Citizens working group backs UDD‑style master plan for eastern Powhatan growth area

The Powhatan County Citizens Working Group subcommittee voted to recommend tying a Unified Development District (UDD) master plan to the county's economic‑opportunity designation for parcels inside the water and sewer service district. The substitute motion replaces an earlier effort to designate the entire 175‑acre study area as UDD.

The group’s presentation showed the east area in the current comprehensive plan contains roughly 2,850 acres — “about 4.5 square miles,” the staff presenter said — and includes existing economic opportunity and gateway business designations along Route 60. After debate, a substitute motion passed directing the comprehensive‑plan amendment to reference UDD master‑plan requirements and to remove a fixed acreage limit; planning‑level UDD zoning language will be drafted and returned to the planning commission and board for approval. A committee member proposed the substitute motion and a second member seconded it; the chair called the vote and announced the motion carried.

Members debated whether UDD should permit residential uses in parcels currently labeled Gateway Business or Economic Opportunity, and whether any residential allowance should be confined to lands already inside the county’s service district. Several participants emphasized the need for master‑plan controls — pattern books, setbacks and buffer zones — to manage transitions between commercial frontage on Route 60 and lower‑density residential lots behind it. As one member summarized the scale of the study area during the map walkthrough: “I calculate about 2,850 acres and that is about 4.5 just a little under 4.5 square miles.”

Supporters said UDD gives planners and the board a tool to require balanced, master‑planned development rather than piecemeal zoning changes. Critics cautioned that gateway business and economic‑priority designations were created to protect commercial tax base and jobs, and that opening such areas to residential uses without clear service‑capacity analysis could shift fiscal burdens to taxpayers. In the subcommittee discussion, members asked staff to keep UDD strong on mixed‑use balance and to avoid language that would allow wholesale conversion of gateway business to predominantly residential uses.

Next steps agreed by the subcommittee include drafting UDD zoning language tied to the comp‑plan reference, clarifying how much of a UDD parcel may be outside the service district (participants noted earlier drafts proposed 50%), and returning with an edited recommendation for review by the full citizens working group and the planning commission.