A developer of affordable housing will make its case to Smithfield’s Planning Commission on Jan. 14 for an entrance corridor overlay review of its renovation plans for Jersey Park Apartments.

Salisbury, Maryland-based Green Street Housing announced in 2024 that it expects to close on the purchase of the 80-unit West Main Street housing complex, and the adjacent 60-unit Woods Edge apartment complex, this year.

Chase Powell, director of development for Green Street, told Smithfield’s Town Council in August that his company expects to assume ownership and management of both complexes by March and begin renovations at Jersey Park that same month. Green Street expects the renovations to take 12 to 15 months.

Smithfield’s zoning ordinance defines the entrance corridor overlay district as all land within 500 feet of each side of six corridors, including West Main Street, and mandates developers use materials “appropriate to town character.” Unlike rezoning and special use permit requests, where the Planning Commission issues a recommendation and the matter is decided by the Town Council, entrance corridor overlay reviews are solely the jurisdiction of the Planning Commission.

A report to the Planning Commission included in its Jan. 14 agenda states the applicant, Miner Feinstein Architects, is proposing to use two-tone, five-inch Dutchlap vinyl siding with white accessories, alternating between granite and steel blue paint colors on Jersey Park’s 10 two-story apartment buildings and the Jersey Park office.

The brown shingle roofing would be replaced with slate-colored architectural shingles, new white vinyl sliding windows will be installed and new doors will be painted black. The parking lot would be repaved and new landscaping would be planted.

Inside, the apartments will receive new flooring, new heating and air-conditioning and new finishes and appliances. Tenants will be relocated to vacant units while theirs are being renovated.

Once the Jersey Park renovations are complete, Green Street plans to begin the same renovations at Woods Edge.

Jersey Park was built in 1978 with financing through a housing assistant payment contract, also known as Section 8, which provides housing choice vouchers to qualified low-income tenants through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It began accepting its first tenants in 1981.

Woods Edge was built in 1986 with subsidies through an affordable housing program overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to build housing in rural areas, originally intended for farm laborers.

Jersey Park has one- and two-bedroom units while Woods Edge includes two- and three-bedroom units.