Town Crier Articles

 

Ahmed Desouky, the NTRA's new Community Manager, brings a rich and varied background to his new position.  A native of Egypt, he arrived early in the 1980’s and lived in Northern Virginia--Arlington, and then, Alexandria--until mid-decade. He then moved to the Tidewater area and lived there until 1991, at which time he married and moved back to Northern Virginia. He commutes early Monday mornings to Williamsburg and leaves after work on Friday afternoons to journey back to his home in Northern Virginia.

 

Ahmed was originally a mechanical engineer, working in the shipbuilding industry for both the Navy and the Coast Guard; and later, as a civilian in the nineties, renovating large cruise ship for a time. When the recession hit, he used his scientific and technical education to transfer to entity maintenance and management. For 28 years, he managed and maintained high-end condominiums in the Georgetown area in Washington DC until he was recruited by Chesapeake Bay Management and accepted the position of Assistant Executive Director (Colonial Heritage) in 2020.  He is now 3-months into managing New Town and believes our Board of Directors and committee members are a great team who make his work a good deal easier. His main challenges, at present, are the transition of common area ownership and maintaining the exterior of properties without changing the assessment fee.

“It is an honor to be part of the CBM team, a management team that sees customer service as its major priority. You will probably most often see me or contact my assistant, Imani, but the skills and experience provided from unseen members of our main office are the cornerstone of our stability. CBM offers the most up-to-date programs to all employees. Our monthly meetings are very effective ways to share solutions and gain new management skills. All this helps us to make sure all resident calls and emails are answered daily and that we do our best to deliver solutions to all problems and issues the same day. We work with many vendors and contractors that must be contacted for services, regularly.  These vendors, in turn, must be reviewed and approved by the Board, first--and expectations of vendor services are very high. Consequently, solutions take time. By way of example, we are working hard daily with James River Grounds Management to make sure all common and private area landscaping needs are met. Services are improving.  A slow process, but it is proving fruitful.”

 

Ahmed has travelled since an early age and enjoys exploring other places and cultures. He looks to travel as a means of adding to his store of cultural knowledge.  He enjoys cooking and creating new recipes, swimming, sailing, and modern classical music. He used to play tennis but now just enjoys sitting back watching main championships.

 

 

Imani Harris is a native-born Williamsburg resident, having been born and raised here until her middle-school years.  The family moved elsewhere when she was a young teen; but after Imani married, in October of 2022, she moved back to the Tidewater area.

 

“I graduated from Bridgewater College with a degree in Communication, Media, and Culture, and used my degree to pursue a career as a program director at various summer camps and daycares throughout the East Coast.  I have been with Chesapeake Bay Management since the beginning of April 2023. At CBM, we each have our own community for which we are responsible, but there are ultimately close to 20 communities in the Williamsburg area that CBM manages.  All CBM employees work together as a team so that we can best service our residents, whether it is for the residents of the community for which we are immediately responsible or not.”

 

Imani shared that Association management, in addition to overseeing routine maintenance needs and schedules, has many proposed projects from amazing vendors to help sustain our community’s reputation as a beautiful place to live. “I’d like to remind our residents that this information can be found on the NTRA Williamsburg website and during our monthly community Board of Directors meetings.”

 

But Imani has a very fun and exciting interest outside of her work.  She co-owns a dog treat business with her in-laws, online. It is called 4Grandpups Homemade Dog Treat Co, and its amazing offerings can be viewed at https://www.4grandpups.com/.

 

She is also pursuing various licenses within the beauty industry and is about to obtain her second license as a wax technician.

 

 

The proposed Westwood Park development on Eastern State Hospital surplus land is in the first stage of a long development process?  

 

New Town residents (all of us) are stakeholders—we all have a voice in what happens to this land. 

 

The development is not a done deal, but is in the stage of application for rezoning. This stage requires a comprehensive study by James City County of the environmental and traffic impact, among other things. (See JCC website on rezoning.)

