Redesigned Grove Ave. infill, Carytown townhomes, Broad St. apartments get city council OKs

Following multiple redesigns since it was first proposed over a year ago, a once-controversial plan to add new homes beside a centuries-old house in Richmond’s West End is moving forward – one of three high-profile infill projects that were OK’d by city council Monday.

Center Creek Homes was awarded a special-use permit for its latest design for Lafayette Green, an infill at 3923 Grove Ave. that’s now planned for 10 new homes – six fewer than the developer’s previous plan that was designed around two rows of townhomes behind the existing house.

The new plan proposes six townhomes in duplexes beside and behind the 1700s-era house, and four new detached homes fronting Sterling Street along the 0.8-acre property’s southern end. The new design does not involve any new curb cuts off Sterling or Grove, with access restricted to the existing house’s driveway off Grove. A landscaped pedestrian path between Sterling and Grove also is planned.

The approval completes months of back-and-forth negotiations between Center Creek and area neighbors who balked at earlier designs. Since the project was first proposed in mid-2024, it had received significant pushback from area residents via petitions and opposition letters, including from the Westhampton Citizens Association last summer.

The association has since submitted a letter of support for the new plan. The Henry Place Neighborhood Association also submitted a letter of no opposition.

In his latest newsletter, First District Councilmember Andrew Breton said the new plan has the surrounding neighborhood’s support. Because the previous, denser proposal was recommended for approval by the planning commission last year, Breton said council was able to vote on the new design without having to send it back to the commission.

Breton said in the newsletter that he was grateful that neighboring residents “brought constructive proposals for alternatives to the initial application.”

“We now have a plan for ten welcome homes that complement the block rather than a contentious project for sixteen that may not,” Breton said. “The latest plan introduces no new curb cuts, and utilizes intentional scaling and roof-line decisions.

“The new homes give an appearance of a more gradual transition from the existing 1-story homes,” he said. “And while I would prefer to welcome 16 new homes, I value a gentle approach that respects the context of the surrounding neighborhood and supports a more positive and incremental development narrative.”

Ahead of Monday’s meeting, Center Creek COO and architect Greg Shron credited Breton for convening a working group with two neighbors who Shron said were “particularly interested in having a thoughtful conversation about the design and what was the best development plan for the site.”

“It took a lot of back and forth and a lot of time and a lot of coming back to the table, literally and figuratively, but I think we got to a good place,” Shron said.

To accommodate the changes and keep the project viable, Shron noted that the units were increased in size and resultingly will have a higher price point than initially planned.

He said the three-story homes will now range from about 1,800 to 2,500 square feet with prices ranging from the low $700,000s to the mid-$900,000s. The previous plan for 16 townhomes involved floorplans ranging from 1,500 to 2,200 square feet, and prices from $600,000 to $800,000.

Shron said the project had involved input from the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust, Sixth District Councilmember Ellen Robertson and city staff on how lower price points could be worked into the homes, and that Center Creek’s initial goal was to introduce a lower price for new homes in that part of town.

With the changes, Shron acknowledged: “There are tradeoffs.”

“In order to get to a place where we had buy-in from the neighborhood on the number of units and the intensity of the development, we did end up with units that are larger and higher-priced on average,” he said. “We’re very glad to be at a point where we’ve reached a, I think, very positive understanding with the neighbors.”

As for introducing lower price points to the area, Shron added, “We’ll keep looking for opportunities to push affordability. It just probably is not going to be on this site.”

Pending building permit reviews, he said construction on the homes could start this spring, with marketing for the units starting around the same time.

Also at Monday’s meeting, a much higher-density development on the edge of the West End was approved.

Council supported a special-use permit for a two-building, 296-apartment development that’s planned for a parking lot at 4400 W. Broad St. Northern Virginia-based developer Middleburg Communities is behind the planned project.

The 6-acre lot, which sits on the Richmond-Henrico County line and is owned by Motleys Asset Disposition Group, has had a number of suitors over the years, including development firms out of Arizona and Florida that had planned similarly-scaled developments.

Middleburg’s development, listed in city planning documents as “Scottwood,” would have a pair of 4-story buildings, one with 132 units and the other with 164. The majority of the land at 4400 W. Broad St. is in Henrico, which according to county documents approved the development last year.

The architect of Scottwood is Poole & Poole Architecture and the engineer is Timmons Group. Jennifer Mullen of Roth Jackson repped the developer in the special-use request.

Council also approved a special-use permit for Carytown Heights, which would add 17 townhomes at 3600 Floyd Ave. near Floyd’s intersection with Thompson Street.

Carytown Heights is from local homebuilder Cornerstone Homes and investment group Doswell Ventures. It would replace a sextet of office and residential buildings that are on the site.

Prior to the pandemic, a local hotelier had been planning a 127-room hotel for the roughly 1-acre plot, but that project never took off and in 2020, Doswell, whose ownership includes some Woodfin HVAC executives, bought the land for $3.5 million.

Carytown Heights is designed by Johannas Design Group and VHB is the project engineer. The developers were represented by Baker Development Resources.

Each of the three SUPs were on council’s consent agenda and passed unanimously.