Prince William continues to kick can down the road on asphalt plant

Multiple residents spoke out Tuesday, July 21 against an asphalt plant that could be built near their homes.

The new plant would sit on 22 acres of property off Bethlehem Road, just five miles outside Downtown Manassas.

The Allen Meyers Paving Company wants to build the facility. To do so, it needs the Prince William Board of County Supervisors to approve a special use permit for the property to allow the asphalt plant to operate.

The new plant would include an 82-foot tall silo, about half the height of Chicago’s famed Water Tower building, and it would generate as many as 22,600 dump truck trips per year, with trucks entering and exiting the plant.

The proposed plant would be located near the Blackburn neighborhood, full of single-family and town Homs, approved by county leaders in 2015. There’s also Mullen Elementary School nearby.

Residents are concerned that the asphalt plant would lower their property values and that increased truck traffic in the area could be a danger to elementary school students.

Peter Dolan, a hired attorney who represents Allen Meyers, said that trucks headed in and out of the plant would only use the portion of Bethlehem Road, between Wellington Road and Mason King Court, to avoid the residential area. As part of the deal, Allen Meyers would agree to resurface this portion of Bethlehem Road within three months after building the plant.

Supervisors deadlocked on the issue of whether or not to approve the special use permit for the plant. A vote to kill the project failed. Supervisors agreed to take up the discussion once again at a work session scheduled or at 9 a.m. Thursday, July 30 at Chinn Park Regional Library in Lake Ridge.

“We’re sitting here debating approving something that belongs in an area that’s zoned for this,” said Neabsco District Supervisor Victor Angry.

“This is not a by-right use [of the property],” Brentsville District Supervisor Jeanine Lawson reminded Angry.

Just as any fast food restaurant that wanted to include a drive-through window on its building, Allen Meyers Paving Company must also apply for a special use permit to build an asphalt plant on the property zoned for industrial use, she explained. SUP applications come with hefty fees paid by the business to the county government and are non-refundable in the event the Board of County Supervisors’ decision doesn’t go the company’s way.

The Allen Meyers Paving Company has been waiting over a year to win approval for this project. The case was before the county’s Planning Commission between June and September of last year, but the commission continually deferred the hearing and never took a vote on the matter.

By default, the project automatically won Planning Commission approval, under Virginia law. Now, it’ll be up to the Allen Meyers Paving Company as to whether or not it wants to continue being patient with the Board of County Supervisors, which has an ultimate say in the matter.

Dolan told the board that he would have to confer with his client to see if they want to continue proceedings. County Attorney Michele Robl warned the matter could soon land the Board of County Supervisors in court for failing to take action within its self-imposed one-year timeframe, which ended 10 months ago.

Gainesville District Supervisor Peter Candland, who represents the property owners who would be affected by the construction of the plant, voiced his opposition to the plant, saying it would lie too close to the Blackburn neighborhood that, over the years, has attracted “higher price homes” and “stability” to the populations at nearby schools, which had been seeing nigh turnover rates prior to the construction of Blackburn.

Board of Supervisors Chair Ann Wheeler, At-large urged the board to make a decision on the plant fearing inaction sends a message to private companies that Prince William County is closed for business.