Milton annexation request under review

A three-member Milton committee is reviewing a request to annex a 26-acre parcel on Route 16 into town limits.

Developers Milton Attainable Housing LLC, owned by Preston Schell and Eric Sugrue, are planning for a mixed-use development at the site, with six pad sites for commercial businesses on Route 16, and 239 housing units including apartments and townhouses. The complex will also include a fitness center, dog park and tot lot. 

Schell said the housing units will be rental-only, intended for young professionals and retirees at an affordable price while offering flexibility as to length of stay.

The parcel is partly in Milton and partly in the county; the Milton portion is zoned C-1 commercial and the county land is AR-1, agricultural-residential. Before they can submit site plans, Schell and Sugrue seek to have the county  land annexed into Milton. They have also requested to rezone the entire parcel to R-3 residential, which allows for multifamily residential uses. 

To facilitate the process, the Special Review Committee was formed by town council to review the details of annexation before bringing a report and recommendation to council. Under town law, the committee of three is mandated to deliver a report to town council by March 31. Council is planning to take up the issue at its Monday, April 6 meeting.

The committee - councilmen Emory West and Michael Cote, and planning and zoning Chairman Richard Trask - has been meeting every Thursday since Jan. 16. For the first two meetings, they discussed procedures, including  a cost/benefit analysis, showing the benefits of annexation, such as additional tax and fee revenues, with the costs, such as increased traffic and road maintenance. 

The committee and several town officials met Jan. 30 with Schell, Sugrue and their architect, Zac Crouch of Davis, Bowen and Friedel. Schell said residential development would consist of two, two-story townhouse buildings and three, three-story apartment buildings. The commercial portion of the project is unknown; Sugrue has said the intention is to have small businesses or a bank at the site but no big box stores or large convenience stores. 

Sugrue and Schell asked the committee if a fast food restaurant would be acceptable. The committee was universally opposed to any fast food within town limits.

“We’re trying to avoid fast food in Milton,” Trask said.

Schell reiterated that the housing planned at the complex would not be workforce housing or Section 8 housing. He said he has found that people of all stripes are interested in rental housing because it allows them to move quickly and not be tied into home ownership. 

“Fifteen to 20 years ago, home ownership was a rite of passage. If you had the financial ability to own a home, you generally did. That’s not the case anymore, particularly with the millennials but with the retirees too. They are renters by desire. Even if, financially, they are very capable of owning a home,” Schell said. 

Schell said he needs to sink a well to provide water for an irrigation system. Town Manager Kristy Rogers, who attended the Jan. 30 meeting, said town policy does not permit private wells.

“That’s going to be a problem,” Schell said. “If we can’t sink a well for irrigation, we’re not going to put irrigation in. We’re not going to pay Tidewater or some other water purveyor their market rate to irrigate. A well is free.”

Without an irrigation system, Schell said, “That will dramatically worsen the aesthetic appearance of our community. We can’t afford to irrigate if we’re hooked up to a metered system.”

He said keeping operating costs low is key to keeping rents low, which is the appeal of the whole project. Schell and town officials agreed to continue discussion in advance of annexation to work out a solution.

While there is no timeline for starting construction - besides annexation and rezoning, the project still must be reviewed by the state’s Preliminary Land Use Service and site-plan approval from planning and zoning and town council - Schell and Sugrue said they want to begin as soon as possible. 

The review committee was set to meet again at 3 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 6, at Milton library, to discuss water and wastewater issues at the property with representatives of Tidewater Utilities. 

Rezoning moves forward

On Feb. 3, Town Council unanimously approved a resolution that would send a request for rezoning the property to the planning and zoning commission for an advisory report.

The planners will have 60 days to bring forward their report; council has tentatively set a May 4 date for discussing the report.