A new assisted living facility may be in the works for upper James City County.
Engineering firm Timmons Group has proposed building an 85,000-square-foot convalescent care and assisted living facility on a parcel belonging to senior living community Colonial Heritage, according to agenda documents filed with the James City County Development Review Committee.
The proposal includes a facility with 90 convalescent care beds, 30 assisted living units and 84 employees.
If approved, the facility would be on a 45-acre parcel west of Colonial Heritage’s commercial entrance and across from the Williamsburg Pottery.
A representative from Timmons Group is expected to present a conceptual plan for a preliminary review by the Development Review Committee at the committee’s regular meeting at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
No vote or official approval will be given Wednesday; it’s simply on the agenda to gain preliminary input and field questions from committee members, Senior Planner Alex Baruch said.
“Right now they’re looking to the Development Review Committee for some guidance and consideration of the assisted living facility that’s proposed,” Baruch said.
Mark Richardson of Timmons Group has partnered with Virginia Health Services to develop the assisted living facility, Baruch said.
The facility is proposed to be built on a portion of the 45-acre Colonial Heritage property. The piece of property for the facility would be purchased from Colonial Heritage.
The developer is working in concert with Colonial Heritage to develop design guidelines and a conceptual layout for the assisted living facility, both of which are required under proffers set for the Colonial Heritage development in 2004.
Proffers are certain conditions a developer agrees to meet that are “for the protection of the community” and set when a development is approved, according to the Virginia Association of Counties. They are no longer allowed under law for residential developments in Virginia, but previously-agreed upon proffers are still enforced.
Although the developer will only buy a portion of Colonial Heritage’s commercial land, the design guidelines will be in place for the entire 45-acre parcel, hence the reason for Colonial Heritage’s involvement, Baruch said.
James City County planners have not yet received information on how much land could be purchased.
“They’re trying to get those two proffer items completed before they move forward with the sale of the property,” Baruch said.
The original conceptual plans for the facility were submitted to county staff in fall 2017, Baruch said.
The Board of Supervisors already approved the master plan, permitted uses and proffers for Colonial Heritage years ago.
Because an assisted living facility was already designated as a permitted use for the commercial property, the project will not need to go through the Board of Supervisors for approval.
Instead, the Development Review Committee will eventually need to approve the design guidelines and conceptual plan. After that, the item will need to appear on the Planning Commission’s consent agenda.
There will not be a public hearing.
After the proposed assisted living facility goes through the Development Review Committee and Planning Commission, it will go through an administrative review with staff to ensure the plans fulfill certain requirements.
Items reviewed by staff include parking, landscaping, coordinating with fire-rescue officials and stormwater regulations, Principal Planner Ellen Cook said.
Baruch said there is no set timeline for the project, but each step of the process can take at least a month.
