This story was reported and written by WHRO media partner Williamsburg Watch.
Developers of the Cardinal Ridge project offered to reduce the number of homes from 1,006 to 770 — of which 38% would be considered affordable housing — in an effort to secure county approval.
D.R. Horton, a national mega developer, is seeking rezoning for a mixed-use project to be located on 365 acres of surplus Eastern State Hospital land off Ironbound Road across from the new county government center. The county planning commission recommended last year the rezoning be approved, but the project ran into spirited opposition from residents who say it will add too much traffic and create stormwater issues.
Horton scheduled community meetings Monday night and Thursday, Sept. 3, with county residents to explain how they have scaled back the project to meet concerns.
Jamestown Supervisor Jim Icenhour attended the first town hall and wasn’t convinced the modifications will change his opposition when the supervisors vote on the rezoning request Sept. 8.
“They’ve made significant changes to this project, and they haven’t even run this back by county staff,” Icenhour said, adding staff had not seen the proposed changes as of Friday.
Some two dozen county residents, mostly from the nearby Mews townhouse development and Ford’s Colony, attended the meeting at King of Glory Lutheran Church.
Besides the home reductions, the builder is also offering:
• Donating a 27.7-acre site to Hope Family Village
• Donating 40.6 acres to the county for public use
• Donating 14.2 acres to Colonial Behavioral Health
The revised proposal includes a commercial marketplace that would build up to 100,000 square feet of space on 33.2 acres.
Horton’s modified residential plans include:
Reducing the number of rental apartments from 450 to 264, all of which would be offered at rents considered affordable for people earning up to 80% of the county’s average median income.
Increasing the number of single-family homes from 294 to 304, of which 10 would be reserved as affordable homes for sale.
Reducing the number of townhomes from 235 to 175, of which 20 would meet affordable home sales prices.
The apartments would be rented to people who, at the time of rental, have a household income of no more than 80% of the county’s average median income. Rentals would be for up to 30 years at a rate that doesn’t exceed 30% of the renter’s household annual income, according to documents prepared for the county by the developer.
The apartments would be developed by the Virginia Beach-based Franklin Group Companies and offered at prices ranging from $1,010 a month for a one-bedroom at the lowest income level to $2,241 a month for a three-bedroom for a household earning at the 80% level.
The 30 for-sale homes designated as affordable would be priced in a similar fashion. Since the average median income can fluctuate, the initial sales price would be no more than $297,500. Buyers would have to sign a second deed of trust giving James City County a share of appreciation in the value of the property if sold within seven years, the developer’s proffer offer stated.
Regular prices would range from the mid-$300,000 for townhomes to the mid-$500,000 for single-family homes, a developer representative said.
Frank Polster, Jamestown representative for the county planning commission, was at the meeting and said Cardinal Ridge would add to the county’s groundwater concerns.
He calculated existing homes in the county use an average of 5.2 million gallons of water a day. There are 7,000 potential new homes that have been approved but haven’t yet been built, he said, and they would eventually consume another 2.1 million gallons a day.
Polster, who voted against Cardinal Ridge, said the 770 homes now proposed for the development would consume an additional .3 million gallons of water daily, bringing total county water consumption close to its current 8.4 million daily gallon permit.
County officials have warned that amount may change when the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality renews the permit in February.
