York supervisors OK senior living center on Victory

The York County Board of Supervisors approved rezoning and a special use permit for three parcels near the intersection of Victory Boulevard and Route 17 to allow construction of a senior living facility.

The vote at Tuesday’s meeting was 4-1 in favor, with board Chairwoman Sheila Noll voting against rezoning. Noll said she supported the project’s purpose, design and economic impact, but could not support its location, given the area’s traffic.

The 9.2 acres of land was rezoned from high density residential to general business. The developer, Georgia-based Landbridge Acquisitions, is planning 170 age-restricted living units, including independent living, assisted living and memory care units. The facility is to be called the Phoenix at Yorktown.

More than half of the housing units will be independent living apartments. Principal planner Tim Cross called the facility a continued care retirement community, meaning residents could move from one housing type to another depending on their needs. The facility will not have convalescent care.

The property — spread over addresses 119, 120 and 121 Byrd Lane — is directly behind Coastal Community Church, and the area is currently wooded. The county has not had success in finding a developer for the property over the years, never reaching the application process until the Phoenix development, according to Cross.

Supervisor Tom Shepperd said the Phoenix development was probably the best use of the space they could expect.

Noll said she asked the developer if it could move the access off of Victory Boulevard, but the developer would not make that change. She felt the development would create more traffic headaches for the people who use that corridor, saying that crashes were already happening too often in the area.

Cross said senior living facilities are not major traffic generators and that the Phoenix was not expected to create more problems. The facility is expected to create 582 trips a day on average and not have incoming or outgoing traffic during rush hours.

Plans include turn lanes into the facility from both sides of Victory Boulevard and adding a second left turn lane from westbound Victory Boulevard onto Route 17.

Tim Trant, an attorney representing the developer, said that having two turn lanes would reduce the amount of time the turn lights would be green, allowing more time for through traffic. The turn lane would not lead to the Phoenix facility in any way; the developer is proffering to add it to benefit traffic at the intersection, Trant said.

Reyes can be reached by phone at 757-247-4692. Follow him on Twitter @jdauzreyes.