Walmart site could end up back on table

Albemarle County officials have butted heads about whether the Hollymead development area should be expanded as part of the Places29 Master Plan.

In the meantime, the county may have lost an opportunity to get free land and millions of dollars to help fund one of the most vital transportation projects in the plan.

Local developer Wendell Wood, president of United Land Corp., owns part of the land that officials are considering converting to the growth area, about 140 acres, and said late last week that Wal-Mart had set out plans more than three years ago to build a 220,000-square-foot supercenter on the site.

“I have a signed contract with Wal-Mart,” Wood said, adding that the contract was contingent upon the county allowing development in that area.

The property is on the west side of U.S. 29, north of the South Fork of the Rivanna River. It’s land adjacent to property now in the Hollymead development area, which extends north along U.S. 29 to the Hollymead Town Center area.

“I got my price up an additional … minimum of $8 million to $9 million, that Wal-Mart was going to contribute, along with me, to do what’s called ‘at-site work,’” Wood said.

The county would have been able to use such a proffer to help extend Berkmar Drive past the Doubletree Hotel Charlottesville, across a bridge over the Rivanna River and ending at Hollymead Town Center.

Constructing the bridge and road is estimated to cost about $25 million, in addition to right of way costs and a $155,000 study. Berkmar currently terminates at Hilton Heights Road, just behind an existing Walmart.

The extension is key to the Places29 vision for a road network parallel to U.S. 29, part of a host of recommendations designed to relieve traffic while guiding development that’s pedestrian-friendly in the county’s primary commercial corridor.

Wood says that he would let the county have the part of his land needed to build the road and bridge for free, and fork over millions of dollars, in exchange for the county rezoning the strip of rural area to development area.

“It was just money on the table to get this road done,” Wood said.

Missed opportunity?

Though the contract initially had a one-year lifespan, Wal-mart renewed the contract multiple times in more than three years but decided to let the contract expire several months ago, Wood said.

A phone call to Wal-mart’s media relations department was not immediately returned.

The chairman of Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, David L. Slutzky, has been trying to broker a deal to have the county convert the land to development area for several years.

Though county staff had recommended the zoning change, the Planning Commission has been resistant. The commission voted against such a zoning change in 2007.

But now that Places29 has been finished as an eight-chapter complete draft for the commission to consider in final form, county planners are again suggesting the property be shifted from rural to growth area.

Land-use guidelines included in the proposed expansion would allow for one, 120,000-square-foot “big box” retail store and urban mixed-use development.

Wood said he thinks Wal-mart would still agree to pay a huge chunk of money — some of which would go to the county — to be located on Wood’s land, but Wal-mart representatives aren’t making any promises.

“My personal opinion is they would,” Wood said. “They haven’t gone anywhere. They obviously like the market. They obviously like the location.”

An essential road

Slutzky said it would be common sense for the county to rezone the land in exchange for a lot of proffer money from Wood, because the project is essential to the county’s long-term land and transportation goals.

And Slutzky said that the county should be flexible enough to allow for dense development, or else the county wouldn’t get as much proffer money.

Slutzky said that a Virginia Department of Transportation official has told him that the bridge could possibly be constructed for less money than originally estimated, depending on the topography of the land, though an engineering study that would cost about $1 million would be needed to find out. There also might be opportunities for federal money to be put toward the project, Slutzky said.

Overall, Places29 — a joint land-use and transportation blueprint by the county and VDOT — includes hundreds of millions of dollars worth of potential major transportation network upgrades in northern Albemarle, many of which have no funding source.

County officials readily identify the funding challenge, and don’t expect significant work such as new overpasses at key intersections to occur for years or decades.

But without Berkmar Drive being extended, the county’s long-term land use and transportation plan isn’t going to work properly, Slutzky said, noting that constructing roads that are parallel to U.S. 29 is essential, and the county should negotiate with Wood to help fund the extension of Berkmar.

Others urge caution

Jeff Werner, a land use field officer for the Piedmont Environmental Council, has joined some Planning Commission members in saying that the timing is wrong.

“Given everything that’s been approved and still unbuilt on the 29 north corridor, I think it’s a little premature to be saying, ‘We’ll need a new shopping center here,’” Werner said. However, Werner added: “At a point in time in the future, that bridge and road are going to be critical.”

Wood said there would be a need for new commercial and residential development by the time the area is built out and that it makes sense for the county to broker a deal now, because it would be getting a lot of money that could be put toward essential projects.

Albemarle County has considered four places in recent years where the county’s development areas could be expanded, but as the Places29 Master Plan is making its way to the Board of Supervisors, planners are now focusing on the land near Hollymead.

Whether to expand the Hollymead growth area remains a contentious matter that will likely be debated by players on both sides of the issue in coming months.

The county has scheduled two public information meetings on the draft plan this week, including one from 4 to 5:45 p.m. today at the County Office Building.