Smithfield’s Planning Commission, during its 6 p.m. meeting on Jan. 14, will hold a public hearing on developer Vincent Carollo’s request for a text amendment to the town’s zoning ordinance. If approved, it would allow him to move forward with his plans for just over an acre of land at Washington, James and Clay streets he purchased from Joseph Luter IV last year.

Carollo, who bought eight lots in September that had been created from Luter’s 2021 purchase and subdivision of the formerly town-owned land, has applied for a text amendment to the downtown neighborhood residential zoning district that would allow Carollo to seek a special use permit waiving the 5-unit-per-acre maximum density to allow for four attached single-family homes under condominium-style ownership and three duplex buildings, each with two units, for a total of 10 homes. Carollo proposes calling the development “James Parc at Smithfield.”

The text amendment, if recommended by the Planning Commission and given final approval by Smithfield’s Town Council, would allow Carollo to separately apply for the density waiver via special use permit.

Luter had proposed four single-family houses and one less duplex for a total of eight homes.

At the time of Luter’s rezoning approval, the Town Council had attached as a condition a preservation easement intended to protect two trees planted along James Street in the 1940s from being cut down. John Hopke, an architect retained by Carollo, said in December that Luter’s plan had posed a “practical problem” as to who would own and be responsible for maintaining the trees — one of the factors that had led Carollo to desire a revised conceptual plan.

Under Carollo’s plan, the two trees would be located in a common area owned by a homeowners association. Another key difference between Carollo’s and Luter’s plans is the elimination of most of the individual driveways Luter had proposed in favor of a shared driveway that would connect the extended Clay Street with Washington.