Zoning
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Help Shape The Future Of Rockingham County! |
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 Rockingham County is revising and updating its Comprehensive Plan, which is a document that sets the vision and goals for the next 10 to 20 years! The last review was approved by the Board of Supervisors on September 23, 2015. The Comprehensive Plan addresses topics such as:
The policies defined in the plan will guide the County's future direction and priorities for growth, services, and land use regulation. And... YOU... can have a voice in the updated Comprehensive Plan! Take a few minutes to complete the Public Input Survey by clicking here. Find out more about the Comprehensive Plan update here. | |
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Does Building College Student Housing In Harrisonburg Impact City Schools? |
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 At first glance, the answer to this question seems obvious... If more college student housing is built in Harrisonburg, those college students are very unlikely to have children attending K-12 schools in the City of Harrisonburg. So, there is not a connection between college student housing construction and K-12 student population, right? Well... maybe there actually is an indirect connection... Using some rough, and certainly inaccurate numbers, let's pretend... [1] There are 21,000 students at JMU. [2] Of those, 7,000 students live on campus. [3] Thus, 14,000 students live off campus. And let's pretend that today, there is enough off campus college student housing for... magically... 14,000 students. Clearly, it's not this cut and dry, but I can pretend. Now, what happens when more off campus college student housing is built? What happens when there is enough new housing to fit 500, 1000 or 2000 more college students? First off, yes, JMU is growing and will continue to grow over time... but not that fast!? Now, after this new off campus college housing for 2,000 more students is constructed we will have off campus student housing for 16,000 college students... but only 14,000 college students who need housing! What seems to inevitably happen in Harrisonburg, is that when new off campus student housing is built... some of the existing (usually older) off campus student housing is no longer occupied by college students. And then, yes, the new tenants... who are not college students... may have children... who would attend City schools. So, while it may seem at first glance that building off campus college student housing does not impact the City school population (and thus the City budget to pay for educating more students) it seems that this new off campus college housing actually can indirectly impact City schools. As to the illustration above... A = More New Off Campus College Housing B = More Vacancies in Off Campus College Housing C = Off Campus College Housing Occupied By Non College Students D = More K-12 Students Attending City Schools If A=B and if B=C and if C=D... then, does A=D? A few pretty broad disclaimers... 1. I'm not saying it's a bad idea to build more off campus college housing. 2. I am saying it's a good idea to discuss and understand the primary and secondary impacts of building new off campus college housing... or any other type of housing. 3. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to have non college student rental housing created through increased vacancies at what were previously college student housing complexes. Perhaps that's a good thing... or a normal part of the housing cycle in a college town? As with most of my writing about the dynamics of our local housing market... I'm not trying to convince you that one thing or the other is a good or bad... I'm just trying to get some discussion points out there for you, and others, to consider and decide what you think. :-) | |
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55 (More) Townhomes Proposed On Pear Street |
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 Just a short walk down Pear Street from where 33 townhomes are proposed there is now a new request for a rezoning of 6.77 acres to allow for 55 more townhomes to be built. This proposed development, to be called Zephyr Hill, is intended to consist of both two and three story townhomes, with and without garages. These 55 proposed townhomes would also be adjacent to the Cobblers Valley development currently being built by Ryan Homes. Here's the proposed site plan for these 55 townhomes...  The full County rezoning packet is available here. | |
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33 Townhouses Proposed To Be Built In The City of Harrisonburg, At The Entrance To Cobblers Valley |
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 Ryan Homes is currently building a neighborhood called Cobblers Valley in Rockingham County now 33 townhomes are proposed to be built in the City, at the entrance to Cobblers Valley. The property is already zoned for townhouses but the developer is requesting a subdivision ordinance variance to allow the townhouse lots to be built on a private street instead of a public street. You can download the reference documents from the Planning Commission's summary of the request here. This is the proposed layout of this small section of townhouses in the City...  | |
