A three-story self-storage facility will soon break ground next to Rising Star Baptist Church on Battery Park Road.
Tammie Clary, the town’s community development and planning director, told Smithfield’s Planning Commission on Dec. 10 that town staff had administratively approved a final site plan, which she said calls for a three-story building with 30,645 square feet and two one-story buildings at 6,500 square feet.
When Commissioner Charles Bryan asked why the proposal was not previously presented to the Planning Commission, Clary cited a July 1 change in state law that took site plan approvals out of the hands of local planning commissions.
“If they meet all criteria, setbacks and everything, we don’t see it anymore,” Commissioner Thomas Pope said. “That was the Virginia General Assembly change.”
State law changed July 1 to assign final site plan review authority sole to a “designated agent,” which is Clary per the Town Council’s October vote to update its zoning ordinance to comply with the new law. The law now explicitly states that a designated agent “does not include the local planning commission.”
According to Isle of Wight County land transfer records, Battery Park LLC purchased 8.5 acres in March for $600,000 from Battery Park Storage. County records list an address of 560 Lynnhaven Parkway, Virginia Beach, for the buyer, the same as the address for the corporate headquarters for The Breeden Co., a developer of residential and commercial real estate. Breeden is also the leasing agent for Eagle Harbor shopping center and its outparcels in Carrollton.
Clary said her contact for the project developer has been Vierra Construction, which, according to its website, is a Virginia Beach-based general contractor specializing in design and construction of climate-controlled self-storage facilities and other commercial real estate.
Trees have already been cleared at the project site.
“Right-of-way construction should start soon,” she told the Times.
No rezoning was required as the land is already zoned I-1, the town’s designation for light industrial. The town’s zoning ordinance lists light warehousing as a permitted use.
The site next to Rising Star Baptist Church will join several climate-controlled and non-climate-controlled self-storage facilities to build or expand in Isle of Wight County over the past five years.
The location is just under a mile from the climate-controlled Smithfield Self Storage, operated by Trey Gwaltney and also on Battery Park Road. It’s also roughly 6 miles from a third climate-controlled self-storage facility in The Crossings at Bartlett Station development in Carrollton. In 2021, Redd’s Climate-Controlled Self Storage opened 15 miles south of Smithfield in the town of Windsor.
As of 2023, there was an additional 175,000 square feet of existing and approved but unbuilt non-climate-controlled self-storage facilities in Carrollton, according to a report to Isle of Wight’s Planning Commission that year. Isle of Wight County Community Development Director Amy Ring said the county does not have an updated total for 2025, however, a rezoning application for Bridger’s Quarter, a development that would add six commercial parcels along Benns Church Boulevard adjacent to The Oaks Veterinary Clinic, also includes a proposed self-storage facility, Ring said. The rezoning application was submitted last December and is expected to reach the county’s Planning Commission in early 2026.
