Landshark LLC’s proposed Gander North Residential project would offer a range of 80 to 237 units. Image: Collins Engineering
One of the last undeveloped stretches of U.S. 29 in Albemarle’s urban ring could soon be the home of new apartment buildings.
Landshark LLC, a subsidiary of the United Land Corporation, wants to change the zoning of a nearly eight-acre strip of land at the entrance of the Carrsbrook neighborhood from commercial to residential.
The Gander North Residential proposal offers a range of 80 to 237 units.
“The Project aligns with the surrounding residential uses while maintaining a higher density than single-family residential that is better suited for frontage along the Rte. 29 corridor, providing much needed housing within Albemarle County’s development area,” reads the narrative produced by Collins Engineering on behalf of the developers.
The United Land Corporation has developed much of the U.S. 29 corridor in Albemarle County including parts of the Hollymead Town Center and the 660-unit Briarwood community across from Rivanna Station. The company also developed the adjacent North Town Center which opened with a Gander Mountain franchise which later closed.
In December 2023, the company sold 462 acres to the county for $58 million, which will eventually be the home of a new AstraZeneca factory.
The property is within what Albemarle Community Development refers to as Neighborhood 2. A cyberattack earlier this year disrupted the county’s public dashboard that tracks the number of units under development. The report from April stated there were 519 residential units approved but not yet built. Another 936 potential units were under review.
These units will front onto U.S. 29 and will be subject to review by the Architectural Review Board. There will be a 10-foot-wide shared use path and an eight-foot-wide landscaping area between the buildings and the roadway. The Virginia Department of Transportation has a funded $5 million project based in this area that would extend up to Seminole Lane to the north.
The development will follow Albemarle’s affordability requirements by setting aside 20 percent of the units for households with incomes at 60 percent of the area median income.
One potential is that the Comprehensive Plan designates portions of the land as commercial mixed use and other sections for light industrial or office use. The narrative argues that residential is a better fit for the county.
“This multifamily development would provide the higher density housing that the corridor is currently lacking,” the narrative continues.
Such development is recommended in the Places29 Master Plan, a document first adopted in 2011 but not amended since 2015.
The buildings would be four stories high along U.S. 29 and then smaller moving east toward the Carrsbrook neighborhood.
