Smithfield’s Town Council voted unanimously Sept. 7 to approve the sale of two Pinewood Heights lots to Robert Livengood, chief executive officer of L&L Marine Inc.

Livengood, whose company builds docks and piers, had approached the town roughly a year ago about acquiring the two currently vacant lots at the end of the Carver Avenue cul-de-sac, which front along the Pagan River. L&L already has a commercial facility at 501 Carver Avenue and proposes to construct a landing on the two nearby lots to load and unload construction materials to a barge.

Following a public hearing at which no one spoke, the council voted to accept Livengood’s bid of $12,000 apiece for the two lots.

According to Town Attorney William Riddick III, Livengood will need to obtain an exception to Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act to build the proposed landing. According to a Sept. 3 memorandum from town staff, both lots are “heavily encumbered with Resource Protection Area,” a term that refers to environmentally sensitive lands that lie alongside or near the shorelines of waterways.

The sale marks the latest development in the town’s years-long plan to gradually transform the former residential neighborhood behind the Smithfield Foods meatpacking plants into an industrial park.

“There are already some established industrial customers out there,” said Town Manager Michael Stallings. “Mr. Livengood being one, and Bay Disposal being another.”