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Commissioners review large Ridge Road mixed-use proposal; staff to return with commercial sequencing recommendations
Summary
A proposed 74-acre mixed-use development at Ridge Road and Friendship Road drew detailed discussion about stacked townhome units, apartment counts and whether commercial components should be required before residential occupancy; planning staff will bring suggested conditions back to the board.
Planning and Zoning Director Beth Garman presented a rezoning and site plan for a mixed-use project on Ridge Road at Friendship Road (item 17) during the Jan. 6 work session, asking commissioners to consider rezoning 74.38 acres for a project that would include commercial space, apartments, townhomes and detached single-family homes.
Garman said the Planning Commission recommended approval with 26 conditions and that the project's future land use and the county's Unified Development Code alignment support a mixed-use zoning district for the site. Commissioners and staff discussed specific components: renderings and a site plan showing 274 multifamily apartments, roughly 94 stacked townhome units (described at the meeting as stacked units where different units share a building footprint), smaller single-family lots labeled at about 8,000 square feet each, and a hotel and restaurant buildings designated near the Ridge/Friendship intersection.
Commissioners asked for more detailed information on the stacked-unit housing type and how many units would use that configuration. Commissioner Powell and others asked staff to provide examples and photos of comparable stacked units from other developments. Several commissioners expressed concern that commercial space can be omitted or delayed in mixed-use projects and asked whether the board could condition development so that some commercial component is completed or under construction before large numbers of residential units receive occupancy.
Garman said the county has no code requirement that commercial be built before residential but that the board could make such sequencing a condition; she agreed to return with suggested thresholds and options, including formulas tying residential occupancy to commercial construction. The Planning staff also noted the applicant had provided an updated site plan since the Planning Commission review.
No vote was taken in the work session; staff will return with recommended conditions and documentation for the board's decision at the formal voting meeting.
