James City County on Tuesday narrowly approved an updated plan for a proposed 470-home senior community that reduces its minimum amount of assisted living or memory care rooms.
Board Member Jim Icenhour and Chair John McGlennon opposed the updated plan for Ford’s Village despite the developers making some changes after the Board of Supervisors reviewed it in February. Icenhour said his biggest concern is the reduction in assisted living rooms, but the density of the homes, high price tags and impact to the Powhatan Creek watershed didn’t help.
“It just keeps getting less and less for the citizens and more and more for the developer,” Icenhour said.
Board Member Tracy Wainwright, though, responded that developer Frye Properties and partners wanted to decrease the number of assisted living rooms from 125 to a minimum of 46 because of market demand. Company representatives said in February that the development’s future is uncertain without it.
“To insist that something be built under parameters that can’t be sold, or you can’t find a developer for, doesn’t make sense to me,” Wainwright said.
Ford’s Village has been fraught with delays. Its first master plan was approved nearly two decades ago. The development got waylaid by the 2008 financial crisis, leading developers to scale it back to 470 homes in a 2022 update.
That plan allowed for 270 single and multifamily homes, 75 independent living apartments and 125 assisted living rooms. Then its developer pulled out in 2024.
After finding new partners in 2025, Frye Properties proposed adjusting the number of independent living apartments to 160 and a minimum of 40 assisted living and memory care rooms. After February's feedback, that was altered to be 154 independent living apartments and 46 assisted living rooms under the plan approved on Tuesday.
The issue highlights the shortage of options for the county’s older residents. The number of people older than 65 is expected to stay at about 30% to 31% of the population through 2050, according to the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center, while the the older-than-80 populace will more than double. Coupled with major growth in dementia cases nationwide, the county needs more assisted living and memory care space.
But the locality simultaneously faces a need for more independent living and affordable senior housing. The rising cost of living and tax bills from increasing property values leave older adults with tough choices. It’s something the county will have to grapple with as it works to handle a projected 40% population boom in the next 25 years.
