Parkview Village would have 268 single-family lots north of U.S. 40 and east of County Road 700W in Cumberland.
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CUMBERLAND — Officials are considering a new neighborhood of nearly 270 homes on the town’s east edge off its main thoroughfare.
The community would be just behind a site where concepts are forming for a mixed-use town center development.
Plans for Parkview Village call for 268 single-family lots on slightly over 100 acres north of U.S. 40 and east of County Road 700W.
Connection Heights LLC, a partnership between Braun Property Development LLC and Renewing Management LLC, is proposing the project. Renewing Management also owns Eastway Court Apartments just to the east of the site.
D.R. Horton would be the builder for Parkview Village, where it would develop three different kinds of homes. The plan proposes 33 estate lots 70 feet wide and 130 feet deep anticipated to sell in the low $400,000 range. There’d be 171 lots 60 feet long and 130 feet deep for D.R. Horton’s Legacy product selling in the high $300,000 range. Then there’d be 64 cottages with rear-load garages and alleys behind the homes selling in the low $300,000 range.
Connection Heights would develop the neighborhood in three phases. If it moves forward, the partnership hopes to start the first phase in May and have lots ready to sell by the end of the year.
Parkview Village would also have a central park and green space amenity stretching through the development that would function for stormwater purposes as well.
Cumberland officials and Connection Heights are eyeing about 22 acres just to the south of Parkview Village, at the northeast corner of U.S. 40 and County Road 700W, for a mixed-use development to be called Cumberland Station. Leaders want that to be the site of a town center — a central gathering space for the community linked to shopping, recreation and residential opportunities.
Connection Heights anticipates being back before town officials to discuss the specifics of that development later this spring or summer.
While Cumberland Station is still conceptual, the developer has committed to most of the standards for the town’s National Road overlay district, which aim to capture the town’s historical characteristics.
If approved, Parkview Village would be a planned unit development, which would establish specific standards the developer and town officials agree to. The Cumberland Plan Commission voted unanimously to send the planned unit development to the town council with a favorable recommendation.
Although the vote was unanimous, it was also reluctant for some. Anna Pea, who serves on the plan commission and town council, said she thinks it’s a good project but wishes that the National Road overlay standards would extend from the mixed-use area into the residential part more.
“I would just like to see the architecture of the houses be a little more historic,” Pea said.
Particularly with D.R. Horton’s Legacy series, she continued.
“Those to me just don’t go with the rest of the homes,” Pea said.
Matt Dunn, division president for D.R. Horton, said the company offers a variety of exterior appearances and elements for homes to give a neighborhood character.
“It’s hard to do justice sometimes with those renderings, but going through our other developments, these home types all live together in other communities and seem to fit well together,” Dunn said. “It gives us an opportunity to hit multiple price points and different demographics of buyers so we can really create a connected community rather than just having one type of buyer within a development.”
The town council is slated to consider the planned unit development at its next meeting, which is at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2 at Town Hall, 11501 E. Washington St.
Residents living near the proposed development site expressed concerns at the plan commission meeting, including about drainage and increased traffic on County Road 700W.
David Gilman, Connection Heights’ zoning consultant, said the development legally cannot make drainage in the area worse.
“Part of the requirements is if water’s coming onto this 124 acres either from the north or from across the street (County Road 700W), we have to accept that and build that into our design,” Gilman said. “We can’t block you off and not allow that to continue to come onto us.”
David Counsell of Land Stewards Design Group, the lead civil engineer on the project, said County Road 700W would be expanded eastward onto the development’s property and get a dual turn lane down its center.
