29 complex wins blessing from county

A long planned 83,990-square-foot retail and office complex along U.S. 29 won final approval Tuesday evening.

The Northtown Center development is expected to feature a Second Bank & Trust branch, a hotel, office space and more.

Pending final permits from Albemarle County, construction will begin soon on the project, located across from Kegler’s bowling alley on the east side of U.S. 29 north of Charlottesville between the Woodbrook and Carrsbrook subdivisions.

The project’s developer, Wendell Wood of the United Land Corp., first proposed the project eight years ago.

“It’s certainly been long enough,” Wood said Tuesday after the Albemarle County Planning Commission voted 6-1 in favor of the Northtown Center.

When the project last came before the Albemarle County Planning Commission in October 2005, the commissioners told Wood to do more to minimize the impact of sediment and stormwater run-off on nearby streams and ponds.

Addressing the commissioners Tuesday, Pat Enright of Dominion Development Resources — speaking on behalf of Wood — said that the project will have rain gardens, biofilters and other measures that will actually reduce the overall amount of sediment and stormwater that is currently leaving the 16-acre site.

“What we’ve tried to do, what we’ve tried to engineer over the last three years, is to actually lessen the load,” Enright said.

Wood said the project goes above and beyond what was required for such a by-right development.

“We went 100 percent above what we needed to do,” he said.

The commissioners’ endorsement of the project Tuesday requires that Wood stick to his promises for stormwater mitigation measures.

Several residents of Carrsbrook spoke at the meeting Tuesday and said that they remain concerned about the development’s potential impact on their neighborhood’s streams and ponds.

“As a resident, we are concerned about water quality and water flow,” Carrsbrook resident Leon Gorman said.

A few others agreed that they want to make sure the complex will not damage the neighborhood’s waterways, which they said were important for recreation, wildlife habitats and property values.

The project has been dramatically scaled back from its initial concept. When plans were first submitted, it was intended to be a 152,000-square-foot development with 700 parking spaces and a gas station. If Wood opts to construct the remainder of the project, he must return to the planning commission.

Enright said that the project will also include a fence that had been requested by neighbors. According to plans, he said, the complex will not be visible from neighboring homes because of the fence and trees.

“We believe that the majority of these folks will never see this development,” he said.

Rodney Thomas, a former planning commissioner and a Carrsbrook resident, said he thinks the project is a good idea. Litter and junk fill the site now, he said, and a new retail and commercial center would be a welcome change.

“I think if something was in there, it’d be a much better eyesight,” he said.