Ryland

Hi all, this is my first time writing a message here, but I've been lurking for awhile. I appreciate everyone's enthusiasm in the topics on this site as, like all of you, I'm excited to see the Richmond area grow and learn about new developments and projects. I read the recent comments in this thread about data centers in Varina and as someone who grew up in and currently lives there, I decided to chime in and provide some perspective on eastern Henrico as there are often misperceptions about what can be developed in that half of the county. While development is certainly occurring, it will likely never be as wide-scale as what has taken place in western Henrico. This is for several reasons. One is that Varina is very swampy, with the Chickahominy River, White Oak Swamp and several large creeks making development, not impossible, but not easy either. The second is that large portions of Varina is protected land and more will likely be protected in the future. In particular, I'm referring to the area bounded to the north by Darbytown Road, the west by I-295, the east by Charles City County, and the James to the south. There are multiple large swaths of land in this area which are protected by various entities, like Henrico County, the American Battlefield Trust, the Richmond Battlefields Association, the Capital Region Land Conservancy and the National Park Service. This is especially true in the section that stretches along New Market Road (Route 5) from Four Mile Creek Park to the Malvern Hill Battlefield. That unit of Richmond National Battlefield Park also includes the battlefields of Glendale and Deep Bottom and the National Park unit will eventually expand to an area the size of roughly 3,000+ acres. That does not include +/- 1,000 acres surrounding the battlefields that are protected by other entities, including the Commonwealth and Henrico County. There are several large tracts, including recently, a farm at over 120-acres and Curles Neck Farm which hold extensive conservation easements. In recent years, a couple of large-scale housing developments have been withdrawn in Varina. Among them was Wilton Farms, which was withdrawn around 2008/2009. Henrico County purchased that 1,184-acre site which straddles 895 from the river to Osbourne Turnpike in 2019 with the intention of including a mix of some lite economic development, schools and park land. However, the county has acknowledged that over 500 acres of that property is not developable. Earlier this year, the long discussed Ridings development was withdrawn and that 400+ acre property is now currently being eyed by several preservation groups for permanent protection due to it being the site of two separate Civil War battles. While there are plenty of current and proposed developments to be excited about in eastern Henrico, especially as RIC grows, I believe most of that development will be focused east of I-295 and along the US 60 corridor including potential needed redevelopment of older developed areas such as Sandston and Highland Springs, which I am more excited to see happen. Eventually, as White Oak Technology Park gets built out, I would not be surprised to see larger non-housing development projects bypass Eastern Henrico and instead focus on New Kent County and Charles City County, especially once I-64 is expanded in New Kent, easing often crippling congestion between Richmond and Tidewater. This would particularly be to the benefit of Charles City County which currently lacks significant economic generators and, especially along the northern tier near its border with New Kent has the potential for large-scale developments. Just wanted to give my thoughts and provide some information on things that most people either aren't aware of, or think about, when imaging the development potential of certain areas.