Granville council hears revised Glenshire empty-nester plan

Granville Village Council will consider a pre-annexation agreement as a first step toward the possible creation of an “empty-nester” residential development called Glenshire.

Gerry Bird gave a presentation regarding his proposal at the Aug. 15 Granville council meeting.

He said Glenshire would consist of 30 residential lots on 19 acres, to be located on Newark-Granville Road, across from the Colony residential development, to which Bird likened his envisioned project.

He noted council had previously denied a pre-annexation request for a slightly different version of Glenshire last year, but that had happened against a backdrop of growing traffic concerns and studies underway to gauge the potential traffic impact of several developments in the area, including Glenshire, that were potentially looming.

"We were told the timing was terrible," Bird said of traffic worries at the time.

Since then, the traffic study was completed and he said the potential impact on traffic volume through the Newark-Granville Road corridor that might result from Glenshire was judged to be minimal.

He said he had also sat through several meetings regarding the recently approved – and somewhat controversial – Eaton Woods development, and though never asked by officials to reduce density, had actually elected on his own to reduce the number of cluster homes proposed for Glenshire from 37 to 30, resulting in less density than the Colony, Eaton Woods or Village Green developments.

“That reduces traffic, density and increases bufferage for neighbors,” Bird said.

He said when developed, the property would have a taxable value of between $13-14 million and would have extremely low or no impact on Granville schools because of the homes’ designs are intended to appeal to older residents, including largely single-floor floorplans and wider corridors for accessibility, allowing for owners to age in place longer.

Bird said that by choosing to limit the number of lots, “We’re trying to show we’re listening, and being very responsive to you and to the community.”

Mayor Melissa Hartfield praised Bird for the reduction from 37 to 30 lots and said, “I appreciate your tone much more than some others who’ve been here.”

After hearing that Bird had made several previous outreach efforts to neighbors during last year’s proposal effort, the mayor and council asked that a similar outreach be made again, which Bird said he would do.

The majority of attending members (two council representatives were absent from the Aug. 15 meeting) expressed openness to pursuing a pre-annexation path for Glenshire.

Law Director Mike King stressed that process is a merely step toward a possible outcome, but in no way committed council to an eventual annexation and there would be several further steps and opportunities ahead for public comment or input.