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Suffolk unanimously supported an ordinance to establish surface mining (borrow pits) along the southwestern border of the city. The ordinance allows for the mining of specialty types of sand at 12000 Wyanoke Trail. 

Council unanimously approved conditional use permit request CUP2023-025 to establish a borrow pit mining operation to mine specialty types of sand on property located at 12000 Wyanoke Trail. The request was submitted by Jeffrey Paxton of Paxton Contractors Corporation. The 2035 comprehensive plan designates the area as part of the Rural Agricultural Use District. Surrounding land uses include the Blackwater River and Southampton County to the north and west, the South Quay Sandhills Natural Heritage Site owned by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (zoned A, Agricultural zoning district) to the south, and forested land, farm fields and residential uses (zoned A, Agricultural) to the east.

On changes since the May public hearing, Director of Planning and Community Development Kevin Wyne detailed that documents were revised to include more detailed exhibits along with a more detailed reclamation plan being submitted to the city. The exhibits, which were provided for illustrative purposes only, were submitted to depict what the owner intends the property to look like once sand extraction activities concluded, which includes a conservation area at the north of the site along the Blackwater River and may include a park with public access. 

A detailed reclamation plan was also provided showing an overview of existing environmental and proposed conditions (including wetlands areas, non-tidal wetlands preservation and freshwater lake establishment), the potential creation of public park access and associated amenities, water quality considerations and a timeline of all proposed activities. Likewise, a summary of the reclamation plan outlines the intent to establish a wetlands mitigation bank on the southern portion of the property as well as identifying species to be utilized for constructed wetland areas, and more. Wyne continued, noting the staff’s recommendation of denial of the application.

“We are recommending denial of this application because it is identified as a natural heritage site as identified by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, and it’s identified as an environmentally sensitive area within the comprehensive plan,” Wyne said. “These sites represent habitats of rare, threatened, endangered plant [and] animal species that are unique to the national communities or significant geological formations.”

Detailing key considerations, Wyne noted the designation’s purpose to provide additional area for re-establishing the longleaf pine, located on South Quay Sandhills to the south and is the last remaining natural stand of longleaf pine in the commonwealth. Likewise, Wyne notes the 2035 Comprehensive Plan’s principle of protecting the City’s natural, cultural and historical assets.

Council Member Timothy Johnson spoke in favor of the ordinance, noting that it’s “amazing what circumstances can do.”

“As most of you know, I am probably the least one you’d expect to be up here approving this. It is my borough, and I think it’s a valuable piece of property. But, we had our chance on this piece of property. We were supposed to buy it. We didn’t buy it. Why we didn’t buy it, I don’t know and it doesn’t really matter at this point,” Johnson said. “The property was offered to sale to Mr. Paxton, and Mr. Paxton paid a fair price for it. It’s in my opinion, and after having visited the site, that the site is probably one of the most ideally situated sites for a sand pit that I have ever seen.”

Noting the site’s devastation from Union Camp taking the timber off the site, Johnson says he’s not sure if it can come back as a forested area.

“I am all about the conservation and I am all about us tying in with the conservation acreage that is there, the 3500 plus acres, but I think we can still do it with this site. What Mr. Paxton has offered…I think he’s true to what he wants to do,” Johnson said. “He wants to give that site, the 50 acres, to the City of Suffolk, to form our own park, to have access to the river. You look in 10, 15, whatever years down the road, but I take him at his word. I think that is truly what he wants to do and then the rest of the land, hopefully he will give back to the state and allow them to take that and make it part of their park and it will truly become a real asset to our city.”

 

Editor’s note: Updated third passage at 12:00 p.m., Thursday, August 1 to reflect clarity.