The York County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 Tuesday to accept a proposal that would rezone the former 1776 Knights Inn on Bypass Road to multi-family residential as part of a bid to construct up to 102 townhouses on the land. Their vote came after York County planners and the Planning Commission recommended denying the request.
The lone holdout was Vice Chairman Sheila Noll. The land is currently classified as general business, though both representatives of the applicant, 1776 Hotel LLC, and the supervisors both commented on the absence of any frontage on Bypass Road.
“It looks much more compatible to me for housing than it does for anything else,” said Supervisor Donald Wiggins. The hotel is surrounded by residential land and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s livestock barns and pasture to the north, timeshares to the east and south and a subdivision to the west.
During their conversation, the board did not address some of the concerns raised by the planning commission, including the impact that condo fees would have on the affordability of the housing and lack of common areas in the proposed development.
At the Nov. 14 Planning Commission meeting, commissioner Timothy McCulloch said he couldn’t support recommending the proposal due to the impact it would have on local schools, however a memo from York County Administrator James McReynolds said that all of the schools this proposal would affect are at a surplus. Waller Mill Elementary School can accommodate 23 more students, and this construction is estimated to add 21. Queens Lake Middle School can handle an addition 232 while Bruton High School can handle an additional 451. However, there is other land nearby zoned residential that could be developed which would leave Waller Mill over capacity.
“Short of this being an assisted living facility or senior housing, this is probably the lowest residential impact on schools except for maybe an apartment complex,” said Mark Carter, the assistant county zoning administrator who presented the Planning Division’s analysis of the proposal.
Representatives of the applicant said they had a letter from the owner of the timeshares that said they would be happy to see the project move forward since the hotel that is currently on the site, which has been vacant since 2011, has fallen into disrepair. Photographs presented to the supervisors showed downed trees in the parking lot, and representatives of the applicant said there has been vandalism at the hotel and that the brass kickplates on some of the doors had been stolen.
The supervisors voted 5-0 to approve a proposal from Merrimac Partners, LLC to convert the George Washington Inn to a 200-unit senior housing building. The building will contain 70 assisted living units, making it the first senior living in York County to offer that service.
The Planning Commission voted 6-1 at their Nov. 14 meeting to recommend approving the proposal. Commissioner Melissa Magowan voted against the proposal, saying the property was not situated for senior living due to heavy traffic on Merrimac Trail and the surrounding retail use of the land. The York County planners also recommended approval.
The York County comprehensive plan calls for additional senior living options, and according to a memo from McReynolds, the proposal meets that criteria. In 2010, 24.1 percent of York County’s population was at least 62 years old, and that number is expected to grow to 30.1 percent by 2020.
The proposal calls for a 0.96-acre parcel of land that’s currently part of the parcel to be subdivided into its own parcel. That land has a vacant 5,125 square foot building that used to be a restaurant.
The senior housing would feature 130 independent living units in addition to the 70 assisted living units and five guest suites. A banquet hall at the back of the hotel would be removed to make room for a Garden Court for residents.
The supervisors voted 5-0 to reject a proposal from Old Dominion Associates LC to develop a 55,000 square foot mini-storage facility on a 4.22-acre parcel of land at 7800 George Washington Memorial Highway (Route 17).
The York County Planners and the Planning Commission both recommended to the supervisors to approve the proposal. The discussion at Tuesday’s meeting focused on the abundance of mini-storage warehouses already in the area—there are five within a five-mile stretch up and down Route 17—and the presence of wetlands in the parcel, which make it difficult to develop.
Carter said there is currently 216,000 square feet of approved mini-storage warehouse space in York County. One of the mini-storage warehouses already in operation has ample room to expand but has not done so.
Wiggins said he was surprised that there has not been a feasibility study done by the applicant on mini-storage needs in York County. According to a formula Wiggins used from the National Storage Association, the stretch of Route 17 where the mini-storage warehouse would be built needs 188,700 square feet of mini-storage to meet the needs of the county.
“I’m looking at this from an aesthetic point of view,” Noll said to representatives of Old Dominion LC. “You’ve done a great job in the design. I just can’t see another [mini-storage warehouse] on [Route 17].”
The parcel where the mini-storage warehouse would be built has approximately 188 feet of frontage along Route 17. The rest of the land is a long, narrow sliver that is cut into by wetlands. Since the wetlands are so expensive to mitigate—up to $1,000 per foot—the uses for the property are limited. The sliver is one of five slivers of land in a row with different owners, making the possibility of creating a larger block of land with more frontage along Route 17 difficult.
During their discussion, the supervisors mentioned an abundance of gas stations that were built which resulted in abandoned buildings that had to be dealt with by the county.
The supervisors voted 5-0 to pass a resolution that allows for Dominion Fireworks Incorporated to provide July 4 fireworks services for York County for up to five years.
Dominion was one of five companies that responded to a request for proposal, citing $125,000 in expenses—a maximum of $25,000 per year—to conduct the fireworks celebration. According to a memo from McReynolds, money is available in the tourism budget.
