City Council voted 4 to 3 November 22, 2016, to approve rezoning of 20.84 acres of land from residential R‐2 to commercial highway and R‐12 for a development called The Hamptons Phase II.
The property, owned by Carol B. Coleman, Bonnie B. Carter, and Gloria B. Whittaker, is adjacent to Fredericksburg’s Central Park, on the south side of Fall Hill Avenue, west of I‐95 and east of Briscoe Lane.
Hamptons at Family, L.P., a Virginia limited partnership based in Norfolk headed by S. L. Nusbaum, plans to begin construction in about two years. The project includes 78 townhomes and 120 apartments on 16.53 acres, and a car dealership on the remaining 4.31 acres. Clay Huber, president of Huber Motor Cars, has expressed his interest in building a third dealership there.
The vote was 4 to 3, with Vice Mayor Billy Withers (Ward 2) and Council Members Kerry Devine (At-Large) and Tim Duffy (Ward 3) voting against the project.
Withers said his major concern was using land zoned commercial for townhomes and apartments. “I think council should base its decision on its comp plan, not what developers think is the best use,” he said. “Our comp plan is what’s best for the city in the long term. I’ve been pretty passionate about this, because I think the council is going down the wrong road.”
Councilman Brad Ellis (Ward 1) supported the development. “I think for this small parcel of land, this is a very good fit,” he said.
Councilman Matt Kelly (At-Large) agreed. “I think the project fits this location and will help the commercial development of this area,” he said.
Devine disagreed. “This is very short sighted of us,” she said. “We have not seen the effect of many of the projects we’ve already approved. We’ve responded to the want and need for apartments [with projects approved by yet to be built], and so approving another project full of townhouses and apartments is premature at this point. We should stick with our comp plan; we planned this for commercial development.”
Hamptons at Family, L.P. plans to use Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) funding for the apartments portion of the project. “The program uses tax credits to incentivize the development of housing units that are affordable to households who make 60 percent of area median income (AMI) or less annually,” Fredericksburg Zoning Administrator Mike Craig reported. “The AMI is based on the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Statistical Area, which means that HUD calculates Fredericksburg’s AMI as $108,600. Census data reports the median household income for the City of Fredericksburg at $49,454.”
City Council held a public hearing on October 25, at which one person spoke against this application, citing its potential impact on schools. Because it was the third time they’d discussed the project, City Council voted to suspend the rules, and they proceeded immediately to approve upon second read, instead of waiting until the next council meting.
The Hamptons at Celebrate Virginia, also being developed by Nusbaum, is phase one of this project. That 32 acre project, located west of I-95, north of Central Park, and west of Celebrate Virginia South off Fall Hill Avenue, consists of 384 apartments, a planned four-story, 100 room hotel, and a 27,000-square-foot office building.
