Nov. 12 marks the first official opportunity for the public to weigh in on a 130-home development proposed for 14 acres behind the Royal Farms convenience store at Battery Park Road and South Church Street.

It’s the date Smithfield’s Planning Commission has advertised for the required public hearing on “Cottages at Battery” developer Brian Mullins’ request for seven special use permits and a Planning Commission waiver. The meeting is to begin at 6:30 p.m. in The Smithfield Center.

Once the hearing is held, the commissioners will be able to vote on their recommendation to Smithfield’s Town Council. The commissioners have the option of voting the same day as the hearing or postponing their decision.

The seven special use permits all require a final vote by the Town Council. The Planning Commission, however, has the final say on the requested waiver.

Mullins, of Suffolk-based Quality Homes, acquired the land in April from Virginia Beach-based developer John Mamoudis, who in 2020 received Town Council approval for multifamily residential zoning to construct 15 two-story multifamily buildings, each containing 10 units.

Quality Homes’ application calls for 130 detached roughly 1,000- to 1,300-square-foot one- and two-story houses under condominium-style ownership, where residents would own the homes’ interiors but the surrounding land and the exterior of each house would be owned and maintained by a homeowners association.

The requested special use permits and waiver would be an amendment to the existing zoning, rather than a full rezoning. The zoning would remain multifamily residential.

The first special use permit would exempt Mullins from a zoning requirement of one recreational vehicle parking space per four dwelling units.  

The second would allow homes to be 17 feet apart, down from the minimum 24 feet otherwise required.

The third would allow fewer than the minimum three attached units required under the town’s definition of attached residential zoning.  

A month prior to the land changing hands, the Town Council approved Mullins’ requested rewording of the town’s zoning ordinance that would allow him to request special use permits for elements of his proposal that don’t conform to its attached residential zoning requirements, but Quality Homes isn’t seeking attached residential zoning.  

The existing multifamily zoning allows up to 12 units per acre, but it stipulates that any attached housing comply with the lower 8-unit-per-acre density required in the town’s attached residential zoning ordinance. Some of the homes would have abutting garages.

The fifth special use permit would allow 34-foot corner lots, down from the 35 feet required.  

The sixth would allow a density of 10 units per developable acre, up from the specified eight-unit-per-acre maximum for attached residences. 

The seventh would waive parking requirements to allow three parking spaces per unit and a total of 11 visitor spaces.  

The Planning Commission non-contiguous space waiver specifies the development would have six acres of common space and 2.9 acres of active recreation space.  

Nathan Diehl, representing Quality Homes at the commission’s September meeting, said the proposed houses would carry a base price of $300,000 to $350,000, up from the $190,000 minimum price Mamoudis had proposed in 2020.