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Planning Commission recommends council approve small contractors office at 12618 Warwick Boulevard
Summary
On Jan. 15 the Newport News Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend City Council approve conditional use permit CU20240012 to allow WM Smith Contracting to build and operate a small contractors office at 12618 Warwick Boulevard, subject to 15 conditions including site plan, landscaping and limits on outside storage and heavy vehicles.
The Newport News Planning Commission on Jan. 15 voted 7-0 to recommend City Council approve conditional use permit CU20240012 to allow WM Smith Contracting LLC to construct and operate a small contractors office at 12618 Warwick Boulevard.
Planning staff told the commission the property is zoned C-1 (Retail Commercial) and the 1 City 1 Future comprehensive plan designates the site for neighborhood commercial use. Saul Garcia, the staff presenter, said the site sits near several commercial uses including a KFC and Taco Bell to the north and Newport News Commons apartments to the east, and that a contractors office is permitted in C-1 with a conditional use permit.
Garcia summarized the applicants plan: the office would employ about seven to ten people overall with three to four working from the office; hours would be weekdays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; the plan calls for three company vehicles, five enclosed trailers and a skid steer to be stored on the rear portion of the lot, with storage screened by a six-foot fence. The plan states no large commercial vehicles or equipment would be stored on the property.
Staff identified setbacks and landscape requirements on the conceptual site plan, noting required transitional buffer areas of 20 feet where the site abuts multifamily residential and 30 feet where it abuts single-family residential, and a 16-foot landscape strip along Warwick Boulevard. Garcia recommended that the commission forward the permit to council with 15 conditions, including submission of a Class 1 site plan and a landscape plan, review of building elevations and exterior materials by the director of planning, prohibition on outside storage beyond the screened area, and a restriction that no self-propelled or towed vehicle with a gross vehicle weight greater than 10,000 pounds be stored on the property.
Attorney Raymond Suttle Jr., representing the contract purchaser WM Smith Contracting, told the commission the former dog training and kennel structure on the parcel has been demolished and that the applicant accepts the conditions. Mark Smith, the principal for the contracting company, attended with Suttle.
Chairperson Michael Taylor moved to recommend approval; the motion was seconded and passed on a roll call vote in which Commissioners Bowdidge, Woodard, Williams, Shook, Stachel, Dias and Taylor voted yes. The commission recorded the motion as unanimous, 7-0. The matter is scheduled for City Council on Feb. 11, 2025, where the ordinance and the 15 staff conditions would be part of any approval.
The commission and staff answered questions about the sites irregular driveways and what part of the frontage is city right-of-way, and staff clarified that the apparent drive through the right-of-way is an informal pedestrian path that will be repaved and configured as part of the site plan review. Staff also confirmed that adjacent property owners were mailed notice and that one contact was received when notices were first sent.
If City Council approves the permit, the conditions staff recommended (and that would be part of the ordinance) require final site plan and landscape approvals, review of elevations, limits on signage (one freestanding sign), and restrictions on outside storage and heavy vehicles, among other standard conditions cited in the staff report.
