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Business Insider
Bill Freehling is a business writer for The Free Lance-Star and Fredericksburg.com. This blog is on Fredericksburg-area business. Send an e-mail to Bill Freehling.
Telegraph Hill coming back to city Planning Commission
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The entrance to Telegraph Hill would be across from Lee Drive.
A planned residential subdivision off Lafayette Boulevard in Fredericksburg that generated controversy last year will be back before the city’s Planning Commission next month.
A public hearing on the proposed 79-home Telegraph Hill neighborhood is scheduled for the Planning Commission’s July 11 meeting. The commission will consider approving plans regarding the layout of homes and entrance off Lafayette. Click here for the site plan.
The location of the neighborhood’s main entrance generated controversy when Telegraph Hill was before the Planning Commission in late 2010 and early 2011. The entrance into the 29-acre site is almost directly across Lafayette from the southern entrance to Lee Drive and the Civil War park.
That generated concern from the National Park Service. Others worried about the implications for increased traffic on a stretch of Lafayette that has seen some bad accidents over the years. The Planning Commission ultimately approved the preliminary subdivision plan in April 2011 after turning down a previous plan that called for 88 single-family homes.
The final plans are consistent with the ones that received preliminary approval and comply with all city ordinances, said Larry Welford, president of Spotsylvania County-based Welford Engineering. His firm has handled the project’s design and shepherded the application through the government approval process.
Fredericksburg City Council will make the final decision on Telegraph Hill, which is near the former home of a Roper Brothers Lumber Co. site. Welford hopes the project will be before Council in August or September depending on when the Planning Commission votes.
The partnership that owns the property — which includes Andy Garrett, David Horstick and Hunter Greenlaw Jr. – is marketing the site to homebuilders. Welford said government approval would help remove concerns that a potential purchaser could have.
The developers of Telegraph Hill might later seek a rezoning that would allow commercial uses on the portion of their land at the corner of the Blue and Gray Parkway. A traffic signal would then probably be added at the main entrance into Telegraph Hill across from Lee Drive.
