Goochland residents believe environmental impacts are going unchecked in tech zoning consideration

GOOCHLAND COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- Warning that plans are going unchecked, a group of Goochland residents hopes to convince officials to reconsider the newly revised Technology Overlay District outline.

Better known as the "T.O.D.," it's a special zoning area designed to attract high-tech developments and grow the tax base.

Some of those impacts are being discussed Monday night at a town hall meeting where Goochland residents say the decisions made will have impacts -- not just in their county -- but surrounding Henrico and Hanover would be affected by emissions as well.

After hearing from many community members outraged over high-tech developments possibly affecting the environment and property values, Goochland officials revised the T.O.D. plan.

The new plan has quieter emission requirements and forbids data center development near the southern portion of Hockett Road or any energy generation without public input. This means developers would have to obtain a "conditional-use permit" as opposed to "by-right," meaning no public input is required for construction.

"The new revisions that they've made fail to address some of the issues that we feel are very important -- emissions being a big one," said Stephen Levet, a Goochland resident. "And the noise level has been mitigated to an extent, but not enough."

Levet and fellow Goochland resident Lisa Sykes believe economic development can still happen, but say this plan does not go far enough.

Before revisions were made, Levet asked the county to send him a thousand emails, most of which were against the T.O.D., but still, he thinks the perception has not changed.

"There have to be guardrails to protect the existing citizens, the residents -- and not just of Goochland. It's a regional issue," Levet said.

"We worry [about] children with the emissions -- about bronchitis and asthma, with seniors who have vulnerabilities with COPD and emphysema," Sykes added. "We're concerned about noise pollution. We're concerned about low frequency wavelengths that can have impacts of depression, heart attack and stroke."

"Our challenge is not the Board of Supervisors," Sykes continued. "Our challenge is Amazon and Meta and Google. We can't fight this alone."

At Goochland High School this Thursday, Nov. 6, the Goochland Board of Supervisors will hear from the constituents on the T.O.D., then take action, whether they approve, deny or will amend the plans.