The developers of the Sweetgrass development approved last year for the outskirts of Smithfield will return on March 20 to make their case to Isle of Wight County supervisors for building the subdivision’s single-family homes closer together.

The supervisors voted 3-2 in May to approve Ryan Homes parent NVR’s application for mixed-use zoning to build 615 homes and up to 73,000 square feet of commercial space fronting Benns Church Boulevard at the 250-acre Yeoman Farm by the Sherwin Williams store. Of those 615 homes, 225 would be townhouses and 390 would be age-restricted detached homes.

The version of the conceptual plan the supervisors approved last year had specified the single-family home phase would be built on minimum 50-foot-wide lots. Since then, an archeological study has “identified three archeological resource sites that are potentially eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places” that NVR “would like to preserve in permanent open space areas to avoid disturbing them,” according to a report by county staff included in the supervisors’ March 20 agenda.

To build around the sites, NVR is requesting a conditional zoning amendment that would revise the neighborhood plan to allow 40-foot-wide lots instead of 50 feet.

The archeological survey the James River Institute for Archeology completed for NVR in November lists a site as “44IW0245” that bears “evidence of historic population or activity from the second half of the 17th century through the middle of the 20th” and includes a standing barn and the remains of a brick chimney, according to the Institute’s report.

Another site, “44IW0426,” includes remnants of Native American pottery and “appears to retain considerable subsurface integrity and to present significant research potential regarding Woodland-period prehistoric activity in Isle of Wight County.”

The third site, designated “44IW0429,” includes brick fragments, iron scrap and melted non-leaded colorless glass, which, according to the Institute’s report, suggests a 19th to 20th century outbuilding.

A public hearing on last year’s rezoning application drew a handful of speakers for and against the project. According to the report by county staff, a public hearing on NVR’s latest request isn’t required since the proposed change doesn’t affect the “overall use or density.”

Riverside Smithfield Hospital, which will open as a 50-bed facility in early 2026, backed the development last year as a source of housing for its employees. Last year’s vote, however, overturned a 6-2 recommendation by the county’s Planning Commission to deny NVR’s original rezoning application, citing data showing that the cumulative impact of Sweetgrass and other pending housing developments would put several schools close to capacity.