Every request we have made to Chesterfield County, with the reply printed in full where we received one — and the clock still running where we did not. We publish the county's own words rather than our summary of them.
Meadowville is the county's flagship economic development site — Amazon, Niagara, and LEGO's billion-dollar plant. We met the Director of Economic Development twice asking for figures that would let anyone calculate a return on the public money spent there. Of four major projects we asked about, only Meadowville came back with usable data.
Working from those figures plus records obtained under FOIA, we put total investment at $191.6M — $91.2M of land and $100.4M of infrastructure — and calculated a payback period of roughly 41 years. For comparison, a private company evaluating a capital project of that size would typically require payback inside five years.
The Director disputed two figures. On $32.4M of utilities spending, he said the investment serves the entire Meadowville pressure zone rather than the park alone, that lines inside the park were paid for from land sale proceeds, and that our analysis credited none of the water revenue or connection fees received since. On $27.7M of road work, he said it was paid for out of land sale revenue and so should not count as additional investment.
He then wrote that it was clear we did not wish to understand the business of government, and would manipulate whatever information the county provided. He declined further discussion.
We asked the Director of Chesterfield Economic Development for the economic and financial model he referenced at a public discussion — total project costs, tax breaks and abatements, and the associated taxpayer benefits.
Google pays the same real estate rate as every other property owner, 89¢ per $100, and the same business tangible personal property rate, $3.35 per $100, on everything other than data center equipment. Data center computer equipment is taxed at 24¢ per $100. Should that rate be increased, Google's rate is frozen at 24¢ for 10 years, with two 10-year renewal periods. The county projects more than $4.3 million annually per $1 billion of data center development.
A member and 78-year county resident wrote to the incoming County Administrator raising infrastructure concerns attached to a pending case.
The Administrator acknowledged the issue, said it would receive the attention it deserves, and noted he would meet with staff on arrival.
We asked a member of the Board of Supervisors for the county's own figures on the proposed 2-cent real estate reduction and 10% personal property reduction, so a net total could be calculated — and for verification of the claim that 30% of the tax would be paid by non-residents.
The county has used a figure of $65–70 million where our own calculation from the audited annual report lands near $75.9 million. A formal records request is being prepared for the calculations behind the county's number.
Presented to the Board of Supervisors in July 2024, then to every individual member, then to county administration in 2025.