What we know about two Benns Church developments yet to apply for rezoning

Published 3:15 pm Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Conceptual plans for a Wawa gas station, a 262-home subdivision dubbed “The Promontory” and Isle of Wight County supervisors’ approval in May of the 615-home Sweetgrass development have given are residents some idea of what’s on the horizon for the half-mile radius surrounding the Benns Church Boulevard and Turner Drive intersection.

But two other developments that factored into a cost-sharing proposal to build a roundabout on Turner by 2029 are nowhere near as fleshed out.

Based on what county staff have said at meetings concerning the roundabout and interviews with the two prospective developers, The Smithfield Times has pieced together what is known to date about two developments yet to officially apply for rezoning.

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The ‘Pomoco’ site

County Transportation Coordinator Jamie Oliver, when briefing county supervisors on her initial proposal for funding the $7.6 million project, said she had “seen a conceptual plan,” but no official rezoning application, for a development of unspecified size slated for an area within roughly 200 acres on Smithfield’s side of the town-county border adjacent to the 250-acre Yeoman Farm by the Sherwin Williams store where Sweetgrass is proposed.

County Administrator Randy Keaton, at an Oct. 17 meeting where the supervisors voted to conditionally accept $2.2 million in Virginia Department of Transportation funding and pass a proportionate share of the $4.5 million remainder cost onto developers, said Isle of Wight had “received a copy of a proposed project” on the 178-acre farm, what he referred to as the “Pomoco” property.

Isle of Wight Community Development Director Amy Ring, whose department handles rezoning applications, confirmed some members of county staff had “seen” a proposal but said she had not personally received, as of Oct. 21, any information on what’s proposed.

Tammie Clary, Ring’s counterpart for the town of Smithfield, said her department as of Oct. 22 had not received any conceptual plans for the property either.

All the acreage except for a 7.35-acre strip of land along Benns Church Boulevard directly adjacent to Sherwin Williams is owned by Philip Edwards III or members of his family.

He says he has no plans to change his 178 acres from farmland.

“I have nothing planned at this time,” Edwards said. “My property does fall within the half-mile distance of Turner Drive and that roundabout and turn lanes really serve me no purpose. Much of the traffic that is planned for already exists and nothing has been developed yet.

According to Isle of Wight County’s online property map, Edwards sold the 7.35-acre strip to Hampton-based SFD Properties LLC in 2004. On the land is a “now leasing” sign advertising a “proposed retail development with contact information for Yorktown-based Retail Advisors.

All 200 acres remain zoned under Smithfield’s zoning ordinance as community conservation, the town’s most restrictive zoning designation reserved for agricultural uses.

According to Edwards, the “Pomoco” name originates from mid-2000s plans by the owners of the former Pomoco Ford car dealership, which shuttered its South Church Street location in 2009, to expand or relocate to the site.

A master plan for the Benns Church and Turner intersection included with the roundabout cost-sharing proposal labels all 200 acres as “other Smithfield development.” To account for the unknown impact of what if anything gets built on this land and “background” traffic increases over the next five years not tied to developments within the half-mile radius of Benns Church and Turner, the cost-sharing proposal county supervisors conditionally approved on Oct. 17 calls for the town to bear $902,654 or 20% of the roundabout project cost. The town would also be on the hook for The Promontory’s $902,654 residential share and its $496,459 or 11% commercial share, for a total of $2.3 million.

The Town Council deferred voting Oct. 28 to approve its $2.3 million share. Oliver, on Oct. 17, said the town’s participation would be governed by an agreement solely between Smithfield and the county, in which the town would commit to fund up to $2.3 million. The council would then be responsible for developing its own policy and agreements with developers that could allow it to recoup a proportionate share of the total cost tied to each development on the town’s side of Turner Drive that the council approves.

If the Pomoco site is approved for a commercial development, “That’s some potential additional revenue that would offset some of the town cost on their side,” Keaton said.

 

Harrison and Lear

Keaton, at the Oct. 17 meeting, said Isle of Wight already has received emailed commitments from Miami-based Frontier Development, which is developing the 2021-proposed but stalled Wawa, and from Harrison and Lear, a Hampton-based developer Keaton said is planning develop the 20-acre farm adjacent to The Oaks Veterinary Clinic on Benns Church Boulevard.

As of Oct. 7, Ring’s department had been in communication with Harrison and Lear but had not received a conceptual plan as of that date.

Adam Turner, project manager for Harrison and Lear, told the Times the plan calls for a 17½-acre commercial development that would be subdivided into six separate parcels next to the proposed Wawa. The main entrance, he said, would front Benns Church Boulevard directly opposite the four-lane highway from where the proposed entrance to Sweetgrass is located.

The six parcels would also have secondary access via a back road that would tie into the proposed roundabout.

Turner said Harrison and Lear hasn’t identified tenants for any of the six parcels, but said one of the back three that would abut Smithfield High School is eyed as a medical building. Another is slated as retail or an office building and the third is proposed as a climate-controlled self-storage facility, which Turner said is envisioned in response to the expected need for self-storage for the residents of Sweetgrass and other Isle of Wight County developments slated to be built over the next few years.

The third and most current revision to the county’s plan to divide the roundabout’s cost among developers calls for Wawa and Harrison and Lear to collectively pay $586,725, or 13%, of the $4.5 million based on the two developments’ proportionate share of projected 2029 traffic.

Turner called the projections for Wawa and Harrison and Lear a “worst case scenario” intended to “provide as much flexibility for different businesses to come to Isle of Wight that would be interested.”

Turner said Harrison and Lear started planning its development in 2022 shortly after VDOT denied Frontier’s request for left-turn access from the Wawa onto Turner and Isle of Wight County’s Planning Commission recommended approval of a conditional use permit for the gas station and store, conditioned on its developers submitting an “alternative intersection design” for Turner Drive “such as a single-lane roundabout.”

“We came forward not too long after that,” Turner said.

Turner said he expects Harrison and Lear will formally submit its rezoning application within the next month.

He said Harrison and Lear has also been in contact with Isle of Wight County Schools to potentially provide an alternative access to Smithfield High School through the proposed commercial development to relieve some of the congestion on Turner Drive.

Harrison and Lear, according to its website, has developed multiple residential and commercial subdivisions in York County and the cities of Hampton and Newport News.

When county supervisors voted in 2023 to approve a resolution supporting the VDOT grant application for the proposed roundabout, which would also add dual turn lanes from Benns Church onto Turner, Harrison and Lear was among the first developers to agree in writing to footing a proportionate share of the cost.