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48 Apartments, 26 Townhomes and A Mixed Use Building Proposed For Corner of Boyers Road, Port Republic Road |
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 A new proposal has emerged for developing the 5.7 acre parcel of land at the corner of Port Republic Road and Boyers Road. S&B Ventures, based out of Mount Crawford, is proposing a rezoning to allow for 48 apartments, 26 townhomes and a mixed use building. Here is the proposed layout on the land...  download a larger file here Some commentary from the developer provides some context for this potential new development... "The townhomes along Boyers are all oriented to take advantage of topography, with building "fronts" facing Boyers, and with on-site community green spaces and walkways connecting the community. There will be landscaping designed along Port Road with street trees and other landscaping to buffer parking on the site visually from Boyers." "Some community scale commercial uses are retained directly along the busy Port Road frontage to provide future small business/convenience commercial options to serve local surrounding neighborhoods. There is a multi-use path along the entire length of the Boyers Road frontage, which connects to existing sidewalks on Port Road." The Rockingham County Planning Commission will consider this rezoning request at their meeting on September 6, 2022. | |
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Almost 1,700 New Homes (or home sites) Are Being Developed or Built in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County With Another 4,000 Planned or Proposed |
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 LOTS of new housing is currently being developed in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County... though mostly in Rockingham County. Below are most that I am aware of, with approximate unit counts, though you can find it in spreadsheet form, with some links, here. 369 Apartments
647 Townhouses & Duplexes
287 Single Family Detached Homes or Home Sites
This is not to mention the 4,314 homes that are being planned or proposed...
The important, and perhaps unanswerable, big questions are... [1] Is enough housing being built or planned to support a growing population? [2] Is too much housing being built or planned beyond what our growing population needs? [3] Is the right type, size, and price of housing being built? | |
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Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority in Planning Stages of a 1,000 Unit Housing Development Across From Harrisonburg High School |
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 Specific details are still relatively limited, but the Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority is planning a LARGE development on land that stretches from Erickson Avenue to Garbers Church Road. Here are some of the details that have been made public thus far...
More details here. Stay tuned for more details as they are made public. | |
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Where Are All Of These New Proposed Residential Developments Located? |
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 There are approximately 1,700 new homes being built or to be built in active residential developments... ...and approximately 4,400 new homes planned or proposed in residential developments that are not yet actively being developed. Where are they all located? You'll find an interactive map of them here... You'll find additional details about the developments here... Let me know if I missed anything on the list. | |
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Rezoning Requested for 48 Apartments on Chicago Avenue, Behind La Morena |
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 The City of Harrisonburg Planning Commission will consider a rezoning request and special use permit request this week (3/9/2022) to allow for the construction of 48 apartments on 2.32 acres on Chicago Avenue behind La Morena. City staff recommends the approval of the rezoning request and special use permit. Download all the pertinent documents from the City here. In other apartment related news, City Council will review a request for a 156-unit apartment complex called The Edge on East Market Street today. | |
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156 Apartments Proposed at The Edge in Harrisonburg on East Market Street |
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 The developer of The Colonnade (intersection of E Gay St and Mason St) and Preston Lake Apartments (still under construction adjacent to Preston Lake) is requesting a rezoning to allow them to build 156 apartments in the City of Harrisonburg on East Market Street across from Ciro's. This development would tie in the the eastern end of Franklin Street (which is not directly connected to the main portion of Franklin Street that you're likely thinking about) to East Market Street. Portions of the property are currently zoned B-2 (for business) and portions are zoned R-2 (for lower density residential development) but the developer would like all of it to be rezoned R-5 to allow or this high density residential development. They are also then requesting a special use permit to build apartments in buildings with more than 12 apartments per building. They plan to build 156 apartments in eight buildings -- so almost 20 apartments per building. A few details of note from the proposal...
