James City County supervisors take another step toward government center, but vow more engagement

"We've got a lot of people who did not know what was going on" Board chair says

Artist rendering of proposed government center

James City County supervisors move a step closer to a $189.5 million county government center Tuesday night, but pledged to work harder to keep citizens informed about their plans.

Supervisors voted 4-1 to approve a special use permit that could allow eventual construction of the center.

Stonehouse District representative Barbara E. Null was the sole vote against the permit. She said her vote was not needed to pass it and she was getting a lot of negative emails about the government center.

Discussions about the new center have been underway for nearly five years, but many residents seem to have only recently begun to focus on the issue.

Opponents demanded a referendum, but the supervisors said Virginia law would not permit the county to hold a referendum on the project itself, only on whether general obligation bonds should be issued to fund it. Such a limited question could be confusing, the supervisors said.

Thousands of flyers against the project were distributed last week, with mailings to Chair Jim Icenhour’s Jamestown District.

Icenhour, a Democrat who faces a Republican challenger this fall, said he had received more than 100 emails and many calls. He said the flyers contained false information, but “it made people more aware” of the issue. “We’ve got a lot of people who did not know what was going on.”

“We are obliged to make an extra effort to engage the community” to justify the project, Icenhour said, calling on board members to hold town hall meetings in each district before architects render a final price tag and design on the center this fall.

Null and Powhatan representative Michael E. Hipple have already announced a joint town hall at the James City County library on Croaker Road June 30.

Ruth Larson, Berkeley District supervisor, said she is planning her own town hall that would be attended by Hipple, who was an early advocate of a new government center.

All of the supervisors repeated Tuesday night they still believed a new government center was the right solution to the growing space demands of county government.

The current complex on Mounts Bay Road was largely built nearly 50 years ago when the county’s population was about a quarter of its current 83,000 residents.

A consultant’s study in 2022 comparing the cost of expanding and renovating the current complex against the cost of a new government center said they would be about the same, at around $100 million.

But escalating construction costs and add-ons to the center, including a disaster coordination center, have pushed the current cost estimate to $189.5 million. And it could grow; a final price tag will not be provided until architects finish the design sometime in September, County Administrator Scott Stevens has said.

Hipple said trying to expand and modernize the existing buildings would be a waste of money because they are too old. He also noted the proposed government center would be near the geographic and population center of the county.