Supervisors OK eminent domain for Nike Park Road extension
Published 5:11 pm Monday, August 21, 2023
- This map on Isle of Wight County's website shows the rough path of the planned Nike Park Road extension that will connect to Carrollton Boulevard. (Image courtesy of Isle of Wight County.)
Isle of Wight County supervisors, on Aug. 3, voted to authorize condemnation of land in Carrollton for a planned extension of Nike Park Road.
Condemnation is the process under state law localities use when acquiring property through eminent domain for public use.
No one spoke ahead of the vote at a public hearing that was advertised in a July 26 notice in The Smithfield Times. According to the notice, the county will acquire 96,137 square feet of right-of-way, 76,666 square feet of slope and drainage easements, 6,770 square feet of Virginia Department of Transportation utility easements and 9,392 square feet of temporary construction easements from Wakirk Properties.
The Wakirk Properties parcel is the final piece of right-of-way the county needs for the 1.4-mile extension of the two-lane road to proceed. According to County Administrator Randy Keaton, all other acquisitions were made through negotiations with property owners.
County Attorney Bobby Jones said disagreement between the county and landowner over the value of the land is what’s holding up the process.
A condemnation vote does not prevent the county from continuing negotiations prior to taking the steps to acquire the property through eminent domain, Jones said.
The county is collaborating with VDOT to handle right-of-way acquisitions on undeveloped parcels, while VDOT is handling acquisition for parcels that include structures. According to Keaton, once all the acquisitions are complete, the next step will be utility relocations, followed by advertisement of the project for construction bids.
An Oct. 14, 2022, project schedule, which had assumed right-of-way acquisitions would be complete by July 10, slated the project’s construction advertisement for Nov. 12, 2024.
Plans to extend Nike Park Road so that it connects directly to Carrollton Boulevard have been in the works since 2014. The project, in addition to extending the road, will entail adding a signalized intersection and additional turn lanes where the extended roadway connects to Carrollton Boulevard just over a quarter-mile south of the Nest on 17 apartments.
