Sunday, November 19, 2006
Richmond Times Dispatch

The people of Varina spent last week getting used to the idea of a small town sprouting up on treasured farmland east of the city in rural Henrico County. Some neighbors call it a small city.

Although it's not what residents prefer, they - like Henrico officials - want Tree Hill to set a high standard for future development along state Route 5 and Osborne Turnpike.

"I hate to see the farm go," said Merri Howell, who has lived next to the property since 1982 and ridden horses across it.

Tomorrow, the public will see a proposed plan for Tree Hill Farm, a historic 500-acre property that slopes in gentle tiers from state Route 5 to the James River. The farm will soon be sold to a team of Virginia developers who want to build an urban village.

After a week of meetings and workshops with the developers' Miami-based planning team, Varina residents are expecting to see a proposed community of 2,500 to 3,500 dwellings, with stores, restaurants, a school, a church and enough space to someday house a corporate headquarters. The plan would need county approval, including more opportunities for public comment.

It could likely be two to three years before houses start going up on the farm.  Howell, like other residents, said she knows the farm is too valuable to remain undeveloped.

The Tree Hill developers have raised residents' hopes with the ideas they shared during the unusual weeklong planning workshop, called a charrette.  "The concept they have is better than what we've seen in other developments," Howell said.

The farm is under contract to Richmond-based buyers Gray Land and Development Co. LLC and developer Steven A. Middleton. They expect to complete the purchase of Tree Hill in early December but won't disclose the sale price.

They also won't say how much it has cost to stage the charrette, which has been conducted by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., a nationally known planning and architecture firm that will present a proposed design tomorrow night.

The firm's team has met with officials and residents and come up with a proposal for an urban mixed-use community to bring to the county this winter. The developers say they know expectations are high for how they handle a property that has been part of county history for more than 200 years.

"It's a remarkable property, very close to the city, in an area that has really been overlooked in the past," said John Dempsey, president of SouthCoast Properties LLC, a Richmond developer working for Gray Land.

The development's planners say their work is about what to conserve as well as where to build. They are including the manor house, built in 1775, in their plans.  "The historic house is an important civic space on the site," said project director Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. "It will play an important role."

Most of the housing may be developed on Tree Hill's broad second tier of farm fields. The planners want to save a tiled dairy barn for community use, but the land around it is likely to be proposed for the highest density residential development. Land near the flood plain would be reserved for possibly a school and single-family homes on larger tracts.

The developers plan to use about 130 acres of flood plain along the river, as well as land buffering the creeks and wetlands on the farm for athletic fields and community gardens, as well as for canoe and kayak launches and trails.

Tree Hill would become the third high-density, mixed-use community being developed along the river in eastern Henrico, along with Rockett's Landing and Wilton on the James.

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