Supes to Approve Start of Forest Heights Renewal Project

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The planned renewal of the Forest Heights neighborhood is set to begin soon if James City County supervisors approve an agreement related to the use of a million-dollar state grant for the project.

The Forest Heights neighborhood, a mainly low- and moderate-income neighborhood along Forest Heights Road, Neighbors Drive and Richmond Road between Prime Outlets and Wellesley Boulevard, needs some fixing up. The county received a Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (VDHCD) block grant totaling $1.4 million, which would cover much of the costs for improvement. Plans include widening and paving gravel roads, improving drainage problems, and adding a park, a sidewalk and a walking path.

On top of the state grant, $1.1 million of the county’s community development fund will be used, along with $260,000 from Habitat for Humanity, $10,000 from Housing Partnerships and $72,500 from other federal funds.

The project will get underway in two phases, the first of which will use $1.5 million to acquire property, plan property rezoning and resubdivision, design and send to bid road, sewer, drainage and related improvements and about half of the housing rehabilitation, improvements, relocation and demolition. Supervisors are set to vote Tuesday on whether the county will sign a contract with the state to start phase one of the project.

The county will need to purchase property for road rights-of-way, stormwater management, and boundary line adjustments as well as to add more affordable homes and open space.

In order to use the large state grant, supervisors need to follow guidelines that include approving a local business and employment plan and an anti-displacement and relocation plan, which they're also set to decide on Tuesday evening.

Of the 49 occupied homes on about 40 acres in the area, two homes would need to be demolished, county staff said in March. Residents will be relocated to new homes.

One resident in a home set to be torn down, India Johnson, told supervisors at the same meeting in March that she was angry about having her home torn down and that she would seek legal counsel. She told supervisors her home was brick, and had a basement, and that the home the county offered to put her in exchange had no basement and was not brick.

Other business

Supervisors will also decide whether to buy a lot in the Old Stage Manor subdivision for $47,250. The property lies at a low point and collects runoff from the 14-acre watershed around the neighborhood. There isn’t a stormwater management facility in the area, and the county has been working on fixing severe drainage problems affecting the home on the property so that it is now unliveable.

Staff suggests the county buy the property in order to build a stormwater facility there.

Supervisors will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday in building F of the county government complex on Mounts Bay Road.