The City of Harrisonburg Planning Commission will consider this proposed rezoning and special use permit on Wednesday, February 9th. City staff recommends approving the request with a few conditions. You can download all of the related documents here. | |
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73% Of Homes Being Planned or Proposed for the City of Harrisonburg Are... Apartments! |
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 There are lots of new residential communities being planned, discussed or proposed in the City of Harrisonburg. As shown above, most will be apartments. Below is a brief overview of planned or proposed residential housing developments in the City of Harrisonburg. Keep in mind that some of these proposals are quite recent and some have been around as possible developments for quite a few years. It is uncertain or when any of these will actually take shape and be developed.
Did I miss anything? What should be added to the list, updated on the list or removed from the list? You can find more details about most of these developments (and about many in Rockingham County) in list form here and map form here. | |
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111 Affordable Housing Apartments Proposed on Lucy Drive |
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 The Woda Cooper Companies, out of Ohio, are requesting the rezoning of a 4.731 acre parcel on Lucy Drive to allow them to build affordable workforce apartments. The apartments would be targeted to households that have incomes between 30% and 70% of the Area Median Income. This apartment complex would not have any market-rate apartments (normal market rent) and would not have any student housing apartments. A few other details from the proposal include:
The buildings would include:
For this development to move forward, the parcel (which is currently zoned R-3) would need to be rezoned to R-5. The parcel in question is situated between B-1 zoned land and townhouses. City staff recommends the approval of this rezoning, and next it will go before the Planning Commission for their review and consideration. Download a full packet of information about this proposal here. Here's another view of the site plan of the proposed development...  | |
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274 Apartments Plus a Parking Garage Proposed For Regal Cinemas Parking Lot |
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 The owner of the 9.5 acre parcel on which Regal Cinemas (and it's enormous parking lot) are situated is requesting a change in the Harrisonburg zoning ordinance, and the approval of a special use permit, to allow them to build two apartment buildings and a parking garage. Rest easy, though, movie fans -- they do not have any intentions of modifying the existing Regal Cinemas structure. The apartment building is intended to be approximately 72.5 feet tall -- with the parking deck being 54 feet tall. Here's the planned site plan...  Click on either of the images above in this article and you can access a larger version of the image. You can see a few additional renderings of the parking garage, etc. by downloading the full Special Use Application Packet from the City. | |
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Updates On Rezoning Proposals For Several Proposed Residential Communities |
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 A few updates today on proposed residential communities in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County...  Harrisonburg's City Council approved the development of a six story apartment complex on Peach Grove Avenue. The prior approval allowed for one level of commercial space which was converted to more apartments in the updated approval. This development is now planned to be a 460 bedroom apartment on 5.44 acres.  The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors tabled a request for a rezoning that would have allowed for 95 townhouses at Massanutten Resort.  The intended developer of a proposed 155 home neighborhood in McGaheysville withdrew their request for a rezoning to allow for the development.  The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning request to allow for an additional apartment building at the Altitude apartment complex. | |
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102 Apartments Proposed On Apple Valley Road |
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Driving down Port Republic Road, from the County towards the City, you'll spot a tall apartment building on the left side of the road where you'd turn to go to Moe's Southwest Grill. This apartment complex -- Altitude Apartments -- opened in 2019 and features 140 apartments and a clubhouse. The current owner of Altitude Apartments is asking the County to rezone 2.7 acres of adjacent land to allow for an additional apartment building with 102 apartments on five levels. This new apartment building is planned to include:
The complex will be marketed towards undergraduate students, graduate students and young professionals. Below you'll see the existing building in yellow and the proposed new building in red...  Finally, here's a rendering of what it will look like if you're standing next to the first building, looking down the road towards the new building...  Find out more about this proposed development in the County's full rezoning packet here. | |
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95 New Townhouses Proposed At Massanutten Resort |
