The Villages of Gloucester Trying to Bilk Gloucester Taxpayers??

On April 3, 2018 the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on changes to the previously approved high-end golf course, residential and commercial development known as The Villages of Gloucester. (Previously submitted under the project name, The Barrens)

The following is an email I sent to the Board of Supervisors. Take a few minutes to send the Board an email asking them to deny The Villages’ proposal. We have provided the Supervisors' email addresses and the link to the public hearing information at the end of this article. 

Kenny Hogge, Sr.

Greetings Board Members,

The proffer statement contained in The Villages of Gloucester’s proposal is lacking to say the least. Once again, we have a developer who boldly expects Gloucester taxpayers and utility customers to foot the bill for future infrastructure and services upgrades that will be a direct result of the proposed development. This road has already been traveled two times in the past.

When The Villages of Gloucester was first proposed it was called The Barrens.  That proposal was denied by the sitting board of that time for, among other reasons, not offering reasonable proffers to offset impacts on the community. One such example was the developers offer to build a 350,000 water tower instead of a one million gallon tower.  (A one million gallon tower that would be turned over to Utilities was later approved when the proposal was resubmitted under the new name.) The developers initial offer to build the smaller tower would have been acceptable if Utilities only provided metered water to the tower and the development retained possession of the tower and associated distribution systems within the development. That would mean the development would have to retrofit their tower to be compatible with Gloucester’s distribution system; not Gloucester retrofitting our system to be compatible with the development. They would also maintain, repair and replace their tower and distribution system, read meters and bill and accept payments for water usage within the development. Under such a scenario there would be little to no impact on Gloucester’s public water system. 

Unfortunately, the current proffer statement eliminates the construction of a water tower all together. A piece of land that must be claimed by the County within five years is all that is offered; therefore, when buildout of The Villages reaches a certain point, the burden of funding the construction of a new tower and associated piping will fall completely on Utilities’ water customers and Gloucester’s taxpayers, while the developer walks away with a fat profit. That is not how free enterprise is supposed to work.

There are several other items contained, or not contained, in the new proffer statement that will result in future costly impacts on Gloucester taxpayers. The developer claims the project will be cost prohibitive if the proffers contained in the previously approved proffer statement are required to gain approval of their current submissions. Then maybe Gloucester is not the right place for such a development or the developer is not the right fit for Gloucester. 

Just because the developer’s project did not come to fruition during the time since it was initially approved is no excuse for not providing reasonable proffers in their current proposals; nor is it a valid excuse for the developer to expect Gloucester taxpayers and utility customers to enhance their profit margin or reduce their losses, whichever may apply.

The Villages proposal should not be accepted as being reasonable on numerous levels. Please deny the proposal.

Kenneth E. Hogge, Sr.

Gloucester Point

Chris Hutson              chutson@gloucesterva.info 

Mike Winebarger       mwinebarger@gloucesterva.info  

Andy James               ajames@gloucesterva.info 

Robert Orth                rorth@gloucesterva.info  

Ashley Chriscoe        achriscoe@gloucesterva.info

Kevin Smith               ksmith@gloucesterva.info

Phillip Bazzani           pbazzani@gloucesterva.info  

Link to public hearing information: http://gloucester.granicus.com/DocumentViewer.php?file=gloucester_e2bbe333f33513aa14c4f9877bcd4564.pdf&view=1

Gloucester Citizens Speak Against Proposed Budget And Tax Increases.

On Wednesday night the Gloucester County, Virginia Board of Supervisors held Public Hearings on the County Administrator’s proposed FY 18 budget and proposed real estate tax rate increase. The meeting was held at the T.C. Walker Education Center in anticipation of a large audience, but very few people showed up.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, a lady spoke about a feral cat problem she and her neighbors are experiencing. She told the Board she had spoken to one of the Animal Control officers about the cats, but said the officer said they had experienced drastic personnel cuts and could not spend time catching cats. She asked for more money to be provided in the budget for Animal Control to address feral cat issues. Maybe if Animal Control personnel did not spend most of their day needlessly patrolling the beaches, swimming pools, stores and other such places they would have time to do their job.

Another lady spoke of her family’s lengthy business history in the County and asked the Board to “please” raise taxes. She said the Board had made so many cuts in previous budgets and asked if they would start cutting funding for necessary things like our libraries. She obviously does not know they are throwing away over a quarter million tax dollars a year in library rent, taxes and maintenance. As a previously successful local business owner, I am sure she would agree that owning our libraries would be economically smarter than renting them.

The rest of the citizens who spoke were against raising taxes. We have provided videos of the Public Hearings on the proposed budget and on the proposed tax rate increases. It is worth taking a few minutes to watch and listen. We have also provided all of our Supervisor’s email addresses; take a few minutes to tell them raising taxes is unacceptable. 

Phillip Bazzani           pbazzani@gloucesterva.info  

Chris Hutson              chutson@gloucesterva.info 

Mike Winebarger       mwinebarger@gloucesterva.info  

Andy James               ajames@gloucesterva.info 

Robert Orth                rorth@gloucesterva.info  

Ashley Chriscoe       achriscoe@gloucesterva.info  

John Meyer                jmeyer@gloucesterva.info 

Public Hearing on FY18 Budget


Public Hearing on Proposed Tax Rates

Real Estate Tax Email To The Gloucester, Va. Board Of Supervisors

Hello Readers. The following is an email that was sent to our Board of Supervisors about the County Administrator's proposed real estate tax increases. Feel free to copy and paste our suggestions in your own email to the Supervisors. All of the Supervisors' email addresses are included for your convenience. 

Phillip Bazzani           pbazzani@gloucesterva.info  
Chris Hutson              chutson@gloucesterva.info 
Mike Winebarger       mwinebarger@gloucesterva.info  
Andy James               ajames@gloucesterva.info 
Robert Orth                rorth@gloucesterva.info  
Ashley Chriscoe       achriscoe@gloucesterva.info  
John Meyer                jmeyer@gloucesterva.info 

Subject: Tax Increases

Greetings Board Members:

Before taxes are raised again, our local government should make the following changes:

1) Consolidate our local government and public school system departments. This one action will result in over a $1 million reduction in yearly operating costs.

2) Eliminate the County’s department of community engagement and return all functions to social services, information technology, county administration, the school system and the various nongovernmental organizations the department facilitates. This action will save the taxpayers close to $400,000 per year.

3) Build our own libraries and health department space so the taxpayers can stop renting them. Owning our health department space will also result in an $80,000 yearly revenue stream from rent payments received from the state. All together this move will result in a yearly savings of around $210,000 and create $50,000 or so in additional revenue after expenses. A new main library should be built on the new Page Middle School property where you are intending to build a new transportation facility. The Hayes library should be closed until space can be purchased or constructed. All funds currently dedicated to the Hayes library should be utilized to break the 20 year lease and to accumulate in a dedicated fund to build or purchase the necessary space. A new health department space should be built or purchased in the business park near the free clinic and Sentara buildings. The health department rent revenue from the state would eventually pay to buy or build this space.  

4) Limit the number of full time animal control employees to two, redirect animal control response calls through the Sheriff’s department dispatcher and cease all patrolling by animal control employees. This will result in a savings of well over $100,000 annually.

The changes we have outlined will result in a combined savings of around $1.7 million per year and create an $80,000 revenue stream.