 

• to protect the intersection at Rollison and Olive Drive from road access to the new development
• to add an additional buffer in the woods behind Charlotte Park
• to reduce the number of units being built at Westwood Park
• to keep New Town as a separate entity

The Association has done a great job of staying on top of this, protecting New Town (see March 2023 NTRA letter with all the details), and keeping us informed. 

 

 

• traffic will increase on Ironbound Road (busy with VDOT trucks, traffic from 199)
• traffic will increase on Discovery Park Boulevard, and expect likely cut-throughs on Casey Blvd and New Town Avenue
• more units built means more trees and natural habitat lost
• Powhatan Creek watershed is already in the “red zone” for overbuilding—what will happen with Westwood Park?

And so far the developer ABVA has not kept past promises to New Town.

 

 

Keep reading the Town Crier and announcements from the NTRA. Check your email for updates. Show up at the James City County Planning Commission public hearing, once it is announced--maybe in the fall? Stay tuned!

 

There are two Stormwater Management Best Management Practices (BMPs) (commonly referred to as retention ponds) - numbered BMP-04 and BMP-06 - east of Village Walk as shown in the aerial photograph below. They have never been given full approval by James City County (JCC). The BMPs are solely owned by Settlers Market LLC. JCC only gave interim approval for the use of the two BMPs after their construction years ago. However, numerous problems with these BMPs have been identified by JCC and are pending correction.

 

BMP-04 and BMP-06 were not constructed in accordance with the original developers proffers and County approved specifications. As a result, Settlers Market has been directed to repair, reconstruct and provide maintenance to both of these BMPs. This corrective action must take place before JCC provides formal approval and accepts both BMPs and releases any bond funding. The following deficiencies and needed modifications/repairs have been identified:

1. The current 4-foot-high fencing around the BMPs must be replaced by fencing 6 feet high as called for in the original BMP specifications.
2. Piping for water outflow in both BMPs was not built to the required specification and will have to be corrected.
3. BMP-04 must be modified by removing the existing wall and replacing it with a new retaining wall that will be offset 5 feet from the original wall.
4. Some of the BMP retaining walls appear to be moving which require survey stations to be installed on the brick wall to monitor any future movement.
5. Down drainpipes were not installed at the proper elevation and that has to be corrected.
6. There are areas of subsidence that will have to be repaired.
7. There are severe areas of erosion in the barrel pipe outflow areas that require attention.
8. A down pipe was not installed with a positive slope to the riser structure and this has to be corrected.
9. Proper riprap (layers of large stones that prevent erosion) was not placed properly in the pond areas and that will have to be addressed.
10. Volunteer vegetation has grown over the years and must now be removed.

Settlers Market LLC is solely responsible for all of the work that is required to bring both BMPs up to standards. They have contracted with AES Consulting Engineers to develop a plan to mitigate the problems identified by JCC. 

 

The new Settlers Market management company, located in Florida, wants to have all work on the BMPs completed by late December 2023. Considering the magnitude of the work needed, this date is very ambitious and the mitigation work may take longer to complete. Once JCC approval is received for the plan, bids for the project will go out potential contractors, probably sometime in June 2023. The anticipated time frame for completion of all work is between 180 and 220 days after the contract is awarded.

 

 

The first major activity will be the replacement of the existing 4-foot-high steel fence around both BMP-04 and BMP-06 with similar 6-foot-high steel fencing. The associated work has the potential of damaging some of the NTRA shrubbery that is located near the top of the walls on the west sides of both BMPs. If damaged, the shrubbery will have to be replaced by Settlers Market.

