Henrico Planning Commission endorses GreenCity proposal

The most significant planned development in Henrico County’s history is one step closer to reality, following the Henrico Planning Commission’s unanimous endorsement Thursday night.

The commission voted to follow the advice of county planners and recommend rezoning plans and a provisional use permit for the proposed $2.3-billion GreenCity community at I-95 and Parham Road, sending the cases to the Henrico Board of Supervisors, which is expected to consider them Oct. 12.

During a buildout that one of the community’s developers, Michael Hallmark, said could last 13 years or more, GreenCity ultimately will include:
• a mixture of more than 2,100 residential units (which will be built roughly between 2022 and 2032);
• more than 1.9 million square feet of office space;
• nearly 180,000 square feet of retail space;
• a 17,000-seat indoor arena that could be home to a minor league basketball or hockey team, or both;
• and an extensive network of parks, plazas and open spaces, and a plethora of sustainable features that prompted its developers to label it an “eco-district” upon its introduction last December.

“There are certainly a lot of pros to this, and we have to weight the pros and cons,” Fairfield District commissioner Chris Archer said, in making the motion to endorse the project.

The community would fit the county’s vision for the site, which it designated for urban mixed-use zoning in its 2026 Comprehensive Plan. County planners recommended approval of the project in a report to the commission and supervisors.

Thursday’s vote by planning commissioners recommended that Henrico supervisors approve urban mixed-use district zoning for the 204.2-acre site, which sits north of East Parham Road, east of Scott Road near I-95 and south of I-295. The land carries a combination of agricultural, residential, industrial and planned industrial district designations currently.

The proposal won’t go before supervisors without a required traffic impact analysis, but developers Green City Partners, LLC expect to have the completed study in time for next month’s hearing. It’s being reviewed currently by the county’s public works department and by the Virginia Department of Transportation. Among other issues, it will address necessary improvements for the site along East Parham Road, which will include traffic lights and new turn lanes at a handful of spots.

Only three citizens spoke at Thursday’s public hearing – one in favor of the plan, one who urged that the plan not go forward without full review of the traffic impact analysis; and another who suggested that construction hours be limited to 8 a.m. to sunset or thereabouts.

[maxgallery id="55334"]Project will include mostly urban-style residential units
A key part of the strategy presented by developers Green City Partners, LLC, led by Hallmark and Susan Eastridge, revolves around the green-friendly design of the community, which would include solar power generation and a handful of other environmentally friendly components, such as composting and waste-reduction plans.

The developers first plan to renovate the 305,000-square foot former BEST Products headquarters building on the site (by the end of 2023) and remake it into a unique self-sufficient building. By the middle of next year, they anticipate beginning work on the arena, which could be completed by late 2025.

Five of the development’s planned 25 residential sections would be completed between late 2023 and the end of 2025, according to a timeline provided by the developers. One hotel would open at the same time the arena does, while the second would be ready by mid-2028, according to the plan.

The site will be divided into distinctive regions, with office space and the arena mostly congregated just behind the BEST building, just off East Parham Road; two hotels planned along the site’s frontage on East Parham; retail spaces situated at street level along corridors in the middle of the site; and residential units planned above some of those retail spaces and in the site’s northernmost region.

Attorney Andy Condlin, who represents the developers, told commissioners Thursday that the anticipated residential market in the community is unlikely to warrant many single-family homes because of its urban design. As a result, developers are planning 1,125 multi-family apartment units; 411 townhomes; 220 villas; 358 condos; 150 senior-restricted rental units; and just 37 single-family homes.

“The idea, quite frankly, is that the market is probably not that expansive for single family,” Condlin said.

The arena would be expected to host no more than five large-scale events annually, Condlin said, presumably in addition to other concerts and sporting events that wouldn't be expected to attract sell-out crowds.

Planners estimated that GreenCity will produce 831 elementary school students, 477 middle school students and 626 high school students – all of whom could be accommodated by the construction of a new River Mill-area elementary school (which is expected to be built within the next three or four years) and targeted or comprehensive redistricting.

Planners also wrote that they expect some of that impact to be mitigated as students choose to attend the Henrico Virtual Academy; 143 students from the three high schools in the area (Glen Allen, Hermitage an Henrico) are attending HVA this year, they wrote.

The community will be served by a combination of GRTC service along Parham Road and the extended Magellan Parkway (which runs currently runs though a portion of the site and ultimately will be extended to cross over I-95 and provide another access point to GreenCity from the west); and an internal shuttle system.

In their report, county planners wrote that they anticipate the potential demand for non-residential uses in the northern part of the site as the property begins to fill in and suggested that developers remain flexible to those potential needs and to the possibility of providing space for connector roads to other adjacent sites.