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view a larger image here Great Easter Resort Corporation, the developer at Massanutten Resort, has requested a rezoning of a parcel of land just under 10 acres to allow for 95 townhouses to be built near the intersection of Bloomer Springs Road and Resort Drive. Here's the proposed site layout...  view a larger image here Find out more about this proposal by downloading the full rezoning request packet here. | |
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Further Details Of Cobblers Valley, The Latest Ryan Homes Community In Rockingham County |
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 Ryan Homes is currently building duplexes in McGaheysville (South Peak) and single family homes and townhomes in Grottoes (Shady Creek) and now they will be building more single family homes and townhomes in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. Here's what we know so far... Here's the original (perhaps now out of date) plat of the neighborhood...  The Ryan Homes website indicates that the single family homes will have garages... and yards... and will start in the low $300K's. TBD if that's $305K or $349K. ;-) Ryan Homes (via the current landowner) is asking the City approve a rezoning to allow for up to 40 townhomes to be built on the City's portion of the development. Here's the plat from the City Planning Commission's packet...  view it larger here The full packet of information from the City Planning Commission can be downloaded here. In the County, Ryan Homes (via the current landowner) is asking permission to only limit their construction to 80 homes per year (instead of 40 homes per year) -- and they would not be planning to build townhomes until July 2022. You can see a bit of the site plan from Ryan Homes here...  view it larger here You can download the full packet from the County Planning Commission here. | |
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22 Townhouses Proposed For Suter Street In Harrisonburg |
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 A property owner on Suter Street, in the City of Harrisonburg, is proposing to build 22 townhouses on a 2.03 acre parcel of land zoned R-2. The City of Harrisonburg Planning Commission will review this requested rezoning (R-2 to R-8C) on August 11, 2021. City staff recommends that this rezoning be approved. The owner of the property, Philip Yutzy, purchased the two acre tract of land and wants to develop the property into "an attractive family oriented neighborhood" with primarily duplexes and one triplex. The owner sites a lack of "affordable housing" and they plan to address it by building these townhomes to be priced between $200K and $270K. They anticipate that families earning $40K - $60K would be able to purchase these homes. Read all about this proposal in the City Planning Commission's packet here. | |
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460 Bedroom Student Housing Complex Proposed For Neff Avenue |
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On August 11, 2021 the City of Harrisonburg Planning Commission will consider a request from Forbes Development to amend the proffers for a 5.44 acre parcel on Neff Avenue near its intersection with Port Republic Road. The property is currently zoned R-5C and the developer previously planned to build one, six-story mixed-use building with non-residential and multi-family residential units. The plan was for the building to include 16,000 SF of retail space such as restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores, clothing retailers, convenience stores, etc. When the developer had gone through the process of rezoning the property to R-5C and obtaining special use permits to allow for the construction of the above referenced project, the developer had referenced the building including a mix of (20) one bedroom apartments, (20) two bedroom apartments, (30) three bedroom apartments and (50) four bedroom apartments - which presumably might be student housing, or possibly not... Within a year of the rezoning and special use permits being approved, the developer began the further planning of the project but began to only reference including (100) four bedroom units -- which would clearly be designed to be entirely student housing.  Now, however, the developer does not want to build the project as previously planned as a multi-family development -- with apartments over top of commercial / retail space. The developer is now asking the City for permission to amend the proffers to allow for the project to be a single six-story apartment building without any commercial or retail uses and they want the project to allow for more bedrooms in the apartments. The original proffers would have allowed for 400 bedrooms and the developer is now requesting permission to have 460 bedrooms in total. The developer indicates they are requesting the removal of the commercial/retail space because of changes in the commercial real estate market due to Covid. The developer does not seem to have spoken to their pivot from having 1, 2, 3 and 4 bedroom apartments -- to having almost all (104 of 126) four bedroom apartments. City staff does not recommend that these changes be approved because they do not believe more student housing is needed at this time. Planning Commission will now review this request and will forward their recommendation to City Council who will make the final decision about whether to allow these changes for another 460 bedrooms of student housing on Neff Avenue. Read up on more details of these proposed changes in the City Council packet here. | |
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Scott Rogers
Funkhouser Real
Estate Group
540-578-0102
scott@funkhousergroup.com
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