Another long-dormant housing development in Carrollton is showing signs of life.

Isle of Wight County’s Planning Commission is set to hold an April 22 public hearing on a revised plan for Bridge Point Commons, which county supervisors approved in 2008 as a 350-unit apartment and condominium complex for just under 43 acres adjacent to the Carrollton Volunteer Fire Department at the corner of Deep Bottom Drive and Carrollton Boulevard. It was one of several to stall in the wake of the 2007-09 Great Recession and its nationwide housing crisis fueled by foreclosures on high-risk or “subprime” mortgages.

A Dec. 3 application by Quality Homes of Currituck, which seeks rezoning to mixed use, proposes 147 townhouses and a 1.5-acre commercial site. It would amount to a 50% reduction in density from the 2008 concept. According to county planner Trenton Blowe, the original plan had called for 120 rent-controlled “workforce” units and 230 owner-occupied multifamily condominium units with 116 of those being age-restricted. 

Currently one 33.4-acre parcel is zoned urban residential and the other 9.2-acre parcel is zoned general commercial.

The project appears to have changed developers. According to Blowe, the 2008 proffers had specified that Bridge Point Commons would be developed by Brown, Jolley, Brown LLC. The land was last sold in 2018 from James B. Brown III to Washington, D.C.-based Main Development LLC. 

Quality Homes of Currituck is a separate and unrelated entity from the Suffolk-based Quality Homes that is proposing to develop the 130-home “Cottages at Battery” subdivision proposed for 14 acres behind the Royal Farms convenience store at Battery Park Road and South Church Street in Smithfield, according to the Suffolk-based company’s president, Brian Mullins. Quality Homes of Currituck’s website lists the North Carolina-based company as the developer of three subdivisions, all located in that state’s Currituck County.

A project narrative by Land Planning Solutions, a consultant for Quality Homes of Currituck, states the revised concept for Bridge Point Commons would create a “moderate density, walkable townhome community with a commercial property at the site’s entrance.” The narrative states the townhouses would be “moderately priced.”

The proposed development would be governed by a homeowners association. The townhouses and the commercial phase would each be capped at two stories.

The revised plan’s included proffers stipulate the developer is to make a cash contribution of $375,114, or $2,551.80 per unit, to the county to “facilitate the expansion of existing capacity in the Isle of Wight County school system” based on “seven additional seats” needed at Smithfield Middle School. The original 350-unit concept for Bridge Point had been projected to generate 118 K-12 students. IWCS projected 43 total students using a reduction in units at Bridge Point in an October estimate.

Smithfield Middle Schools is currently at 82% of its program capacity, which refers to its ability to comply with state maximum class sizes. Isle of Wight County Schools projected in October that the school would be at 95.7% capacity if and when five approved and actively building or leasing developments are completed. As of last fall, IWCS projected the buildout of the latest iteration of Bridge Point and six other approved but unbuilt developments would push SMS to 106% of its program capacity.

A traffic study included with the rezoning application estimates the residential phase would generate just over 500 vehicular trips in, and another 500 out, daily. It projects the same for the commercial phase for a total of just over 1,000 in and another 1,000 out, or 2,137 in total. The traffic study states at least one of the tenants of the commercial phase would be a coffee and doughnut store.