Goochland Planning Commission Recommends Two Conditional Uses, District 4 Amended

At its Feb. 19, 2026 meeting the Goochland County Planning Commission recommended approval of two conditional-use applications: CU-2026-00001 in District 3 and CU-2026-00002 in District 4, the latter “with amendments,” according to an official update posted today by Goochland County Government. The county update notes the action follows a recent public hearing notice but does not list applicants, amendments, or vote tallies for the Feb. 19 motion.

The Commission’s Feb. 19 action comes after a year of contested land-use proceedings. At the Jan. 16, 2025 Planning Commission meeting, commissioners approved minutes and voted to defer multiple applications to the Feb. 20, 2025 agenda; those deferrals included SOE 2024-002, an Article 6 minor-subdivision exception by Trek Properties LLC to add an access road onto River Road West, and CU 2024-024, a conditional-use amendment by Strickland Manufacturing LLC to add a building on a 4.03-acre parcel at 1090 Merchants Lane under zoning-ordinance section 15262. Each deferral passed on a 5-0 roll call that day.

Separately, the county has grappled with a proposed Technology Overlay District that would run roughly five miles along Route 288 and could incentivize data centers and energy projects. After two public hearings and more than seven hours of public comment combined, the Planning Commission approved a recommendation to advance the technology overlay and zone on a 3-2 vote; earlier in the process the commission also took a 4-1 procedural vote to continue discussion and schedule an additional meeting. Commissioners circulated specific policy recommendations for the Board of Supervisors to consider, including language stating, “Make energy generating facility allowable only through a conditional use permit, both for primary and accessory uses,” and proposing that “In the areas of the Technology Overlay District with current base zoning of A2, impose a 500’ setback from residential property for a data center permitted by right and require conditional use permit approval for locating closer in those areas.”

The Commission also recommended limits on scale and noise, writing that the Board should “Limit by-right maximum building height to 80’ for structures located adjacent to residentially zoned property” and “Reduce the decibel limits lower than currently proposed 65 dB in the day and 60 at night.” Public hearings were crowded: hundreds of residents attended two hearings, audible boos broke out in the chamber, “Many of those in attendance expressed their discontent for immediately with audible boos”, and one resident warned, “Goochland will probably not experience an (nuclear) accident. We will probably not be known as Chernobyl on the James, but please remember the choice we have.” Commissioner Guy Kimmerly, who voted against advancing the overlay, said: “Do I think Google and Amazon will choose to build a data center next to a neighborhood when they could choose a different property in the TOD where a retired couple won’t be sitting on their back deck all day with a dB app monitoring noise, then calling the sheriff and the local news station every time the noise limit is exceeded? I don’t.”

Under Goochland’s published conditional-use procedures, the Planning Commission’s recommendation moves cases to the Board of Supervisors for a final decision; Planning Commission public hearings are noted as occurring the first Thursday of each month and the Board’s hearings the first Tuesday. The county’s CUP brochure lists Harwood as Planning Technician II for further contact and states a typical review timeline of 90–120 days absent delays. The Feb. 19 county update did not schedule Board hearings for CU-2026-00001 or CU-2026-00002, and county records posted with that update did not include the applicants’ names or the text of the amendments to CU-2026-00002.

Local economic pressure and large projects remain part of the backdrop. Eli Lilly & Co. has announced a planned $5 billion manufacturing facility on a 227-acre West Creek site at 12575 West Creek Parkway owned by Markel, a development that county reporting ties to the timing of broader land-use conversations, including the technology overlay debate.

Key follow-ups for county records include the names and project descriptions tied to CU-2026-00001 and CU-2026-00002, the precise amendments applied to CU-2026-00002, Planning Commission vote tallies from Feb. 19, and any Board of Supervisors hearing dates for those two cases; the outcomes of the items deferred to Feb. 20, 2025 (SOE 2024-002 and CU-2024-024) also remain to be confirmed in public minutes.