Smithfield’s Planning Commission voted 5-1 on Nov. 12 to postpone its decision on the 130-home “Cottages at Battery” development Suffolk-based Quality Homes is proposing for 14 acres behind Royal Farms convenience store at Battery Park Road and South Church Street.

Commissioner Charles Bryan cast the lone dissenting vote on Commissioner GiGi Smith’s motion for the delay after his motion to advance Quality Homes’ application for six special use permits to Smithfield’s Town Council with a recommendation for denial failed to garner a second. Commissioner Bill Davidson seconded Smith’s motion.

“I don’t want to keep contemplating this; we need to take action,” Bryan said.

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 homes under condominium-style ownership.

Nathan Diehl, representing Quality Homes, said residents would own the homes’ interiors but the surrounding land would be owned and maintained by a homeowners association.

The existing multifamily zoning, which according to Community Development and Planning Director Tammie Clary would not change as a result of the special use permits requested, allows up to 12 units per acre but stipulates any attached housing comply with the lower 8-unit-per-acre density required in the town’s attached residential zoning ordinance. Several of the homes would have abutting garages.

The commissioners questioned to what extent the homeowners association would remain responsible for the exterior if a homeowner were to include an optional backyard fence or to save on cost, decline the optional detached garage shown on conceptual illustrations, thereby leaving the parking area open to the outdoors. Town Attorney Bill Riddick advised that Quality Homes would need to proffer in writing what areas would be maintained by the HOA versus privately owned.

“We don’t even have an ability to get to final design with this product yet so I think it’s a little bit premature to be trying to nail down the final maintenance and whatnot,” Diehl said.

One of the requested special use permits would allow fewer than the minimum three attached units required under the town’s definition of attached residential. Another would allow a density of 10 units per developable acre, up from eight, for the homes with adjoining garages.

The other four would exempt Quality Homes from needing one recreational vehicle parking space per four dwelling units, allow homes to be 17 feet apart, down from the minimum 24 feet otherwise required, waive yard requirements to allow the abutting garages and waive parking and loading requirements to allow three spaces per unit and 11 visitor spaces.

A seventh special use permit application that had requested 34-foot corner lots, down from the required 35 feet, has already “been accommodated on the general development plan,” Clary said.

Bryan called the classification of the abutting garages as attached residential as “a reach” and characterized as “word salad” the slate of special use permits intended to make the Cottages fit with the town’s zoning definitions.

A same-day public hearing drew 10 speakers, all in opposition, seven of whom identified themselves as residents of the age-restricted Villas of Smithfield development adjacent to the proposed Cottages site.

Though there would be fewer units than the 150 Mamoudis had proposed, Villas Homeowners Association President Danny Belott contended the new plan to build 130 single-family homes so close together on the 14 acres “would result in a very dense housing development unlike any other subdivision in the town of Smithfield.”

Belott said he’d collected 108 signatures on a petition opposed to granting the requested special use permits and Planning Commission waiver.

Kurt Brugeman, another Villas resident, raised concerns about the cumulative traffic impact to Battery Park Road from the Cottages and the 812-home Mallory Pointe development the Town Council approved in 2021 and will see its first houses next year.

An Aug, 15 traffic study included with Quality Homes’ application estimates the 130 units would add just over 450 daily vehicular trips to Battery Park Road. Mallory Pointe, according to a Virginia Department of Transportation report submitted with its 2021 rezoning application, was at that time projected to add 7,018 daily trips. The combined 7,468-vehicle impact from the Cottages and Mallory Pointe would be a nearly 75% increase from the 10,000 estimated vehicles the road saw daily in 2022, according to VDOT data.

Diehl contended the updated traffic impact analysis for the Cottages showed “no negative impacts.”

Planning Commissioner Thomas Pope said infrastructure impacts had already been accounted for during the approval of the previous 150-home project.

Despite this, “I just don’t think this is a better development than what has been proposed as a multifamily residential area,” Pope said.

Diehl, making his pitch for approval, said with Smithfield Foods being headquartered in town and the new Riverside Smithfield Hospital set to open in early 2026, “there are already a lot of professionals in this area and there will be more professionals coming that will need a place to live.” By approving the Cottages, Smithfield can “retain some of that tax base in the town,” Diehl said.

Bryan and Pope weren’t the only commissioners to express reservations about Quality Homes’ proposal. Davidson said there were “too many unanswered questions,” including the identity of the builder, which Quality Homes has yet to select for the project.

Planning Commission Chairwoman Julia Hillegass asked if a lower density than the 130 homes proposed would leave the project economically viable for the developer. Diehl said a “substantial reduction” in density “makes the project financially unfeasible.”

Despite Smithfield having preemptively advertised the matter advancing to the Town Council on Dec. 3, Riddick advised the commissioners to defer voting until Quality Homes revised its proffer statements and fix an incorrect legal reference. The delay will push the Town Council hearing on the Cottages to at least Jan. 7.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Nov. 15 at 10:26 a.m. with additional details from the meeting.