Development
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Home Sales By Price Range In The City Of Harrisonburg |
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 The most active price range for home sales in the City of Harrisonburg is... the $200K to $300K price range. But this might be more than just what buyers are buying... 1. The housing stock (what homes exist in the City) also impacts what is sold, and thus, what buyers can buy. 2. The houses that homeowners in the City are willing to sell also impacts what is old, and thus, what buyers can buy. An interesting unknown is whether home buyers would buy $500K+ or $600K+ or $700K+ homes in the City of Harrisonburg if more such homes existed. Quarry Heights may help to answer that question as they plan to build $500K+ detached homes and $600K+ attached villas. | |
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How Much Should (The Population Of) Rockingham County Grow? |
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 I think this has been a popular topic of conversation for all 21 of the years that I have been working in real estate here in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. Is the population of Rockingham County growing too quickly? The chart above (Population Growth) is pulled from the Rockingham County Comprehensive Plan. Over the past 30 years (1990 - 2020) we have seen an average of a 1.26% growth in the County population per year. This has resulted in an increase of 26,275 people. Over the next 30 years (2020 - 2050) we are estimated to see an average of a 0.74% growth in the County population per year. This will result in an increase of 20,724 people. So, per the Rockingham County Comprehensive Plan... it seems that we will be growing more slowly over the next 30 years (by percentage and by number) as compared to the growth we have seen over the past 30 years. Is this 0.74% per year the right amount of growth? I imagine there are some who would say it's just right... some who would say it's way too much... and some who might say it is not enough. | |
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953 New Townhomes, Apartments, Detached Homes Proposed On 161 Acres At Quarry Heights |
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 download a larger version of the concept plan here A sizable new housing development is being proposed in the City of Harrisonburg, to include up to 953 new housing units on 161 acres just west of downtown Harrisonburg at the site of Frazier Quarry, which would be transformed into a 30 acre lake. The new development would be located on the north side of West Market Street generally across from Thomas Harrison Middle School and would border Waterman Drive.  click here for a larger version of the area map Here are some basics on the types of housing that are proposed for this new housing development:
Of the 653 townhouses and detached homes, approximately 48 housing units are estimated to be detached homes. This proposed new housing development is similar in size to Preston Lake, which is just east of Harrisonburg, located in Rockingham County. The conceptual layout shown above is not proffered, so that could change. The developer has outlined an extensive list of proffers, including:
Of note, the developer who is seeking the rezoning would not build the housing. They might build the apartments - but they would be partnering with a builder or builders in the future to build the townhouses and detached homes. A representative of the developer indicated that the following price ranges would be likely for the housing types that are planned for the development:
The Villas described above would be high end attached homes on the highest ridge of the development with eastern and/or western views. You can find links to additional documents related to this proposed development on the City website here. City Staff recommends approval of the rezoning and special use permits required for this development. A public hearing for Quarry Heights will take place at the Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday, October 9 at 6:00 PM. | |
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Rockingham County May Start Limiting The Pace At Which New Home Communities Can Be Built |
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 The Rockingham County Planning Commission will meet this evening to discuss a potential change to the Rockingham County Zoning Ordinance to limit how quickly new home developments can be built. In summary -- the Planning Commission is considering a change that would only allow developments to obtain (30) building permits within any (12) month period. Thus, if a new 240 home development were proposed... this new limit would only allow 30 such new homes to be built a year, stretching out the development over eight years in this example. This change is being proposed for the R-1, R-2 and R-3 zoning classifications in Rockingham County. This change, if approved, would seem likely to have a few significant impacts on the local community... 1. Fewer homes would be built. 2. Assuming that demand continues to grow, home prices would likely rise due to constraints on how quickly new developments can be built. 3. Fewer new housing developments would be proposed given the limit to the pace at which such a new home community could be built. The proposed changes to the Zoning Ordinance to note that a developer can request a special use permit to exceed this limit of (30) building permits a year. If you are interested in hearing more about this proposal, the Planning Commission meets this evening at 6:30 PM at the Rockingham County Administration Center at 20 East Gay Street, Harrisonburg, VA. | |
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Farmland Behind Houses Does Not Always Remain Farmland |
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 "I love this house because it backs up to farmland." "The views from this house are great because there aren't any other houses behind it." "This home offers such great privacy without any neighbors behind it - just wide open farmland." All of these are reasonable sentiments, but remember... Farmland Behind Houses Does Not Always Remain Farmland If you own (or are buying) a house in a residential area that currently backs up to farmland... 1. That farmland might remain farmland for as long as you own the house. 2. That farmland might become housing some day. Most farmland is zoned for agricultural use -- so if the farmland behind your house is zoned as such, a potential builder or developer will have to apply to have the land rezoned. Thus, you'll likely get some sort of notice that someone intends to turn that farmland into housing. Buying a home that backs up to farmland is a great idea - you'll likely love having only a farm as a back neighbor - but remember that the farmland might not always remain as farmland. | |
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A Reasonable Next Question Is How Much More New Housing Should Harrisonburg Approve |
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 These two stats create an interesting follow up question... 1. Over the past 3.5 years, the City of Harrisonburg has approved 2,866 new dwelling units. 2. Over the past 3.5 years only 25 of those dwellings have been built. The reasonable follow up question is... How Much More New Housing Should Harrisonburg Approve? In conversations, locally, I hear two very different opinions about the answer to that question... 1. The City should keep approving more housing developments so that hopefully, eventually, some of the housing will be built, as there is a shortage of housing in the City. 2. The City has approved so much housing over the past three (+) years that the City definitely shouldn't approve any additional housing. If or when some or all of this approved housing is built the City will have a population increase that will likely result in the need for more schools (and other infrastructure) and thus higher taxes. It will be interesting to see City planning staff's perspective on this, as well as that of the Planning Commission and City Council as future rezoning requests are proposed in the City to allow for additional residential developments. | |
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While Lots Of New Housing Has Been Approved In The City, Very Little Has Been Built |
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 Over the past 3.5-ish years, since January 2021... in the City of Harrisonburg... 2,886 new dwelling units have been approved 25 have been built Wow! Indeed, City Council has approved a LOT of new housing over the past few years, including...
