A development plan is pitching 59 homes over 400 acres in Hanover County.
Several high-profile projects involving hundreds of acres of real estate are up for rezoning in Hanover County.
The county Planning Commission is set to review a number of requests affecting significant acreage at its meeting tonight. Two of the requests involve at least 400 acres, while another – a mixed-use development called Big Oak at Bell Creek – involves about 63 acres.
Godsey Properties Inc. is seeking a rezoning that would allow for 59 homes on a 400-acre tract at the eastern end of the county. The property, on the north side of Hopewell Road just east of Figuly Road, was approved in 2005 for 51 lots but has not been developed.
The current zoning allows for a cluster of homes on a portion of the property, the rest of which would be reserved as a conservation area. The zoning change – from rural conservation to an agricultural residential district – would allow for the homes to be built throughout the property and would increase the total allowable number.
The Bay Cos., an engineering firm based in Mechanicsville, is representing Godsey Properties. Messages left with the company Wednesday were not returned by deadline.
County Planner Claudia Cheely, who is handling the request, said challenges in providing water to the site have contributed to the delay in developing the tract. She said the developers decided the land would be better marketed through the agricultural residential zoning, which would allow for as many as 65 lots, though the plans from Godsey call for 59.
Conditions approved in 2005 specified minimum house sizes of 2,200 square feet for one-story homes and 2,500 square feet for 1½- and two-story homes. Cheely said those conditions are no longer required by the county.
In October, the county’s Historical Commission cited concerns that the rezoning could negatively affect historical sites nearby. Cheely said the developer has proposed a conservation easement that would buffer those sites.
“So we feel like they’ve addressed the Historic Commission’s concerns,” Cheely said.
County planning staff is recommending that the request be approved. If the commission agrees, the request would then go to the county Board of Supervisors.
Also on the agenda is a request involving the 430-acre Cavalier Rifle and Pistol Club near the western end of the county. The request would rescind a previously approved conditional-use permit that regulates the club’s use of the property and consolidate the use into another existing permit. It will allow the club to continue to use the property, where it has been for decades.
And another sizable development to be addressed is Big Oak at Bell Creek, a mixed-use development along Bell Creek Road north of Pole Green Road that would consist of 335 dwellings and 123,500 square feet of commercial space.
First proposed last March, the project would include 27 single-family homes, 94 townhomes and 214 apartments – a reduction by about 20 dwellings from what was proposed last year. The new proposal also adds 1,000 square feet of commercial space.
The project is proposed by Big Oak Development Company LLC, which includes members of Stanley Shield Partners, the developer of the first two phases of Bell Creek. It’s the second project proposed under the county’s relatively new “multi-use” designation, first used last year for Edge Development Partners’ Caldwell Park development.
Another project on the agenda is Chickahominy Falls, a 400-home development proposed for 180 acres by Cornerstone Homes. That request is being deferred to the commission’s meeting in February.
A development plan is pitching 59 homes over 400 acres in Hanover County.
Several high-profile projects involving hundreds of acres of real estate are up for rezoning in Hanover County.
The county Planning Commission is set to review a number of requests affecting significant acreage at its meeting tonight. Two of the requests involve at least 400 acres, while another – a mixed-use development called Big Oak at Bell Creek – involves about 63 acres.
Godsey Properties Inc. is seeking a rezoning that would allow for 59 homes on a 400-acre tract at the eastern end of the county. The property, on the north side of Hopewell Road just east of Figuly Road, was approved in 2005 for 51 lots but has not been developed.
The current zoning allows for a cluster of homes on a portion of the property, the rest of which would be reserved as a conservation area. The zoning change – from rural conservation to an agricultural residential district – would allow for the homes to be built throughout the property and would increase the total allowable number.
The Bay Cos., an engineering firm based in Mechanicsville, is representing Godsey Properties. Messages left with the company Wednesday were not returned by deadline.
County Planner Claudia Cheely, who is handling the request, said challenges in providing water to the site have contributed to the delay in developing the tract. She said the developers decided the land would be better marketed through the agricultural residential zoning, which would allow for as many as 65 lots, though the plans from Godsey call for 59.
Conditions approved in 2005 specified minimum house sizes of 2,200 square feet for one-story homes and 2,500 square feet for 1½- and two-story homes. Cheely said those conditions are no longer required by the county.
In October, the county’s Historical Commission cited concerns that the rezoning could negatively affect historical sites nearby. Cheely said the developer has proposed a conservation easement that would buffer those sites.
“So we feel like they’ve addressed the Historic Commission’s concerns,” Cheely said.
County planning staff is recommending that the request be approved. If the commission agrees, the request would then go to the county Board of Supervisors.
Also on the agenda is a request involving the 430-acre Cavalier Rifle and Pistol Club near the western end of the county. The request would rescind a previously approved conditional-use permit that regulates the club’s use of the property and consolidate the use into another existing permit. It will allow the club to continue to use the property, where it has been for decades.
And another sizable development to be addressed is Big Oak at Bell Creek, a mixed-use development along Bell Creek Road north of Pole Green Road that would consist of 335 dwellings and 123,500 square feet of commercial space.
First proposed last March, the project would include 27 single-family homes, 94 townhomes and 214 apartments – a reduction by about 20 dwellings from what was proposed last year. The new proposal also adds 1,000 square feet of commercial space.
The project is proposed by Big Oak Development Company LLC, which includes members of Stanley Shield Partners, the developer of the first two phases of Bell Creek. It’s the second project proposed under the county’s relatively new “multi-use” designation, first used last year for Edge Development Partners’ Caldwell Park development.
Another project on the agenda is Chickahominy Falls, a 400-home development proposed for 180 acres by Cornerstone Homes. That request is being deferred to the commission’s meeting in February.