A Master Plan for Courthouse Village - College of Humanities and ...

Village Concept
The rural character of Goochland County has been the single most important
factor in people’s appreciation for this land, and the retention of this character is
one of the most important goals cited in the Comprehensive Plan. Centuries of
development have illustrated that people are dedicated to preserving this
character. When Goochland County first established a Comprehensive Plan in
1976, growth was targeted around centers for commercial activity and existing
development. Without graphical guides, that plan outlined the basic framework
for the “villages” or community development districts that exist in the County
today.
The County’s Comprehensive Plan from 1980 begins by graphically depicting
village boundaries, and notes the locations of the present-day villages. Today
there are nine established villages in Goochland County. These include the
previously-considered, “major” villages of Goochland and Centerville and the
“rural” villages of Manakin, Oilville, Sandy Hook, Hadensville, Crozier, Fife-
George’s Tavern and River Road Community. In the village concept, new
development is directed towards established villages and away from rural and
agricultural lands. The effect is that the County retains rural land and establishes
villages where services may be provided to residents at a lower cost due to
concentrated infrastructure.
A major village was characterized in the 1980 plan as being bounded by
perceivable physical, preferably natural features with at least thirty percent
devoted to a parkway with continuous open space linking clusters of a variety of
residential types with a community center encompassing a shopping center,
schools, churches, a fire and/or a police station, library, post office and other
necessary supportive facilities. The maximum gross density in 1980 for a major
village was listed as two units per acre exclusive of flood plain, collector and
arterial streets, major utility rights-of-way, and slopes greater than twenty
percent. The major villages would be served by public or centralized sanitary
sewer and water facilities to provide the impetus for these areas to function as
viable growth centers. A minor village was characterized as consisting of singlefamily
homes on approximately one acre and larger lots. If public or centralized
sanitary sewer and water facilities were made available, density could increase to
two units per acre. These villages could contain small scale community facilities
and conveniences and would be spaced at a maximum five mile interval from
other villages so that no one would be located more than 2.5 miles from essential
services and facilities.
The most recent Comprehensive Plan update in 2003, however, eliminated the
distinction between major and minor villages by designating them all as
community development districts (Figure 4). Community development districts
are areas where utilities should become available from the short to the long term.
The advantage of designating such areas is to achieve the cost effectiveness of
A Master Plan for Courthouse Village Page 11 of 96
Spring, 2006
Goochland County