Three months after postponing a decision, Smithfield’s Planning Commission still has time to weigh in on the proposed Cottages at Battery development at Battery Park Road and South Church Street.

Community Development and Planning Director Tammie Clary said Suffolk-based Quality Homes has agreed in writing to waive the 90-day window Town Code specifies for the Planning Commission to recommend either approval or denial of the developer’s application for six special use permits that would allow the 130-home subdivision proposed for 14 acres behind the Royal Farms gas station. Article 6, Section E2 of the town zoning ordinance states the 90-day window is to start the date an application reaches the Planning Commission, which in this case was Sept. 10, making the deadline Dec. 9. Had Quality Homes not agreed to the waiver, the application would have advanced automatically to the Town Council with a default recommendation for approval.

The Planning Commission’s Nov. 12 public hearing and discussion on the matter ended in a 5-1 vote to postpone a decision. Clary said there was no update on the project as of Feb. 14. Planning Commission Chairwoman Julia Hillegass deferred to Clary when asked if or when the matter would be back on a commission agenda.

Commissioner Charles Bryan cast the lone dissenting vote in November on Commissioner GiGi Smith’s motion for the delay after his original motion to recommend denial failed to garner a second.

Quality Homes acquired the land in April from Virginia Beach-based developer John Mamoudis, who in 2020 received Town Council approval for multifamily residential zoning to construct 15 two-story multifamily buildings, each containing 10 units. Quality Homes’ application calls for 130 detached roughly 1,000- to 1,300-square-foot one- and two-story homes under condominium-style ownership.

Clary said Quality Homes would retain the existing multifamily zoning granted to Mamoudis in 2020 but would modify the proffers to conform to what’s now being proposed. A full rezoning application would have triggered a 100-day decision deadline for the Planning Commission under state law.

Nathan Diehl, representing Quality Homes, said in November that residents would own the homes’ interiors, but the surrounding land and the homes’ exteriors would be owned and maintained by a homeowners association.

The existing multifamily zoning allows up to 12 units per acre but stipulates that any attached housing comply with the lower 8-unit-per-acre density required in the town’s attached residential zoning ordinance. Several of the homes would have abutting garages. One of the requested special use permits would allow fewer than the minimum three attached units required under the town’s definition of attached residential. Another would allow a density of 10 units per developable acre for the homes with adjoining garages.

The other four would exempt Quality Homes from needing one recreational vehicle parking space per four dwelling units; allow homes to be 17 feet apart, down from the minimum 24 feet otherwise required; waive yard requirements to allow the abutting garages; and waive parking and loading requirements to allow three spaces per unit and 11 visitor spaces.

The Planning Commission’s public hearing drew 10 speakers, all in opposition, seven of whom identified themselves as residents of the age-restricted Villas of Smithfield development adjacent to the proposed Cottages site. Some of their concerns centered around the combined traffic impact from the Cottages and the 812-home Mallory Pointe development the Town Council approved in 2021 and is on track to see its first houses this year. The Town Council will be required to hold its own hearing before voting on Quality Homes’ application.

A traffic study included with Quality Homes’ application estimated the 130 units would add just over 450 daily vehicular trips to Battery Park Road. Mallory Pointe, according to a Virginia Department of Transportation report submitted with its 2021 rezoning application, was at that time projected to add 7,018 daily trips. The combined 7,468-vehicle impact from the Cottages and Mallory Pointe would be a nearly 75% increase from the 10,000 estimated vehicles the road saw daily in 2022, according to VDOT data, though Quality Homes contends the road has sufficient capacity to absorb the influx.