York to Consider First Mixed-Use Development Tonight

By WYDaily Staff Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The York County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing tonight on what a developer calls a "landmark community" to be built on nearly 14 acres at the corner of Route 17 and Battle Road.

If supervisors approve it, Nelson's Grant would be the county's first mixed-use development - a project that purposefully combines commercial and residential to their best advantage.

Planning commissioners in February unanimously recommended approval of the project, which would put a maximum of 112 homes on the property. Townhomes would account for 66 units, with 4 condominiums and eight units above ground-floor commercial space. About 3.5 acres would remain open space. The developer hopes to attract specialty commercial tenants who do not yet have a presence in the county.

Residents seemed pleased by the proposed project, with two neighbors showing up at the commission's public hearing to offer support.

An earlier proposal by another developer, rejected soundly by vocal neighbors in July 2008, had nearly 60 percent more units on a slightly smaller parcel.

The Nelson's Grant plan incorporates an outparcel that fronts the Patriots Square shopping center, which will provide a secondary entrance to the development.

Steve Miller, representing the developer Pritchard Miller, told planning commissioners the goal was to strike the balance between commercial and residential while creating a neighborhood that would be a good transition between the Patriots Square strip mall and the single-family Settlers Mill neighborhood. Pritchard Miller has developed the Port Myers and Taylor Farms neighborhoods in York County, but Nelson's Grant is their first mixed-use effort.

Miller told the planning commission that the developer will not move forward unless certain they have the financial strength to see the entire project through.

For more about the project, including renderings of buildings and a narrative, click here and scroll down to the first public hearing.