Short takes

Kudos to Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and Republican Reps. Morgan Griffith and Robert Hurt for teaming up in an effort to eliminate a regulatory quirk that is stalling development of a long-planned business park in job-starved Henry County.

Henry County and the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. have been trying to secure an environmental permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for site preparation at the planned Commonwealth Crossing Business Center. The 726-acre site is being planned with the goal of attracting manufacturing firms to the county. The corps has been reluctant to issue the permit because no company has publicly committed to the site and prepared detailed blueprints.

This chicken-and-egg dilemma has stalled development of an important project in a region that is desperate to create jobs. A company won’t move to the site without an approved permit from the corps. But the corps won’t issue a permit before the park has a committed tenant.

The two senators and two congressmen have introduced the Commonsense Permitting for Job Creation Act, which states that a permit cannot be denied for a project that lacks a committed end-user company but meets all other legal requirements.

Kaine noted that Henry County and the EDC have worked in good faith to advance the project and protect the environment. The region is fortunate that its senators and congressmen are casting aside partisan differences and making their own good-faith effort.

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