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Ten months after recommending rejection of the Tidewater Logistics Center multi-warehouse complex proposed for the outskirts of Windsor, Isle of Wight County’s Planning Commission voted 4-3 to recommend approval of a revised concept that calls for one less warehouse.

Isle of Wight’s Economic Development Authority remains under contract with Meridian Property Purchaser LLC, a subsidiary of The Meridian Group, to sell an EDA-owned 83-acre parcel fronting the four-lane Route 460 despite county supervisors voting 4-1 in June to uphold the commission’s prior recommendation and deny Meridian’s application to rezone 154 acres of farmland and forestry for industrial use. The acreage includes the EDA-owned land and two non-EDA parcels owned by Hollowell Holdings LLC.

Meridian submitted revised conceptual plans in July showing four warehouses instead of the five originally proposed. Isle of Wight Community Development Director Amy Ring, whose department handles rezoning and permit requests, said Meridian formally submitted a new rezoning application the first week of December.

Under state law, if a rezoning application is denied, the project developer is ordinarily required to wait at least a year before submitting another application seeking the same rezoning for the same land, unless the county determines the revised proposal is sufficiently different to warrant a waiver. Ring said her office granted that waiver based on the site layout changes and reduction in density.

“It’s been almost a year since I stood before you with the prior submission. … Significant changes have been made, which have resulted in a better plan for the county and most importantly for the town of Windsor and its residents,” Tom Boylan, Meridian’s senior vice president, told the commissioners.

The revised site plan shows a 14.9-acre public park with walking trails where the fifth warehouse would have been and proposes increasing from 6 feet to 9 the height of a 60-foot-wide landscape berm that would buffer the site from the adjacent Keaton Avenue and Lovers Lane neighborhoods. There would be a 10-foot-tall sound wall on top of the berm.

Not all of the planning commissioners or speakers at two same-day public hearings – one on Meridian’s request for a comprehensive plan amendment and the other on its rezoning application – agreed with Ring’s determination.

“When I saw this application come before us, I was surprised to see it because as several speakers said, under state law they should only come back to see us after it’s been a year after the board has denied an application, substantially the same application,” said Commissioner Cynthia Taylor. “I’ll be quite frank, I don’t see a substantial difference. I see a reduction in the size of the proposal, but they still need a comprehensive plan amendment, they still have the same basic layout and I looked at the traffic impact study. It’s still very close to the same number of trucks that were originally envisioned. … I just don’t think this is something that should even be coming before us at this point in time.”

A traffic study included with Meridian’s original application had estimated the then-five proposed warehouses would generate over 2,300 vehicle trips daily. A revised traffic study from November states the four-warehouse proposal would still generate just over 2,000 daily vehicular trips, 400 of which would be tractor-trailers.

“There’s not been substantial changes to this application,” said Commissioner Jennifer Boykin. “I still think that this is just not a good project to put beside a neighborhood.”

In addition to the two hearings there were were two separate votes that evening, one on the rezoning and the other on the comprehensive plan amendment. When Planning Commission Chairman Bobby Bowser called for a vote on the rezoning, Boykin made, and Taylor seconded, a motion to recommend denial, but the vote failed 4-3 when Bowser, Vice Chairman Thomas Distefano and Commissioners Raynard Gibbs and Matthew Smith voted against it. Commissioner George Rawls voted with Boykin and Taylor in favor of the recommended denial while Commissioner James Ford abstained due to his also serving on the EDA board.

After Boykin’s motion failed, Smith made, and Gibbs seconded, a motion to recommend approval. That motion passed 4-3 with Boykin, Rawls and Taylor voting against it and Ford again abstaining.

Distefano, Gibbs and Commissioner Brian Carroll, who was absent from the Jan. 28 meeting, had previously joined with Boykin, Rawls and Taylor last year to vote 6-1 to recommend denial of Meridian’s original application over Bowser’s objection.

A 50-minute public hearing, the longer of the two, drew 17 speakers, seven of whom voiced support for the project. Among the supporters was Windsor Mayor George Stubbs, who’d opposed Meridian’s initial application last year.

“The developer listened to us, he increased the size of his berm, he eliminated one warehouse, he moved his warehouses further away from the residential area,” Stubbs said.

Stubbs said Meridian had approached him about the idea of Windsor taking responsibility for the proposed park’s upkeep.

“I have spoken with Mr. Boylan, I have talked to our town manager and there’s a couple things we would have to work out from that, but the consensus is, yes, the town would be willing to accept the upkeep and responsibility,” Stubbs said.

Other Windsor Town Council members, however, said they remain opposed to the project – park or no park.

“I don’t want warehouses in my backyard, and I can’t support putting them in anybody else’s backyard,” said Town Councilman Marlin Sharp.

It’s a sentiment shared by Lovers Lane resident Mike Powers, who urged the commissioners to “put yourselves in our shoes and look at what we’re going to lose if this place comes,” and by fellow Lovers Lane resident and former Mayor Glyn Willis.

Councilman David Adams, citing the expected increase in truck traffic, wrote in an email to the Planning Commission that he too still opposes the project.

Other supporters include Chris Gullickson, director of development and transportation policy at the Port of Virginia, who said the volume of shipping containers offloaded at the port last year increased 10% over 2023. Isle of Wight County, by virtue of having available land along Route 460 just 34 miles west of the port, makes it well suited to capitalize on the uptick, he said.

“There’s been a lot of investment in the Port of Virginia to support growth; it’s America’s most modern gateway,” said Jeff Position of Norfolk, a former county resident who identified himself as a commercial real estate broker who would be a leasing agent for Meridian.

Even if Meridian’s revised proposal isn’t approved, “we do have a lot of competition with Richmond, so those trucks that are coming from the Port may not stop here; they may just keep going up 460, driving through Windsor … they’re going to be here regardless,” Poston said.

Isle of Wight County Economic Development Director Kristi Sutphin said Meridian’s revised concept is expected to create 250 to 500 new jobs, down from the roughly 1,200 permanent positions an economic impact analysis submitted with Meridian’s original application had estimated. Sutphin said the EDA remains supportive of selling its portion of the project to Meridian, and views the land as an extension of the Shirley T. Holland Intermodal Park located on the opposite side of Route 460. She estimated the project, if approved, would generate $7.2 million to $7.7 million in new local tax revenue over the next decade.

The application is expected to advance to the Board of Supervisors on March 20 for that body’s required public hearing, and potentially a final vote.