And yet, over that same timeframe, the only housing to be completed includes...
Of note... these "25 units completed" does not include the following housing units that were completed over the past 3.5 years that were already approved 3.5 years ago, consisting of...
So, housing has certainly been built in the City over the past 3.5 years (a total of 209 dwellings) but that pales in comparison to the many (many!) units that have been approved and have not been built. Of those that have not been built... some new housing units are being actively planned, while the planning has stalled out on some. You can view a list of the approved developments in a memorandum to City Council here and a presentation about the housing pipeline here. | |
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242 New Homes On 92 Acres Planned At Granite Farm Just West Of Harrisonburg |
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 The property shown above is located in Rockingham County but the owner and developer would like water and sewer service to be provided by the City of Harrisonburg. Way back in 2004, the City approved providing water and sewer service for 285 homes. Then, back in 2006, the property was rezoned to allow for the development. The rezoning is still valid... but the applicant has to ask the City again for public utility access. Last week the Planning Commission approved the request and next up City Council will consider it. It appears that this new home development, Granite Farm, would be developed by D.R. Horton. You can find the details of the public utility access request here. Here's an aerial from Google Maps to show the context for this planned residential development, though the shape of the development parcel is a bit skewed in this perspective...  Here's a top down view with a broader context from the Rockingham County GIS...  | |
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Where Do All Of The People Work Who Will Live In All The New Housing Being Built? |
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 This is a good question and one that I have had multiple people native to the area and new to the area ask me over the past few years... Where Do All Of The People Work Who Will Live In All The New Housing Being Built? If you drive around the Harrisonburg and Rockingham County area, you'll see quite a bit of new housing at various stages of construction. My non-scientific, non data-driven answer is as follows... 1. Many mid-sized to large employers in this area keep on growing. 2. We continue to see smaller companies starting up or being created in the Harrisonburg area. ...and perhaps (maybe) most significantly... 3. The pandemic at least partially severed the connection between "where I work" and "where I live" as it relates to the Harrisonburg area. After a year (+) of allowing some (to many) employees to work from home, some (to many) employers have realized that remote work has its benefits. Employees can be more productive, spend less time commuting and have a higher quality of life. And sometimes, that higher quality of life for a remote worker means working for a company in a larger metro area, and living in... Harrisonburg! This is not to say that there are suddenly thousands of people living in Harrisonburg and working for companies outside of the area... but that reality is much more in play now than it ever has been in the past. Who wouldn't want to live in Harrisonburg if one's out of town employer allowed for it!? :-) | |
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Four Story Building Of Storage Units Proposed On Stone Spring Road |
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 A developer is proposing to build a four story building of storage units in the location shown below -- on Stone Spring Road, not too far from its intersection with Port Republic Road, next to Dupont Community Credit Union.  Find out more about the proposal here. | |
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16 Apartments (Plus An Industrial Building) Proposed On Baxter Drive |
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 A light industrial building and 16 apartments have been proposed on Baxter Court as shown above. Here's the potential site plan...  Learn more about the proposal here. | |
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16 Townhouses Planned For Corner Of Deyerle Avenue And Lucy Drive |
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 City Council recently approved the rezoning (from R3 to R8) of a one acre parcel at the corner of Deyerle Avenue and Lucy Drive to allow for the development of 16 townhouses. Here's the potential site plan...  Learn (a bit) more via the application packet here. | |
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Three Story Apartment Building With 15 to 20 Apartments Planned On West Elizabeth Street |
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 The owners of a 0.24 acre lot on West Elizabeth Street, between North High Street and North Liberty Street, plan to build a three story apartment building with 15 to 20 apartments. The owners have received approval from the City for the rezoning required for this development to move forward. City staff, planning commission, city council and the developers all seem excited at the prospect of bringing more living opportunities to the downtown area. Interestingly...
