commercial and residential developers, representatives from Isle of Wight County Schools, county and town staff, VDOT and third-party engineers. It proposes two scenarios for passing the $4.5 million cost to developers, one developed by county staff and the other by Henry Layden, who owns the land on which the Wawa, Sweetgrass and The Promontory would be built.

Three parcels totaling 28 acres, dubbed “Turner North” in the 2029 plan, would be on the hook for just under $600,000, or 13%, of the $4.5 million under both the county proposal and Layden’s.

According to Assistant County Administrator Don Robertson, the 28 acres do not represent a specific development but rather what he termed a “land use grouping” based on the county’s 2020 “Envisioning the Isle” comprehensive plan, which designates the area as ideal for business and employment on its future land use map. No other developers besides Wawa have submitted rezoning applications to Isle of Wight County for that land, Robertson said.

“Turner South,” another land use grouping that includes acreage slated for the commercial phase of The Promontory, would pay $767,256, or 17%, under the county proposal versus $400,000, or 9%, under Layden’s.

“Cypress Run South,” a third land use grouping, overlaps with land slated for the residential phase of The Promontory, and would pay $586,725 under the county proposal versus just over $1 million, or 24%, under Layden’s.

Sweetgrass would pay $1.4 million, or 33%, under the county proposal versus $500,000, or 11%, under Layden’s.

Isle of Wight County Schools proposed in 2022 to replace Westside Elementary, a 1960s-era grades 4-6 school in Smithfield, with a grades 5-7 middle school on land opposite Turner Drive from the existing Smithfield High School and Smithfield Middle School campus just outside the town border. That new school, if built, would be on the hook for $180,531, or 4%, under the county proposal versus $785,000, or 17%, under Layden’s.

Both the county plan and Layden’s assume all named land use groupings to be fully built out by 2029.

All other development at the Benns Church and Turner intersection, which is assumed to be at 50% buildout by 2029, would be collectively on the hook for $947,786, or 21%, under the county proposal versus $1.1 million, or 26%, under Layden’s.

This includes a 178-acre undeveloped parcel and three parcels totaling 22 acres fronting Benns Church Boulevard, all on Smithfield’s side of the town-county line between Sweetgrass and the existing Waterford Oaks development. According to Tammie Clary, Smithfield’s director of community development and planning, the town has not received any rezoning application for the land, which is slated for residential and mixed-use development in the town’s 2022 comprehensive plan.

The 100% buildout of all named land use groupings and the 50% buildout of all other possible future development along the Benns Church and Turner intersection would account for 24% of the intersection’s traffic by 2029, according to projections included in the master plan.

“The stakeholder group developed average traffic volume assumptions that matched the comp plan projected uses,” Robertson said.

As of 2022, according to VDOT data, the intersection saw 22,000 to 24,000 vehicles traveling eastbound, and the same number traveling westbound, on Benns Church Boulevard, and roughly 3,000 vehicles daily on Turner.