Supervisors approve changes for commercial development at Magnolia Green

Magnolia Green has secured a zoning amendment to loosen restrictions on commercial development. The community spans hundreds of acres in western Chesterfield. (BizSense file)

Long-standing limits on the build-out of commercial tracts at Magnolia Green have been lifted.

The Chesterfield Board of Supervisors last week OK’d a request to amend the massive development’s 1991 zoning, loosening restrictions on the construction of retail and office buildings on Magnolia Green’s commercial tracts that front Hull Street Road.

Now, Magnolia Green is no longer limited to 20,000 square feet of retail and office space across the entire site, as was the case under the original zoning.

Also removed were further limits on retail development, which had been restricted to no more than 12,000 square feet. The 1991 approval also restricted individual retail and office building sizes to no more than 5,000 square feet. Those limits also were lifted.

The restrictions were removed from 88 acres designated in Magnolia Green’s conceptual plan as Community Center (CC), areas anticipated for shopping centers, mixed-use development and office buildings.

The parcels subject to the zoning amendment have remained largely undeveloped, save for a daycare facility, since Magnolia Green secured its original zoning approval. The project is being developed by New York-based firm Starfield Cos.

Given the hurdles those requirements posed to commercial construction at Magnolia Green, Supervisor Kevin Carroll said the amendment was key to allow the project to reach its full potential and offer retail development close to residents.

“Eventually, you’ll see companies that want to come out there and provide these amenities, and if they don’t change this, you can never get them. This is a way to ensure that in the future you’ll have an opportunity for some nice restaurants, a nice town center,” he said ahead of the board’s unanimous vote to approve the amendment.

The 88 acres where developer Starfield secured approval for loosened restrictions on commercial development front Hull Street Road and are shown in red.

The square-footage caps remain in effect for areas of Magnolia Green categorized as Activity Center (AC). The AC tracts are intended for retail and personal service businesses that would cater to nearby residents.

The amendment also tweaked phasing requirements and added a requirement to install sidewalks, landscaping and street lights along Magnolia Market Avenue and the east-west collector road. The amendment didn’t change the planned residential density of the project.

While hundreds of single-family homes, apartments, townhomes and a golf course have been built at Magnolia Green over the years, the project has had difficulties attracting commercial investment. Starfield Senior Vice President Tom Page previously said that’s because it sits on the western end of development on Hull Street Road and so far has had too few rooftops for commercial users to want to join the project.

However, more recently there’s been an increase in interest from commercial users in Magnolia Green,  Page recently told BizSense, adding that the push to loosen the square-footage restrictions better positions the project to take advantage of that interest. He previously said he didn’t know why the original limitations on commercial development were put in place.

The company iStar took over Magnolia Green in 2009, and Page came onto the project the following year. Starfield, created by the 2023 merger of iStar and Safehold, plans to sell off Magnolia Green’s commercial areas to developers who would build the anticipated retail and office construction.

Magnolia Green is a 1,900-acre development in the Moseley area of Chesterfield. Since 1991, when it was originally zoned, more than 2,000 dwellings have been built on the property.

The developer’s successful bid to loosen the restrictions comes as Magnolia Green continues to fill out on the residential side.

A total of 2,100 single-family homes and apartments had been built at Magnolia Green as of late January, and more are on the way. The 1,900-acre Magnolia Green development site is zoned for 3,500 residential units, and the project’s residential piece is expected to be completed in three to four years.

Originally, Magnolia Green was zoned as a 3,900-acre project with a maximum of nearly 4,900 dwellings. About 1,400 of those residential units were to be located to the north of the existing development, but they were effectively eliminated from the project when the Chesterfield Economic Development Authority in 2020 acquired a 2,000-acre site, referred to as the Upper Magnolia Green tract, where they had been planned.

The Upper Magnolia Green site was rezoned in 2022 primarily for a technology park. More recently, county officials have been positioning a portion of the site for a data center project.

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