ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/Eco-industrial park helps city attract business
Northampton County, Va., has constructed the country’s first eco-industrial park in an effort to attract high-tech businesses and preserve the environment. The park is the first of several projects in the county’s five-year strategic plan to foster sustainable businesses.
Located on Virginia’s eastern shore, the county offers residents many environmental resources, including miles of pristine beaches; a string of preserved barrier islands, marshes and tidal creeks; open land; and clean water. However, despite the county’s wealth of natural resources, nearly 28 percent of its residents lived in poverty in the early 1990s, making it one of the poorest counties in the nation. County leaders have begun to look for ways to improve the county’s economy without compromising the health of its environment.
In 1994, the board of supervisors adopted a Sustainable Development Action Strategy to guide the county’s development policy. The county set to work raising more than $8 million in local, state and federal funds to construct the first phase of the project: an ecological industrial park known as the Sustainable Technology Park. The county formed a development company — the Sustainable Technology Park Authority — to build, market and manage the park. The Authority is a political subdivision of Virginia with a seven-member board of directors appointed by the county and the towns of Cape Charles, Cheriton and Exmore. In three years, the authority acquired more than 200 acres in Cape Charles for the project.
Completed in January 2000, the showpiece of the industrial park is a 31,000-square-foot multi-tenant manufacturing/office building constructed primarily from local materials. The interior of the building can be divided to provide space for up to eight companies. It features an integrated solar photovoltaic roof system that converts sunlight into 42,000 watts of electricity. When the building is fully occupied, the system will provide up to 50 percent of the building’s total annual electrical demand.
Other features of the building include skylights for natural daylighting; enhanced insulation; interior environmental sensing to provide fresh air, heating or cooling to occupied areas; low energy lighting; low water fixtures; porous paving in parking areas; and native non-irrigated landscaping. Surrounding the building, the industrial park includes a natural preserve; beach and dunes; a migratory bird habitat; trails and boardwalks; constructed wetlands and ponds; historic and archeological sites; more than 4,000 new trees; and a total of 90 acres of protected natural area.
The park’s natural areas have helped attract four companies to the county, creating more than 40 jobs. A fifth company, ProVento America, has leased initial space for 12 employees and expects to employ 50 within five years. The county anticipates filling the building within two years. Combined, the companies are expected to create 100 jobs, contribute $14 million in investment in the county and generate more than $500,000 annually in local taxes.
The park has ample space for phased build out over the next two or three decades, depending on market conditions. A total of 800,000 square feet of development is planned for future phases of the park, which will provide space for 200 or more companies and 1,200 to 1,500 jobs.
Building on the success of the industrial park, the county is moving forward with other projects in its five-year strategic plan. It plans to reclaim its sanitary landfill and convert it into a recreational park that includes a renewable energy farm. Additionally, it is working with Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.; The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, Va.; and Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., to create ways to support the county’s aquaculture and agriculture industries.
Lance Metzler, Northampton County administrator; Mary Lechner, director of finance; and Timothy Hayes, director of sustainable development.