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Plans for a shopping center near the intersection of U.S. 501 and Lakeside Drive in Lynchburg are forging ahead, but don’t expect construction to start any time soon.
Lakeside Centre developers publicized a Department of Environmental Quality draft permit for the 124-acre project last week. The draft calls for filling in more than 5,300 feet of stream and less than an acre of wetlands. Proposed stream mitigation could cost more than $3.7 million.
The move, developers said, is an effort to get all permitting and site plans ready for when the economy turns around.
“We’ve not given up on the project by any means. We have too much invested, and it’s a premier location,” said Ray Booth, one of the developers.
The parcel is located near where Tomahawk Creek and Burton Creek converge to create Blackwater Creek. On the parcel are a number of springs that feed into the stream. Plans call for directing the spring water into pipes and fill in the land, Booth said.
Whenever construction is slated to affect a stream, developers either must pay fees to a state-wide mitigation fund or improve a specified length of other streams to make up for the loss.
Lakeside Centre developers considered paying to fix up sections of Blackwater Creek, but Booth said it may be more financially feasible to pay the fees than do the work.
“It appears, which we haven’t got good cost estimates yet, it’s more expensive to mitigate Blackwater Creek, which is what … everybody wants us to do,” Booth said. “But if you can’t control the water upstream, if you get a big flood, it will wash out what you do.”
The draft permit calls for developers to purchase 6,344 “stream credits,” each costing $585, said Mark Bushing with DEQ.
Booth said developers are working with a leasing agent, but “what we’re being told by all the major retailers is that they’re not willing to make a commitment until everyone is confident that the economy has turned around.”
From the time those retailers commit to a big box-type store, it typically takes two years to opening day, Booth said. “They’re telling us it will be sometime late next year or the following year before they are willing to make a full commitment.”
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Reader Reactions
Lynchburg really needs another shopping center. It can’t support most of the ones it has and the City is completely and utterly inept at planning anything. One look at Wards Rd, River Ridge Mall, Greenview Dr or Wards Ferry Rd should put any doubts to rest. The City would not only neglect environmental concerns and overtax and regulate business here, but would also fail to build the roads and infrastructure to insure a safe and conducive support system.
What most people should be appalled at is that a former City employee is allowed to lobby the City to push this mistake through. The City should have codes of conduct which ban this type of interaction by it’s former employees just because large companies can hire them to get their agendas passed. It is somewhat surprising that the N & A fails to mention this conflict of interest.
Here’s how the wetlands scam works: If a state or federal bureaucrat arbitrarily decides to let this developer pipe these streams, the developer has the privilege of paying $3.7 million to other landowners in the state of Virginia. Of course, the state and federal agencies take their cut up front as permit fees. In return, the other landowners place conservation easements on their own streams, meaning they can never be disturbed for any type of development. The shopping center developer passes the $3.7 million cost on to the stores that locate in the shopping center by charging more rent. The stores pass the cost on to you and me by charging more for their products. So, in the end, you and I have paid $3.7 million to other Virginia landowners to take their property permanently out of circulation, meaning it can never be used to generate jobs or create economic development for our children’s future. This is the state of Virginia’s way of converting most of the land in our state over the next few decades into nature preserves quietly and at the expense of the taxpayers. Economic development, jobs, and growth will move to states that are more business friendly and our children and grandchildren will pay the price if they stay here. This is where environmentalist extremism leads—to poverty.
You are dealing with an urban development area—not some pristine woodland. If you want a park there have the city buy the land and make it one. Otherwise developmenmt at the intersection of two major roads is basically going to happen and rightfully so. Otherwise you are wasting an economic asset that the infrastructure created.
Also that retail development around Wards Road has helped the city build and maintain an attractive retail base so that fewer sales are lost to cities like Richmond, Roanoke, and C’ville. Those stores everyone loves to hate—but shop at all the time—have helped increase the tax base and capture sales tax revenue that easily could go eleswhere. If any of you actually lived in any major city outside Lynchburg you would know that the traffic is no worse than similar retail nodes across the US. You need to get out more.
As to The Plaza, it’s the wrong project in the wrong place. The demographics are marginal, access is poor as you are far from any freeway,and the design is a joke with no visibility for most of the project. If they can’t see you they won’t come. We are lucky Liberty might make some use of that white elephant.
The whole procedure is a joke. It’s about profits and tax revenue. Nature? Wetlands? Money!
You are right about a lot of that Nature-boy. It’s time to STOP building for the sake of building. The only thing that doesn’t stop growing is cancer.
I take exception to the idea that creeks and wetlands are jokes. I hate to think how my life would be impoverished had I not spent much of my youth mucking about in “creeks & wetlands”.
How could you call yourself “Naturelover” and ... oh, I get it…. Sarcasm.
Right-Oh!
Let’s see, a thousand new plastic sided poorly built homes like the ones that pollute that area or a shopping center for everyone to use. A nice grocery store, movie theatres, restaurants, it all sounds good to me. A creek? Wetlands? What a joke. Ride down through the housing development directly across the road from this property and check that out. Just what did that poorly designed over-crowded conglomeration of poorly built houses do to the watershed. It’s about money folks, it ain’t about the water.
For those who mentioned the existing shopping centers in run down condition these are excellent points, and need to be considered by the city. I did want to mention the interchange; however, because on VDOT time it could be another 20 years before that overdue project is built. Since the shopping center is probably going to be built whether we want it or not, we at least need to push hard for the city to require the original project scope to be built. The aforementioned alternative would be better, rather than another “hurry up” get it built traffic nightmare-that is supposed to bring needed revenue into the city budget, as has been the case with other shopping projects in recent years.
I would be very interested to hear Lynchburg College’s take on this, as College Lake will inevitable be affected.
I think the question here is why does Lynchburg need another shopping center? To that point, what will happen to the existing shopping centers? Has anyone looked at the Plaza lately? Why is the answer always to build more instead of building smarter?
I don’t understand the idea that the only way for Lynchburg to become a successful regional center for commerce and culture is to bring in more large retail chains. Instead adding more, why don’t we improve upon what we already have?
Two Walmarts, one target, and an incredibily impressive Ollie’s Bargain Outlet (<—- sarcasm) is argument enough not to build this shopping center.
“Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have exhausted all other possibilities.“
— Winston Churchill
My guess is that little stretch of stream and those wetlands never stood a chance.
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