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Last month, the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors agreed to start negotiations on a land sale. The request had come from Central Virginia Christian School, as they look to grow and develop. The school is located at 164 Industrial Park Road and wants to buy more of the industrial park property. 

Now that request is being tackled in two ways. First, the potential sale itself will go to a public hearing, set for the board’s Dec. 9 meeting. The purchase price is currently 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 current proposal is for just under 7 and a half. The school would be able to access the property through Industrial Park Road and also be granted an easement, if this goes through. As part of the deal, the county would 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. 

So that’s the first part, which supervisors agreed to during their Tuesday, Nov. 12 meeting. A public hearing on the sale will be held Dec. 9 and if everything goes as planned, school officials expect to close on the sale no later than April 15, 2025. 

“It’ll just take a little bit of time to go do that,” Buckingham County Attorney E.M. Wright Jr. explained, of the school’s plan to get funding in place for the purchase. 

Buckingham supervisors argue over rezoning

There is a second piece that has to happen, however, before any construction could begin. The industrial park property in question is currently zoned NC-1, which is neighborhood commercial. That poses a problem. 

“The only zoning district that you have to construct a private school as a matter of right is VC-1,” explained Buckingham County Attorney E.M. Wright Jr. “

So even if the land sale goes through, 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, supervisors started that process Tuesday night as well, taking a vote to ask the planning commission for their recommendation on the rezoning. 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. Wright said he was hopeful a yes or no would be decided slightly quicker. 

Concerns with the back portion of land

Only the front was voted on because a rezoning of the back part of the property couldn’t get consensus to move forward from the board. It had been discussed to either rezone the back portion like the front, switching to Village Center, or to move it to light industrial. 

“The back part of the property would go from NC-1 to light industrial, to allow types of things like garages, warehouses, those types of things,” Wright explained. “There’s no magic in that, it’s entirely up to the board what they want to do.” 

Wright said it was up to supervisors if they wanted to change the zoning for the back part of the property or just leave it as is. 

“You’ve got to decide what you want to do with it,” Wright said. “I’ll talk about your options and your possibilities, but at the end of the day, that’s ya’ll’s decision.” 

Supervisor Cameron Gilliam pointed out that the residents in his district were against rezoning the entire 125 acres of the industrial park. They and he had no problem supporting the rezoning request from the Christian school, but there was no interest in switching the back portion of the property to light industrial. 

“District 2 stands against the recommendation of doing the whole property,”Gilliam told the group on Tuesday. “I’ve talked with constituents in that district and they are not in favor.” 

Buckingham supervisors agreed not to tackle the back part of the property, at least not at this time.