DAILY PRESS, July 6, 2015: Increased demand and an improving suburban housing market is bringing more rooftops to upper York County.

Whittaker’s Mill development in upper York County.

Developers with Yorktown-based Mid-Atlantic Commercial recently purchased 77.1 acres of land at Penniman Road and Route 199 near Water Country USA, where officials are planning a 220-unit residential development called Whittaker’s Mill.

“This is one of if not the prettiest pieces of property that I have ever worked on,” said Lamont Myers, Mid-Atlantic Commercial director of development. “I think this is going to be the most livable new community that’s been built in York County.”

Officials closed on the property for $3.135 million on June 18, said Clay Culbreath, first vice president and broker with Cushman & Wakefield-Thalhimer’s Virginia Beach division, which handled the sale on behalf of its original owner, Cincinnati-based U.S. Bank National Association Corp.

Reston-based Ryan Homes has been tapped to build homes in Whittaker’s Mill, Myers said.

Developers plan to launch construction — about $16 million in infrastructure and lot development work — this fall, with home sales slated for the second quarter of 2016.

When it’s complete, which developers say could take four to five years, Whittaker’s Mill could add 640 residents to the York Terrace area of the county and an about $8 million in new annual tax revenue for York County.

Surrounded by towering pines and mature oaks, Whittaker’s Mill is supposed to include 106 townhomes, 95 traditional single-family lots and 19 larger estate lots, Myers said.

The plans call for a 3,000-square-foot clubhouse with a pool, community gardens, bike trails and open green space, and a large-scale passive park to the east of the property that will serve as a buffer between the residences and a recently approved indoor gun range and mulch recycling center.

“We didn’t oppose the firing range because it’s indoors,” Myers said. “The mulching operation…is a fairly marginal operation. Even the owners said they don’t anticipate too much activity there.”

The York County Board of Supervisors recently granted Williamsburg-based the Digges Co., which is affiliated with the Bush Companies, a special-use permit to begin construction on two projects next door to Whittaker’s Mill. Called Independence Indoor Firing Range, the facility would be built on 1.8 acres of an 11.9-acre parcel at 1558 Penniman Road, according to county planning documents.

An 11-acre mulch recycling facility, called Penniman Recycling, was also approved.

Whittaker’s Mill is also bounded by a 65-acre battlefield to the west that was recently donated to the Civil War Trust by the Anheuser-Busch Foundation.

Keeping in line with many new homes in the area, Myers said a two- or three-story town home would cost from the high-$200,000 to low-$300,000.

A single-family home on a traditional lot would range from $300,000 to $400,000, Myers said. Homes on estate lots, which are typically larger than a traditional single-family lot, are slated to range from $400,000 to $500,000.

With access to York County schools, Williamsburg, Newport News and a range of entertainment and retail, Myers said the development should appeal to a cross-section of homebuyers given the growing demand for homes in the area.

“We’re in a good market,” Myers said. “Interest rates are still low; there’s really a scarcity of good product out there. There’s not a lot of developable land left, and a lot of what’s left is clear up in the Lightfoot area, and that adds more to the commute.”

Overall, homes sales are growing in upper York County.

According to a recent Williamsburg Area Association of Realtors report, real estate agents sold 100 homes in April in the greater Williamsburg area, which includes the future Whittaker’s Mill.

The greater Williamsburg area, which includes ZIP codes 23185, 23188 and 23168 in Williamsburg and York and James City counties, has a seven-month inventory of homes, according to the report.

Year-to-date, the association reports more than 336 homes have been sold in the area.

Sherry Roth-Kletzly, president of the association and a Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Towne Realty, said pricing is adjusting to the market — helping to draw a variety of buyers, both first and second time homebuyers, to the area.

“What the numbers seem to be reflecting is a more realistic approach by sellers,” Roth-Kletzly said in a statement. “We have reached a healthy and steady housing market over the past few months, and expect the trend to continue.”

That’s good news for Whittaker’s Mill developers, who are growing more bullish on the area’s housing market.

“This is the next stop,” Myers said of the next wave of York County residential development. “We like it because of its proximity to the interstate, the shopping, the hospital, all the employment centers…. This is going to be a great neighborhood.”