Isle of Wight approves EDA request to rescind public utilities requirement

Published 3:27 pm Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Isle of Wight County supervisors voted unanimously on Jan. 19 to grant an Economic Development Authority request to repeal a requirement that businesses seeking to develop in Phase III of the Shirley T. Holland Intermodal Park connect to public water and sewer.

The request stems from proffered conditions the supervisors imposed in 2013 when rezoning the 969-acre Phase III as “conditional limited industrial.”

The EDA’s request to rescind the public water and sewer requirement for Phase III pertains to discussions with an unnamed potential purchaser code-named “Project Air Station.”

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Project Air Station proposes to buy 135 acres and build a 135,000-square-foot distribution center along Walters Highway that would employ over 200 people. According to county officials, the business would specialize in accepting shipping containers trucked in directly from the Port of Virginia and redistributing those containers to third-party trucks.

Project Air Station proposes to drill its own well, erect an on-site water tower and use an on-site septic field for sewer service rather than tapping a water line from the Town of Windsor over 4,800 linear feet from the proposed distribution center site.