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Staff previews proposed Harborview rezoning to allow 344 units; commissioners raise school and traffic concerns
Summary
City staff briefed the Suffolk Planning Commission on a proposed rezoning that would extract land from the Harborview Station MUD and rezone it to RU-24 to allow up to 344 units, including 288 multifamily and 56 townhomes.
City staff provided a preliminary briefing to the Suffolk City Planning Commission on a significant rezoning proposal in the Harborview Station mixed-use development that would rezone a portion of the MUD to RU-24 and allow up to 344 residential units.
Staff described the parcel as part of the Harborview Station MUD adjacent to the Bridal Road/Interstate 664 interchange. Under the proposal the site would be removed from the MUD and rezoned to RU-24 to permit 344 units overall: 288 multifamily units and 56 single-family attached (townhome) units. Staff said the applicant proffered that 155 of the multifamily units would be one-bedroom units; because one-bedroom units are exempt from student-generation calculations under the city’s adequate public facilities rules, that affects projected school enrollment impacts. Staff said 189 units would have two or more bedrooms and that the applicant proposed a cash contribution of about $2,900,000 to address school capacity concerns.
Commissioners asked about existing approvals in the MUD and the net change in units; staff said the MUD previously permitted multifamily and proffered assisted-living/independent-living uses (roughly 200 adult independent/assisted-living units were associated with prior approvals) and that, if rezoned, the site would no longer carry that assisted-living designation. Staff noted that two of the three schools serving the area — Northern Shores Elementary and Nansemond River High School — were over capacity; staff said Colonel Fred Cherry also showed capacity pressure when factoring in committed development. Commissioners raised traffic and safety concerns about ingress and egress in the Harborview area near the interchange and asked staff to include transportation analysis in the formal application.
Staff said the application is tentatively scheduled for the Planning Commission public hearing on March 18 and for City Council public hearing on April 16, and that submitted application materials and conceptual layouts are available on the planning website. Staff emphasized review is ongoing and recommended commissioners review the submitted documents before the public hearing.
No formal action was taken at this briefing; staff characterized the item as a “significant land use” notification per policy because the proposal exceeds 100 residential units.
