HAMPTON — The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to loosen restrictions on building height, density, and parking in the Coliseum Central area of the city.
City staff say developers have been eyeing properties in the 1,900-acre Coliseum Central Overlay District for commercial and multifamily residential development. Still, several proposals had exceeded various zoning ordinance restrictions on height and density.
City Manager Mary Bunting told the Daily Press the amendments addressed some of the concerns the city heard from the development community.
“When developers and property owners in our Coliseum Central Business District bring ideas to us that they say will make a difference, we feel a responsibility to hear that and try to create conducive business conditions,” she said. “They think it will make a big difference, and we didn’t think it would be harmful. So we felt like we should advance it.”
Bunting and other city staff declined to name specific developers interested in the properties. City spokesperson Robin McCormick said the city does not discuss pending development deals, citing the potential to hurt negotiations, drive up prices and limit discussions.
One of the ordinance amendments the council passed significantly increases the maximum permitted height for new development to 150 feet. Previously, the maximum height for buildings in the Coliseum Central district ranged from 35 to 68 feet, depending on the base zoning. The amendment also eliminates maximum density requirements, lot coverage maximum requirements and minimum dwelling area requirements for multifamily and townhome units. In no case, however, shall the total number of dwelling units under 500 square feet exceed 50% of the entire development.
To take advantage of the relaxed standards, developers’ property designs must meet various criteria based on the proposal’s alignment with the city’s overarching goals for the district as outlined in Hampton’s zoning ordinance. Furthermore, for multifamily dwellings, developers would still need to obtain a use permit — which is approved by City Council. In a use permit process, the council may impose certain conditions to ensure that a development doesn’t negatively affect the area.
The second ordinance adopted Wednesday removes parking minimums in the Coliseum Central district — a move designed to allow developers to determine how much parking is needed to serve their use. However, developers still need to provide handicap-accessible spaces as well as a minimum of 10 bicycle spaces plus one additional bicycle space for every 50 automobile parking spaces provided. The parking plan must also meet the city’s green area requirements. The proposal does not eliminate parking maximums.
Bunting said developers believe these amendments will be helpful because “there’s a big movement” toward more dense living, with people wanting more multifamily housing and younger people not necessarily believing that they’re going to settle down in one place for a very long time and therefore being more inclined to look at rentals. She said with the city not having a lot of land available for development, the best way to accomplish more housing is to “go up.” She said the proposals align with what a lot of Coliseum Central business and property owners have been advocating for.
“Time will tell whether it really spurs a lot of development or not, but they seem to think it will, and it makes intuitive sense,” she said.
Vice Mayor Jimmy Gray declined to name companies or project specifics, but said he knew of developers eyeing Coliseum Central for an apartment complex and a hotel. He said some developers cited concerns about limitations of height restrictions and the ability to meet the minimum parking requirements under the previous rules.
“When they’re limited on how high they can go that of course limits how many units they can put in into the development,” Gray said. “And so we recognize there’s a need for us to allow taller buildings to increase the height to get more density in these developments.”
Gray said the city wants to attract a diverse mix of people to the city — from empty nesters wanting to downsize to young families or singles. He said the hope is to create new developments to meet that demand and to grow the city’s tax base.
“We’ve got to make some changes such as these in order to make those kinds of developments attractive or those kinds of sites attractive to developers so that we can we can have more development in our city,” Gray said.
Josh Janney, joshua.janney@virginiamedia.com.
