Mixed-use development planned for Hanover

Hanover may get first 'new urbanism' community

A local developer hopes to create a community in Hanover County similar to Henrico County's West Broad Village -- but on a smaller scale.

The developer wants to build a 64-acre project off state Route 54, just east of Interstate 95, called Providence Creek that would include retail, commercial and residential spaces in one community.

"It's harkening back to the way neighborhoods used to be where you had a grocery store right down the street, you had a cleaners right down the street -- places you could walk to," said developer Craig Kilpatrick of Felts and Kilpatrick Construction Company Inc.

New urbanism-style developments exist in Henrico and Chesterfield County, where plans are in the works to build a community around the St. Francis Medical Center complex. Henrico's West Broad Village, along West Broad Street in Short Pump, is a 115-acre project that was designed to include 420,000 square feet of retail space and 890 attached single-family homes.

Providence Creek is the first Hanover land to be zoned mixed-use, a designation used by the county only since 2007.

Hanover's deputy planning director, David Maloney, said mixed-use projects are a good idea: They help reduce traffic on public roads because people's needs can be met within their community. "You can accomplish quite a bit in a small area," he said.

But despite support of some county leaders, the project has been slow in making its way through the approval process.

It has been deferred by the Planning Commission three times, most recently last week as the developers and county officials try to ease concerns from nearby residents about how traffic will be affected.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to discuss the issue for a fourth time March 19. If approved, it moves on to the Board of Supervisors for final approval.

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Kilpatrick and his partner, Nolan Felts, said their plans call for 232 residential and commercial lots and 100,000 square feet of retail and commercial space.

Providence Creek would include 80 single-family homes, 90 town houses and 58 loft-style apartments or condominiums, including some atop retail shops and businesses.

Single-family homes would range from $300,000 to $500,000, Kilpatrick said, while town houses could be in the mid-$200s.

The community also calls for pedestrian-friendly sidewalks, nature walks and park space.

Kilpatrick estimates the cost for Providence Creek at $28 million.

The plans include permanently closing Providence Church Road, which intersects with Route 54. It would be closed from where it meets Route 54, to the end of the development, about one-fourth of a mile.

Kilpatrick said the road closure would be required by the county.

Maloney said Providence Church Road is an old county road that never was designed to any standards. This project would be a way to improve the intersection with Route 54, he said.

The plan now is for Providence Baptist Church members, who have concerns about the plans, to take Woodside Lane to the main road through Providence Creek. That main road would reconnect with Providence Church Road closer to the church.

"It's a design that the county recommended the applicants consider," Maloney said.

Church members, as well as residents living on the part of Providence Church Road that would be closed, would continue to have unobstructed access to that road until another connector road to Route 54 could be built. However, Maloney said he doesn't know when that might be.

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Church member Jean Folly lives on Providence Church Road. She spoke publicly at last week's Planning Commission meeting and cited concerns about the proposed road closure.

The county and Kilpatrick also are working with landowner Billie Smith, whose 3-acre parcel sits at the intersection where Route 54 meets both Providence Church Road and Woodside Lane. The Providence Creek community would spread out behind her property.

Her land is zoned agricultural, and she said she's not opposed to rezoning it for future business use as long as she can get access to her property from Woodside Lane and Providence Church Road.

"I don't mind what they're doing," Smith said about the proposed development. "But I don't like the idea of them telling me how I'm going to get to [my property]."

Contact Holly Prestidge at (804) 649-6945 or hprestidge@timesdispatch.com.