Smithfield’s Town Council is on board with the idea of adding a single-lane roundabout to Turner Drive but contends Isle of Wight County’s plan to divide the cost among developers and taxpayers is too high an ask of the town.

The current proposal, on which the council deferred voting on Oct. 28, calls for Smithfield to pay up to $2.3 million by an estimated 2027 construction start date to cover its proportionate share of the traffic projected to traverse Benns Church Boulevard’s intersection with Turner by 2029.

The county has a stated Nov. 1 deadline to accept or decline a $2.2 million Virginia Department of Transportation grant that would cover just under 29% of the project’s estimated $7.6 million cost, but would require that the county commit to funding the remaining $4.5 million.

Though the council isn’t scheduled to reconvene until Nov. 6, County Administrator Randy Keaton and Isle of Wight Transportation Coordinator Jamie Oliver each say that, as long as they stay in regular communication with VDOT, the delay shouldn’t be a problem, as the reallocation of the awarded state funds requires a vote by the 17-member Commonwealth Transportation Board. The CTB, according to its website, typically meets on the third Tuesday and Wednesday of each month.

“Let it be known that we want to work with the county. … We don’t want to be the impediment to potentially cause this to fail,” said Smithfield Mayor Steve Bowman.

The town’s share would amount to 51% of the $4.5 million. This includes $902,654, or 20%, to account for expected 2029 town traffic not tied to developments within a half-mile radius of the Benns Church and Turner intersection and an additional $1.4 million tied to the residential and commercial phases of “The Promontory,” which proposes 262 homes and five commercial parcels at the southwest quadrant of the intersection within the town limits. Charlottesville-based Greenwood Homes submitted its mixed-use rezoning application to the town in 2023, though the council has yet to vote on it.

Sweetgrass, a 615-home development county supervisors approved earlier this year for the northeast quadrant of the Benns Church and Turner intersection, would be on the hook for $541,592, or 12%, of the cost, and any developers who build on 28 acres in the southeast quadrant, dubbed “Turner South,” would pay just under $500,000, or 11%. Turner South includes a 3.8-acre site where Miami-based Frontier Development in 2021 proposed building a Wawa gas station and convenience store. Isle of Wight County would be on the hook for just over $1 million to cover its own 20% share of projected traffic from new developments outside the half-mile radius and the impact of a new school that’s proposed to be built within the next few years on land directly opposite Turner Drive from the current shared Smithfield High School and Smithfield Middle School campus.

Two prospective developments that factored into the county’s 2029 traffic estimates have yet to apply for rezoning. These include a 7.35-acre commercial development adjacent to Sherwin Williams on Smithfield’s side of the town-county line and Harrison and Lear, a Hampton-based developer Keaton said is planning to develop the farm adjacent to The Oaks Veterinary Clinic at the southeast quadrant of the intersection on the county’s side.

Isle of Wight is on its third draft of the cost-sharing agreement since August, but the council wants to see a fourth.

Councilman Jim Collins proposed instead splitting each locality’s share on a “cost-benefit” ratio. He contends that the county, more than the town, stands to benefit from developments on Smithfield’s side of the town-county line.

Plans for the roundabout originated when VDOT denied Frontier’s request to allow left turns onto Turner from the proposed Wawa, which due to its location outside the town’s limits would only bring direct tax revenue to the county.

“Town gets none of that benefit, but we are being asked to absorb some of the cost,” Collins said. “The Promontory, the same thing.”

Should the town approve The Promontory’s rezoning, Isle of Wight, Collins said, would receive far greater revenue from its real estate tax rate of 73 cents per $100 than Smithfield from the additional 16 cents per $100 town residents pay. Per a 2023 change in the town’s water agreement with the county, Isle of Wight also now has the right to sell county water and charge its $12.96 per 1,000 gallon usage fee to Promontory residents, Collins said.

“We do want to help, we love the project, we love the idea, but the numbers just aren’t adding up,” Collins said.

Oliver said the town’s participation would be governed by a separate agreement solely between Smithfield and the county, under which the town would commit to fund up to $2.3 million and then would be responsible for developing its own policy and agreements with developers that would allow it to recoup a proportionate share of the total cost from their developments.

Bowman and Councilman Randy Pack each raised concerns over such an arrangement potentially incentivizing its Planning Commission and council to approve future rezoning applications.

“I don’t want this obligation to be seen, be observed or considered, as pressure on our Planning Commission or someone else,” Bowman said.

“That’s precisely what this does,” Pack said. “This essentially is an investment whether it be $900,000 or $2.3 million. It becomes an economic development incentive provided by the town of Smithfield and its residents because we are saying we are building roads, and this is something we haven’t done before. We are building roads in front of anticipated growth so what I feel, or what my concern is, if we were to approve this today, we’re saying … we’re putting in roads because we want this developed.”

“On the other side of that coin, we’re foolish to think it’s not coming,” Pack said. “We have Benn’s Grant, we have Riverside Hospital within a stone’s throw here a mile or so, it’s coming. Sweetgrass is coming. I don’t believe anybody’s put up a wall around Smithfield yet and said growth’s not coming in here.”

Keaton said Sweetgrass, Harrison and Lear, and Wawa have each provided written confirmation that they are on board with paying their specified shares, but Town Attorney Bill Riddick contends under a 2016 change in state law that Smithfield can only accept such cash payments if voluntarily offered by a developer, and then only if there was evidence showing a direct causal link between a specific development and the need for the roundabout.

“I think you need to look at this as though you’re not going to get any of it back,” Riddick said.

“We all know we’re in the middle of an election season and If the ‘squad of four’ gets elected … all these projects go away,” Collins said, referring to first-time council candidates Mary Ellen Bebermeyer, Darren Cutler and Bill Harris and incumbent Councilman Mike Smith’s reelection campaign.

All four have all been endorsed by a Smithfield-based political action committee calling for more tightly controlling Smithfield’s population growth rate from new developments.

If The Promontory and other developments aren’t approved, the entirety of Smithfield’s $2.3 million will fall to town taxpayers, Collins said.