 

The second and much larger construction activity will be the removal of 580 feet of retaining wall along the north side of BMP-04. After this wall is removed a new retaining wall will be built, offset by 5 feet from the existing wall. This work will include the removal of the existing brick/concrete wall and a large amount of earth.  All of the brick, concrete, debris, and earth will have to be transported out of the area through the Village Walk neighborhood using a short section of Trailview at the edge of the Village Walk neighborhood closest to Shirley Park. The contractor’s vehicles will probably also be using part of Settlers Market Blvd for access to the construction site. We will encourage Settlers Market and the contractor to make good use of all the nearby, usually empty, shopping center parking lots for the staging of materials and parking of their construction equipment and vehicles.

 

Once the existing wall and earth have been removed a new retaining wall will be constructed. Building materials for this new wall will also have to be moved through the Village Walk neighborhood and be staged in the or near the construction area. Finally, fill dirt will have to be trucked in to backfill the area behind the new wall. This is a very big construction project.

 

Both BMP ponds will have to be drained and it is likely that significant amounts of sediment will have to be removed from both ponds so that the existing piping can be regraded and repaired. The sediment will also have to be moved through the Village Walk neighborhood. Additional maintenance work in and around the BMP ponds may also be required because both BMPs have not been adequately maintained by Settlers Market since their initial construction.

 

The costs for all of this repair and reconstruction will be borne by Settlers Market LLC. A site plan has been submitted and a construction plan will be presented to JCC in the very near future for approval. Once the construction plans are approved by JCC, bids from contractors will be requested and a contract will be awarded. The total cost for the project is not currently known but considering the magnitude of the repairs, maintenance, and the reconstruction of one retaining wall, it is likely to be a multimillion-dollar project.

 

Since the repair work for both BMPs will impact the NTRA, the NTRA will also be required by JCC to approve the construction plans. In order to protect everyone involved, performance bonds for the completion of all work on the BMPs will be required and each entity, including the NTRA, will be included in the contractor’s liability insurance policy.

 

When the work on the BMPs is completed, inspected, and approved by JCC, the maintenance responsibility for both BMPs will pass to the New Town Commercial Association (NTCA). At that point in time the users of the retention ponds will become responsible for all future maintenance. The cost for this periodic future maintenance will be shared, based upon the amount of stormwater flowing into the ponds from each area.

 

 

The Developers for Parcel C of the Eastern State Hospital property have modified their plan for this development and recently presented this information to the NTRA Board of Directors.  They appear to have addressed almost all of the past concerns that were raised by New Town residents. Their new plan, yet to go before James City County (JCC) for approval, significantly lessens the impact on the Charlotte Park neighborhood.  Here’s what we know now:

1. The new development will propose to have its own homeowner’s association.
2. It will not use the New Town name and will not be associated with the New Town Residential Association (NTRA) in any way.
3. The development will consist of 86 single-family, luxury homes on lots larger than those in Charlotte Park. They will be priced in the $800,000 to $1 million dollar price range. These homes will all be located directly north of the Charlotte Park neighborhood.
4. Discovery Park Boulevard will be extended into the development area, turn west and arc around for the 86 single-family homes. This is the only planed access for the Eastern State Hospital development property.
5. An additional 150 multifamily units (townhouses and apartments) along with some commercial buildings will be constructed near the start of the Discovery Park Boulevard extension.
6. An additional 100-foot buffer will be added to the existing 50-foot buffer. This will separate the new development from Charlotte Park by a combined 150-foot buffer between backyard property boundaries.
7. The idea of extending Olive Drive into the Eastern State Hospital property has been abandoned by the developer.
8. The new development will have numerous walking trails throughout the site.
9. The planned Eastern State Hospital trail system will only connect to the New Town trails in the vicinity of Discovery Park Boulevard.
10. The Eastern State Hospital development will have its own swimming pool and clubhouse which will be located in the multifamily area of the development near the start of the Discovery Park Boulevard extension.
11. The wetlands in the area will be protected.
12. The State of Virginia owns the Eastern State property and it is currently zoned for public use. The process for rezoning the property will begin in the next few weeks.

It is not currently known when the Eastern State Hospital Parcel C property rezoning plan will be presented to James City County for review and approval or when actual construction might commence.