A Virginia Beach-based builder is proposing a new condominium development in Carrollton.

George B. Kemp of GBK Builders Inc. submitted a March 1 application seeking mixed-use zoning for a 12.5-acre parcel of forested land. The parcel is located at the corner of Carrollton Boulevard and Cedar Grove Road, roughly a mile inland from the Isle of Wight County side of the Chuckatuck Creek, which forms the county’s border with Suffolk.

Mixed-use zoning allows for a combination of residential and commercial structures. GBK proposes to build 35 single-family detached condominiums and an 88,859-square-foot commercial site that would front Carrollton Boulevard.

The development would be named “Kemp’s Village East at Carrollton,” and offer homes ranging in price from $389,000 to $649,000.

The developer’s plans are undergoing a review by county staff and will eventually head to Isle of Wight’s Planning Commission and supervisors for consideration.

Some residents aren’t waiting for the required public hearings to voice their displeasure. A change.org petition titled “Kemps Village East @ Carrollton,” which urges residents to “say no to this type of growth in Isle of Wight County,” had garnered 782 signatures as of May 2.

The petition asserts the 45-foot-tall condominiums would be built “very close” to wetlands.

The submitted site plan shows 0.9 acres of wetlands bordering Smith Neck Creek, which separates the parcel from an adjacent housing development on Rollingwood Drive. The condos’ back yards would be only 20 feet away from the wetlands at the closest point.

Documents submitted with the rezoning application indicate plans for Kemp’s Village have been in the works at least since May 14, 2022.

An included traffic study projects the new development would generate an additional 330 vehicle trips daily, 65% of which are expected to commute north toward the James River Bridge and the other 35% south toward Suffolk. The extra vehicles would amount to a roughly 2% increase in traffic on Carrollton Boulevard, which already averages roughly 15,000 vehicles per day.

A submitted fiscal impact study projects the development to add 13 students to Isle of Wight County’s school system. The study states “pipeline development” from approved housing projects in the Carrollton area, in combination with Kemp’s Village, would have caused Carrollton Elementary to exceed its 720-student capacity by 16 students, were it not for the Isle of Wight County School Board’s January approval of a plan to move roughly 75 Carrollton students to Hardy Elementary to relieve overcrowding. Kemp’s addition to the “pipeline” is also projected to push enrollment at Smithfield Middle School five students beyond its 634-student capacity, though the study states this would result in “the addition of less than one student per classroom, on average” and is “not sufficient to warrant any expenditure by the County to add middle school classroom capacity.”

If Kemp’s Village is approved in the next few months, site work could begin as early as this fall, with construction starting in 2024. The application and accompanying documentation estimates the development would be fully built out by the first quarter of 2027.

Census data shows the roughly 5.7-mile Carrollton census-designated place saw its population grow 63% from 2010 to 2020, fueled by – or perhaps fueling – a countywide 12.4% increase over the same decade in the number of housing units in Isle of Wight. Isle of Wight’s countywide population grew 9.5% over the same decade, and another 4% in the two years since the census, with an estimated population of 40,151 as of mid-2022.

If approved, Kemp’s Village will join several other new housing developments slated for Carrollton Boulevard. Among them are the approved-but-unstarted, 63-home Archer’s Meade and 350-home Bridgepoint Commons developments, the in-progress 340-home South Harbor development and The Crossings, which is approved for up to 240 condominiums and 52 single-family homes.