I'm just realizing that the site will potentially be transformed from only being used by cars (a parking lot) to a use that does not allow for cars (apartment building with no on-site parking). :-) | |
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Harrisonburg Explores Options For Developing Housing On City Owned Land |
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 The City of Harrisonburg has been working for the past year on exploring how two City-owned properties might be developed to provide future affordable housing solutions. The first site is an 8.59 acre parcel located on Neff Avenue that would likely allow for the development of either (72) townhomes or up to (200) apartments. Here is an illustration of a potential townhome layout...  The second site is an 8.13 acre parcel on Central Avenue that would likely allow for the development of (36) single family homes, (51) townhomes or up to (133) apartments. Here is an illustration of a potential single family home layout...  Click here to download the full memorandum from Land Planning and Design Associates, Inc. who prepared a detailed technical memorandum outlining opportunities, constraints, possible development solutions and affordable housing solutions. The memorandum also include multiple other renderings of potential development plans for these sites. | |
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Rockingham County Launches Development Tracker |
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 Exciting news from Kayla Yankey, a planner in the Rockingham County Department of Community Development... Rockingham County has launched a new resource to track development activity occurring throughout the County. This Development Tracker application tracks rezoning and special use permit requests under review and approved, site plans under review and approved, building permits under review, projects under construction, and recently completed building projects. The application is user-friendly and easy to navigate, providing the public with a clear vision of the County’s development pipeline. Information will be updated weekly. For development questions beyond the scope of the Development Tracker, please contact the Rockingham County Department of Community Development at 540-564-3030. This is a great resource to understand developments that have been proposed in Rockingham County. Check it out here. | |
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58 Townhomes, 34 Apartments Likely Coming Soon On Mt Clinton Pike Near Intersection With North Main Street |
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 The 5.23 acre parcel shown above was rezoned back in December 2022 to allow for this new residential development and now the Planning Commission and City Council are reviewing and potentially approving the site plan to allow the development to move forward. The 5.23 acre property will include:
Here's the layout, zoomed in a bit...  Download the full Planning Commission packet (from their meeting last week) here. | |
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Evergreene Homes Proposed New Residential Development On Port Republic Road, Weston Park, To Potentially Include 74 Townhomes, 28 Duplexes And 26 Detached Homes |
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 The developer of Preston Lake, Evergreene Homes, is proposing a rezoning in the City of Harrisonburg to allow for the development of a new neighborhood across Port Republic Road from Westmoreland Drive...  This development would include 128 homes currently shown as:
The City of Harrisonburg Planning Commission will hold a public hearing about this rezoning request on February 14, 2024. City staff recommends that this rezoning request be denied, for two reasons... [1] The Comprehensive Plan shows this area as Low Density Mixed Residential which is intended to include large and small lot single family detached dwellings, sometimes with duplexes - but not with townhouses. The majority of the dwelling units in the proposal for Weston Park are townhouses. [2] Only 6.3% of the approved dwelling units between January 2021 and February 2024 have been single family homes and 1.6% have been duplexes. During that timeframe, 23.2% of the approved dwelling units have been for townhomes (589 of them) and 68.9% of the approved dwelling units have been for multi-family properties (1,747 of them). As the staff report summarizes... "Given the lower number of single-family detached and duplex dwellings that have been given use-approval compared to townhomes, and that the Comprehensive Plan recommends single-family detached and duplexes for the subject property, at this time, staff does not believe the subject property needs to be rezoned to allow for more townhome development." | |
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Starbucks, Chipotle, Hotels, Storage And More Planned For Urban Development Area |
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 Above is a recently updated map of the Urban Development Area. Some updates to be aware of... [1] Site work has begun for Wentworth Apartments. [2] An extended stay hotel is being built on Stone Port Blvd. [3] A new Chipotle might be built on Stone Spring Road next to the new 7-11 gas station that is almost complete, which is next to Taco Bell. [4] A new Starbucks may be built on Stone Spring Road. [5] A Hyatt Hotel may be built behind Walmart. [6] CubeSmart Storage was recently completed and Stone Spring Storage is being constructed. Download the full sized map here. | |
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Phase One Plat For Bluestone Town Center Proposed To Include 146 Apartments, 106 Townhomes, 38 Manufactured Homes on 28.31 Acres |
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 The developers of Bluestone Town Center are proposing a plat for the first phase of the development to include the following property types on 28.31 acres...
A few other interesting details about this upcoming first phase of the development include...
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Scott Rogers
Funkhouser Real
Estate Group
540-578-0102
scott@funkhousergroup.com
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