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By the end of the Dec. 9 public hearing, Buckingham County supervisor Joe Chambers had heard enough. After multiple parents, teachers and students of Central Virginia Christian School came up and spoke, Chambers was ready to call for a vote. 

“I don’t think any supervisor will vote against selling the Christian school that land,” he told the audience, which erupted with applause when supervisors unanimously voted 7-0 to sell part of the industrial park land to the school, so that it can expand. 

The school is located at 164 Industrial Park Road and needs the extra space in order to achieve two goals, as Kemper Beasley III explained to the board. Beasley serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors at the school. 

“The school is planning to expand, we feel that’s our calling,” Beasley said. “Really, two ways we desire to expand. One is to add a high school to our curriculum and the second is to add another class per grade. Right now, we just have one class per grade.” 

The purchase price was set at $6,000 per acre and has been slightly reduced from the original. Back in October, the plan was to sell nine acres to the school. As it stands, the deal supervisors approved on Monday is for just under 7 and a half. The school will be able to access the property through Industrial Park Road and also be granted an easement. As part of the deal, the county will also enter into a road maintenance agreement, sharing the expense of maintaining the Industrial Park Road until some point if or when the state takes it over. 

If everything goes as planned, school officials expect to close on the sale no later than April 15, 2025. 

Hearing from Buckingham community 

One thing that caught supervisors’ attention Monday was the amount of support the project received. Teachers, parents and students from the Christian school all showed up at the meeting, talking about both why the sale was necessary and how the school has helped them in a number of ways. 

Candice Waycaster didn’t know what to say at Monday’s hearing, so she asked her kids. The 10 and 12-year-olds both attend Central Virginia Christian School. She asked them what they like about the school and they shared that teachers help encourage and make them feel confident doing new things. They also feel like the teachers really care about students. Beyond Waycaster, several 8th graders also spoke, telling the board they wanted to finish school at Central Virginia and could only do that if a high school gets built. Meanwhile, staff members talked about the benefits this expansion could have, in addition to the construction jobs and additional teaching jobs that would be available. 

“This parcel of land is not merely a plot of dirt,” said Priscilla Tyson. She works as both a pre-K co-teacher and assistant junior varsity basketball coach at the school. “It is a canvas with which we can paint a brighter future for our school and community. This land represents the potential for growth and opportunity.”

Some more things needed

There is a second piece that has to happen, however, before any construction could begin. The Buckingham industrial park property in question is currently zoned NC-1, which is neighborhood commercial. That poses a problem, as private schools are not allowed by right to build there. 

So even now that the land sale has been approved, the school won’t be able to build on the property until it gets rezoned. The school’s current buildings were allowed to be built under a conditional use permit, getting permission from supervisors even though the zoning didn’t technically allow for it. 

As for rezoning the area, Buckingham supervisors started that process back in November, taking a vote to ask the planning commission for their recommendation. And to be clear, this is a request for the planning commission to only look at rezoning the front two thirds of the property to VC-1, which stands for Village Center. The commission then has up to 120 days to give a recommendation, which would put it around March if it takes that long. 

The planning commission will discuss the issue during their December meeting.