York Commission Recommends 444-Unit Development to Supes

By Sam Thrift Saturday, January 14, 2012

The York County Planning Commission has recommended the Board of Supervisors approve an application to build a mixed-used development with 444 residential units near Kiln Creek. The commission’s 4-2 vote to recommend approval went against York County staff’s recommendation to deny it.

The staff showed concern about the increased volume of traffic and students that the development will bring. Lacking a completed project in York County to compare the Commonwealth Green development with, the staff found it difficult to predict how the development would affect the surrounding area.

Commissioners were concerned about the location of the 49.5 acres of land where the Commonwealth Green development will be built, along with the fact that two mixed-use development projects approved by the board are currently under way. The proposed property is a landlocked parcel that begins at the end of Commonwealth Drive on the east side of York County, which is behind the Regal Kiln Creek Cinema on its northwesterly border, and just south of Coxton's on Route 17 to the southeast. The property borders the City of Newport News to the west.

According to the staff report, the development will consist of a maximum of 334 rental apartments, 94 town homes, 16 “live-above” rental units, and a minimum of 40,610 square feet of commercial space. According to Thomas Tucker, president of First Financial Consulting Corporation, a partner of Commonwealth Green LLP, the town homes will cost around $200,000 and the apartments will fluctuate in price according to their size.

Planner Tim Cross told the commissioners the staff had reservations about the development because it will be built in stages, depending on the number of occupied residential units. According to a sequencing plan for Commonwealth Green, once 91 percent of the residential units are built, the developer will have to build two buildings that have both commercial and residential space. The addition of the two buildings will make up 49 percent of the commercial space. A two-story building, with 20,800 square feet of commercial space, will be built last in the sequencing plan, but only if the three mixed-use buildings are at least a 50 percent occupancy rate.

“In other words, construction of almost half of the commercial space could be deferred indefinitely depending on market conditions,” Cross said.

Assuming all of the commercial spaces are built, Cross said Commonwealth Green will be comparable in “certain respects” to the two other mixed-use developments that were approved by the Board of Supervisors, Nelson’s Grant and Yorktown Crescent. Commonwealth Green will be far larger, with 444 units and 40,610 square feet of commercial space. Nelson’s Grant will have 112 units and 13,705 square feet of commercial space; and Yorktown Crescent will have 210 units with 28,000 square feet of commercial space.

Cross said planners were concerned with the effect the development may have on York County schools and evening traffic surrounding the area.

Like Nelson’s Grant and Yorktown Crescent, Cross said the county does not know the effect the development will have on schools because, with the other two developments incomplete, they have nothing to compare it to in York. They expect there will be about one student per three units, adding an estimated 75 students to Grafton-Bethel Elementary, 34 to Grafton Middle and 42 to Grafton High School. If the county estimates are correct, the number of students added to the elementary school would cause overcrowding, according to Cross.

A fiscal impact report done by the applicant estimated 34 students would be added to the school system because of the development, opposed to the 151 students the county predicts.

“The experience in other localities is that mixed-used developments are attractive to retirees, empty nesters and young professionals who don’t have children,” Cross said. “There aren’t any playgrounds shown on the plan and the residential design guidelines prohibit playground equipment on individual townhouse lots, which might tend to dissuade families with children as well.”

According to a VDOT traffic analysis, the amount of traffic that will be added by the development is not enough to push traffic limits from an “acceptable” level to an “unacceptable” level, with the exception of the intersection of Commonwealth Drive, Victory Boulevard and Kiln Creek Parkway. Cross said the development will put the intersection at an acceptable level of service by VDOT standards in the “p.m.” peak hour, but not by the county zoning ordinance standards.

Subject to approval by the Virginia Department of Transportation, the developer will have to install a 200-foot southbound right-turn lane on Route 17 at the entrance to the project. The other entrance to the development will be off Commonwealth Drive, behind the Regal Kiln Creek Movie Theater.

Required to have two access points to the property, the developer spent two years negotiating with every property owner off Route 17 to buy land to extend Commonwealth Drive, according to the staff report.

“It is important to consider a more global view of the property and its neighbors,” Thomas Tucker said. “It’s important to look not just at a property to see if it meets mixed-use zoning standards, but how Commonwealth Green is the key to help surrounding properties with their future success.”

According to Tucker, the property the development will be built on has been for sale for 28 years with no satisfactory buyer.

“Commonwealth Green will be the igniter that will make the entire York County area viable in a market that we know is currently under duress,” he said.

District 1 Commissioner Chris Abel said he was not persuaded that the development is as good as it’s going to get for the property.

“It’s clear that this is a piece of property with a problem,” Abel said. “It is essentially a landlocked piece of property that has been begging for development for quite some time. My fear is that we may be seeing a circumstance of people thinking it’s been long enough. It’s been 30 years and here is someone who is willing to buy, so for God’s sake lets put something there.”

Some of the commissioners did mention concern that the property would have the same fate as the stalled Marquis shopping center,http://www.wydaily.com/business/6708-texas-firm-announced-as-new-marquis-buyer-in-york.html but the group did vote 4-2 in favor of recommending the development. District 4 Commissioner Mario Buffa and Abel voted against the application.

Watch the meeting by clicking here.http://www.yorkcounty.gov/Default.aspx?tabid=7104