Work on an apartment complex that drew the ire of many of the surrounding property owners has finally begun work, Bridgeport Community Development Director Randy Spellman recently confirmed. Spellman told members of the Bridgeport Development Authority that the Country Meadow Estates Project along State Route 131 has begun.

 

“They are beginning the foundation and the earth work,” Spellman said of the Country Meadow Estates project. “They seem to be moving along at a good pace.”

 

The project first came on to the public radar in the summer of 2013. At that time, the developers led by Trevor Flanagan and Stonebridge, LLC, requested – and received – a variance to build a four-story apartment unit at the site in the area zoned Business-Professional Office (BPO). The variance was needed due to the fact that the zoning only allowed for three-story units. The city’s Board of Zoning Appeals approved that variance unanimously and then sent the matter to the Bridgeport Planning Commission.

 

With the project being a permitted use, the matter seemed cut and dry. Spellman said he couldn’t recall in his lengthy tenure with the city a permitted use project being shot down by the Planning Commission. However, residents in that area let the Planning Commission know they weren’t pleased with the project and some felt they had a way to stop it.

 

In August of 2013, the matter appeared in front of the Commission. One of the residents claimed – based on an annexation exhibit map – that they owned a parcel of property the developer was building on. Spellman, however, pointed out that the exhibit map was moot and that tax maps showed Flanagan was building in the proper area. The Commission approved the project contingent upon Flanagan getting a survey done showing that the questioned parcel matched what the tax map showed. The survey showed exactly that and allowed for the process, which did not require City Council approval, to move ahead on Sept. 13, 2013.

 

Although the project was expected to begin shortly after final approval, nothing has happened for more than a year. That, however, changed in the past several weeks as earth is moving and construction is in full swing.

 

Once completed, it will be a 24-unit, four story apartment complex on Country Meadow Lane. Country Meadow Lane is situated just past Skateworld on State Route 131. The small development is accessed by a pair of somewhat steep, one-lane roadways. Another issue residents were concerned about was that the apartments would create too much traffic. That issue was also put to rest. The West Virginia Division of Highways’ District Four office in Bridgeport and City Engineer Tom Brown’s office both determined the apartments would not create sufficient volumes of traffic to warrant a traffic impact study.

 

The apartments will be between 1,200 and 1,400 square feet per unit. There was no timeline for completion mentioned.