Opinion ID: 6826017
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Need to Obtain Vacant Land

Text: Hopewell Hopewell points out that Code § 15.1-1041 (b 1) (vii) required the Commission and the trial court to consider Hopewell’s “need . . . to obtain land for industrial or commercial use.” 2 Hopewell says there was “uncontroverted” testimony in the trial court that it has a need for vacant land. It notes that the Commission’s report shows the city has only 715 acres, or 9.9% of its total land area, vacant and suitable for development. Of the vacant land, only 130 acres are zoned for future industrial use, only 52 acres are zoned for commercial use, and only 534 acres are suitable for residential use, much of which consists of small parcels containing 10 to 26 acres in size. Hopewell also points out that it produced several witnesses who substantiated the city’s need for additional vacant land for industrial, commercial, and residential use. On the other hand, the county produced several experts who testified that while Hopewell has a scarcity of large vacant parcels and must depend to some extent on “infill” development, it has sufficient vacant space to satisfy its needs for the foreseeable future. One of the experts, Leonard Bogorad, testified that Hopewell has within its present boundaries 1,527 acres of vacant land that would accommodate 6,088 new housing units, 652,744 square feet of commercial buildings, and 5,370,000 square feet of industrial buildings. Further, an exhibit introduced through Bogorad shows that the Petersburg Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA), composed of the cities of Petersburg, Hopewell, and Colonial Heights and the counties of Prince George and Dinwiddie, will require only 108 acres of industrial land for the entire area in the next 10 years and that there are 436.5 acres of developable industrial land available in Hopewell alone. The exhibit also shows that the SMSA will require only 47 acres of commercial land in the same period and that Hopewell presently has 82.4 acres of developable commercial land available. With respect to residential land, the exhibit shows that the entire SMSA will need only 3,660 acres during the 10-year period and that Hopewell now has 6,173 acres of residential development capacity. Another Prince George expert, Garland Page, 3 estimated that Hopewell’s population would increase by only 400 persons between the years 1990 and 1995 and by only 1,700 between 1990 and 2000. With this “type of growth,” the witness stated, “not a tremendous amount of land is going to be required to accommodate it.” Hence, there was conflict in the testimony concerning Hopewell’s need for additional vacant land. The trial court resolved the conflict in favor of Prince George, and we cannot say the finding is not supported by credible evidence. Petersburg Petersburg makes an even less-compelling case than Hopewell of its need for additional vacant land. The trial court found that Petersburg had not demonstrated “any need to obtain additional land for industrial or commercial use.” Petersburg says the trial court’s finding “is inconsistent with the Commission’s report.” Our reading of the report, however, compels the view that the court’s finding is entirely consistent with the report. In the report, the Commission points out that Petersburg has 5,035 acres, or 33.7% of its total land area, “vacant and amenable to development.” Of the total developable acreage, 685 acres are zoned for industrial use. In addition, the city has 13 vacant industrial buildings, containing 2.1 million square feet of floor space, available for “industrial initiatives.” Petersburg also has 528 acres of vacant land zoned for commercial use and 1,730 acres zoned for residential purposes. The Commission concluded that “the data indicate that the City of Petersburg retains an extensive amount of vacant land suitable for industrial, commercial, and residential development.” (Emphasis added.) The only solace Petersburg can draw from the report is the statement that “the construction of Interstate Highway 295 will have a centrifugal influence on development in the general area, adversely affecting the competitiveness of some of Petersburg’s commercial and industrial properties.” (Emphasis added.) This statement does not form a sufficient basis for reversal of the trial court’s findings on the subject of Petersburg’s need for additional vacant land.