For the second time since the George P. Coleman Memorial Bridge opened, the tolls will be removed by the end of the year. The move became official on Friday afternoon as Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed the state’s budget into law.
The double-swing-span bridge, one of two in the world, was opened in May of 1952 and took four years and nine million dollars to build, replacing the previous ferrying system.
The tolls were removed once before, in June of 1976 and vehicles crossed the bridge free of charge for the first time in 24 years. The removal lasted until 1996, when the bridge was widened into four lanes.
Now, just shy of 30 years later, drivers will again be able to cross into Gloucester without the toll—and it will likely happen far earlier than expected, as there are already plans for booth removal. “I understand that they have some contracts to dismantle the toll booths here sometime [in the] late summer,” said York District supervisor Phillip Bazzani.
Over the years, Bazzani has been an advocate for the removal of the tolls, or at least alleviating some of it, calling it an unfair tax on residents of Gloucester. “My view early on was that Gloucester residents commuting daily across that bridge had to pay basically 70 percent of that construction loan payment because we were using that bridge the most,” he said, referring to the loan for the widening of the bridge. “About 70-75 percent of the folks who live here [in Gloucester] cross that bridge to go to work every day, so when they come back, they pay.”
The toll removal, however, while financially beneficial to those who commute daily for work, doesn’t come without impacts to the community. “It’s basically a two-edged sword,” said Bazzani.
“On the one side,” he said, “it’s going to save families quite a lot of money, especially if they have children—teenage children more especially—going across that bridge on a daily basis,” he said. “The average family probably pays between 250 to 300 dollars a year because, simply, they commute. Now, if they have children, later on the drive, it’s going to go up significantly,” he added.
Bazzani expects some “potentially significant development” along Route 17, going north. “Hopefully it’s more business coming in—a lot of businesses don’t want to pay the tolls either, it’s an added expense for them.”
Though more businesses mean economic growth and added jobs in the community, a spike in population could also have negative effects. The first time the tolls were removed, “we became the fastest growing county in Virginia, until they re-imposed the tolls,” Bazzani recalled.
“That might be the other side of that blade,” he said. The rapid growth of the county is something the board of supervisors will have to decide how to handle, as it could potentially change Gloucester from the rural, off the radar, hidden gem it is, he explained.
Emergency departments and public schools would be affected by a rapid increase in population as well. Fire and rescue “would need more facilities with all the additional growth,” and the sheriff’s office would need to expand “to include more deputies, patrolling the different neighborhoods,” he said. As families with children move to Gloucester, there would likely be a need to “build more schools, or renovate the ones we’ve got, to accommodate more children.”
However, Bazzani said he is hopeful that the increase in people buying homes would help balance those potential costs. “We get the tax revenues from the real estate tax, so that offsets those costs, hopefully,” he said.
Gloucester County Administrator Carol Steele doesn’t see a spike in incoming residents from lifting the tolls.
“I personally don’t think that the growth is going to be nearly as significant as it was the last time this happened, when Gloucester went through a huge boom,” she said, “because I don’t think at a couple hundred dollars a year, for going back and forth for work, that that’s really a bad deterrent, because people pay more than that in other locations.”
Though Steele doesn’t see a “mad rush” happening to Gloucester, she said she does believe there will be some pursuit happening with the toll removal.
Steele said she does believe “there will be some level of impact,” and that the lack of toll “could be more adventurous” to not only residents, but businesses, as well. “Probably the businesses most impacted are ones that were already here though, and were in trucking. Those are the ones probably celebrating most, because they pay a high toll to begin with and if you have to make multiple trips—that’s where it can get really expensive.”
As for impacts on county departments, Steele offered that “whatever would make the population increase beyond an offsetting revenue that comes in from those new homes or businesses, would impact schools, would impact fire and rescue and all kinds of services.”
“I think that a lot of localities want to understand, especially for houses, at what cost does a house basically pay for itself,” said Steele. “If a house comes in and they’re paying real estate taxes—and of course you know that same family has got sales tax and other taxes and fees that they’re paying—it’s supposed to offset the extra emergency services, the extra schools and things.”
Though no one has the exact number of what that value will be when a house will pay for itself, she said it’s something she believes the board will have to look at more when rezoning requests come forward. “If more people might want to move here and somebody wants to put in a new subdivision and have to go before the board for rezoning, they’re [the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors] going to be looking at: what revenue will these people be bringing in versus what will they cost and then what are the other impacts, like traffic,” Steele said.