Residential Development Proposed for Site of Greenbrier Shopping Center
The application for 199 single-family attached dwelling units does not request a rezoning or special use permit.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
Email Adele
A developer has submitted an application to construct a subdivision with 199 dwelling units on the 17.52-acre site of the existing Greenbrier Shopping Center off Plank Road in Fredericksburg City.
The application can be approved administratively by city staff, as the proposed residential density is within what is allowed by right in the Commercial Highway zoning district. The applicants—Kettler and Bowman Consulting—are not requesting a rezoning or special use permit, so the project will not come before the Planning Commission or City Council.
The proposed subdivision, Greenbrier Place, would include 199 single-family attached dwelling units. One hundred and nine of them would be traditional townhouses and 90 would be “two-over-two” townhouses.
According to the general development plan, much of the existing Greenbrier Shopping Center would be demolished. Cook-Out, Metro Diner, and M&T Bank, which are separate commercial sites, are not included in the application and would remain.
The plan shows 4.31 of the 17.52 acres dedicated to formal or passive open space, sightly more than the city’s requirement of 25% of total residential acreage.
New internal roads that would be constructed as part of the project would connect to the existing Plank Road, Altoona Drive, and Apache Terrace.
City residents can ask questions or make comments about the proposed development through close of business on February 23 by emailing the city’s senior development administrator, Marne Sherman, at mesherman@fredericksburgva.gov.
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Thank you to 'Advance' editor/correspondent Adele Uphaus for the article on the "Greenbrier Place' project, which is BYRIGHT and is going in on the former Big Lots/Burlington Coat Factory parking lot on Plank Road.
Another application for development on this parcel came up before. Questions for that applicant were about the 'cohesion' of that project.
Listening to that project description, it sounded like a child playing with building blocks and putting all the long rectangle pieces on their ends, looking like towers but no connections between them, like green space, that Alexandria (which Fredericksburg now wants to mirror) has in their quality mixed-use projects.
I recall too that there was a question if there could be ground-floor retail space, to have more 'blending in' and transition on that parcel of land, which will be an informal gateway/First Impression to eventually approaching downtown Fredericksburg.
What stood out with this first applicant was the number of residents in the Hills of Huntington and Altoona who either showed up at the public comment mic or sent in emails to raise their concerns about the project. They were not happy with this first project.
One HoH resident spoke at the mic to the city pipe that runs near his property. It ends in a sink hole. He described the number of times that he has called the city to repair it. and that all he got was an orange cone near it. Still in place. He questioned how was that first applicant going to contribute to providing the necessary infrastructure to support their project.
Ongoing concern is how this development is going to pay for itself rather than put the burden on current residents?
Through a local group, some residents of HoH and Altoona have been contacted to let them know that another byright project will be near their neighborhood. During the Fall, these Ward 3 neighborhoods were visited several times to note concerns.
Without prompting, residents on Apache Terrace commented that they moved to Altoona because of its seclusion and solitude. They do not want a multi-use project taking down any trees close to their backyards.
This current applicant is abiding by the 40’ setback requirement from lot line to building, as required, but they are putting the alleyway basically right on the property line. So no vegetative buffer.
There is a note on one of the sheets that says either a vegetative buffer or alleyway is allowed, but I can't find it in the code where it says that.
This project is within the current Commercial-Highway/CH zoning. Since the applicant is sticking with the 12 units/acre density, there are no restrictions on percentages of 'commercial' vs 'residential'. Per this application, it is 97% residential and what looks to be just a little more than 3% commercial? So will there be any ground floor retail space component?
Hard to believe that this project can be called in the zoning as COMMERCIAL HIGHWAY and then being all residential, but apparently there's a new code out there that allows this?
and what are the minimum lot sizes on this project to see if the City is following their own standards?
New questions from a few Altoona residents who now know there is a second by-right application for this mixed-use project close to their backyards are: what will be the impact on their homes' water pressure if the city pipe can't support this project? The dishwashers' effectiveness when the water pressure goes low? What is the applicant and the city doing to address this infrastructure issue?
What is the impact of having a connector from Plank Road onto Altoona Drive and Apache Terrace? Will there be cut-throughs of traffic happening in the neighborhood? Lost drivers trying to navigate Altoona's complicated layout of circles to figure out where they're at if they do try a neighborhood cut-through?
How is the applicant going to protect the Apache Terrace residents with a buffer, including the silt fence, whose properties abut this project? Vegetative buffer is required during a build, but residents are still unsure if it applies to bigger projects, like The Publisher area, which was not enforced by the city during their build.
This project certainly isn't going to be a high-quality build like Alexandria's 'Banner Heights' with brick facades instead of 'quality vinyl' (does that even exist) but Will this be just another developer-applicant who sells out the project to a mass-produced company, like Ryan Homes, as happened with the 'Mary's Landing' project on Fall Hill Ave across from the old Mary Washington Hospital?
Thank you to Marne Sherman with Fredericksburg Community Planning and Building, for accepting public comments until 2-23-2026 on Greenbrier Place. Her email is mesherman@fredericksburgva.gov