Redoubt Ridge @ Quarterpath Moves Forward with Special Use Permit
Williamsburg approves development of steep slopes and protected areas for 199 detached houses
The Williamsburg City Council voted unanimously at its meeting on July 10 to approve a Special Use Permit for Redoubt Ridge at Quarterpath. The planned community of 199 single-family detached homes will occupy a portion of 114 acres located along Quarterpath Road near Tutters Neck Pond and Riverside Doctors’ Hospital. The permit allows for limited construction on steep slopes and within designated Resource Protection Areas (RPAs). The project’s developers state that the work is necessary to construct essential infrastructure such as roadway connections, stormwater outfalls, and utility grading.
According to the application, the project will disturb approximately 1.01 acres of steep slopes across 11 separate encroachment areas. The plan also includes 0.54 acres of encroachment into Resource Protection Areas (RPAs) and buffer zones adjacent to water bodies that are subject to additional development restrictions. City staff concurred with the applicant’s assertion that the project satisfied all of the city’s criteria for granting a Special Use Permit in environmentally sensitive areas and would not impact any wetlands, stream channels, or other critical aquatic habitats.
Planning staffs’ presentation to the City Council outlined the review of environmental studies conducted as part of the Redoubt Ridge application. This included a Water Quality Impact Assessment (WQIA), a Steep Slope Impacts and Mitigation Plan, and a tree replacement schedule, all required under the city’s Chesapeake Bay Preservation Ordinance and other zoning regulations.
Prior to the Council’s consideration, the City’s Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the Special Use Permit in June, citing the project’s compliance with city ordinances and the developer’s mitigation efforts.
Riverside Health System purchased approximately 380 acres in the area from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in 2018. They are now developing the Redoubt Ridge site in conjunction with builder D.R. Horton, which describes itself as “America’s Largest Homebuilder”.
The size and density of the planned community represents a scaled-back version previously approved back in 2005, which would have consisted of 470 residential units across 75 acres, including single-family homes, townhomes, and condominiums. That earlier project never moved forward, and the property remained undeveloped for nearly two decades.
Stormwater management
Planning documents detail a multi-pronged stormwater management strategy to address runoff and erosion. The design calls for three new Best Management Practice (BMP) facilities: two wet ponds and one extended detention pond. These features are intended to collect, slow, and treat stormwater before it leaves the site by filtering out pollutants and reduce the risk of downstream erosion.
In addition to these structural controls, the developer has committed to regrading slopes to reduce the steepness in certain areas, which will help slow surface water movement and prevent soil loss. Once construction is complete, disturbed areas will be replanted with native vegetation meant to support long-term soil stabilization and ecological function. According the project’s application, post-development runoff volumes and velocities are expected to be lower than current, undeveloped conditions.
Long-term maintenance of the stormwater infrastructure will be the responsibility of the homeowners association, with compliance and performance monitored under city oversight to ensure long-term functionality.
“Williamsburg’s Grand Canyon”
Some experts caution that many stormwater solutions have not always performed as intended. For example Dr. Christopher Bailey, a geologist at the College of William & Mary, wrote about the formation of an 8-meter-deep gorge near Strawberry Creek in College Woods, which has been described as “Williamsburg’s Grand Canyon”.
Failed erosion control measures
Bailey asserts that the erosion is a “modern marvel” and completely man-made due to ill-conceived and inefficient stormwater runoff management. In his commentary, he notes that the approved plan to control runoff from Route 199 ultimately caused erosion 1000 times faster than the actual Grand Canyon. He also pointed out a recent study that determined 4 out of 5 retention ponds in James City County have historically failed to perform as designed, undermining their role as effective Best Management Practices (BMPs).
According to Bailey, these results should serve as warning that development must be approached with caution, even with engineered mitigation efforts. “The widespread failure of stormwater retention ponds at protecting streams in suburban Virginia is one of the principal reasons why the Chesapeake Bay is impaired by pollution and its fisheries resource is declining,” Bailey wrote in his blog. He finished by stating "[s]tormwater retention ponds are not a simple solution that mitigates the environmental cost of urbanization."
“Grand Canyon” restoration costs
In response to the environmental damage at College Woods, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) launched a $2.2 million stream restoration project to fix the erosion problem. As reported by Wilford Kale for the Daily Press in February 2024, the project aimed to eliminate the “grand canyon” and restore Strawberry Creek to its natural elevation.
Kale noted that key components of the VDOT plan included:
Raising the stream bed and filling the eroded valley
Installing a series of step pools and an energy dissipation basin to slow water flow
Planting native trees and vegetation to stabilize the site
Reducing sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus flow into the Chesapeake Bay
Despite previous attempts to fix the outfall using stone and filter fabric, erosion persisted for over a decade. Kale reported that a VDOT program manager called the original outfall design “wrong” and said that only full stream restoration could resolve the damage.
The writer produced this post using AI tools and these sources:
Video - Williamsburg City Council meeting - July 10, 2025
Williamsburg City Council - agenda item & attachments - Redoubt Ridge Special Use Permit
Daily Press - “$2.2 million project on William & Mary’s ‘grand canyon’ is underway”
Dr. Christopher Bailey: “Williamsburg’s Grand Canyon: A Modern Marvel Created by Mismanaged Stormwater”
Williamsburg Independent - NEWS: Developer Blows Dust off Long Dormant Project
Wow! City of Williamsburg is doing a great job destroying the town. Why bother having Resource Protection if they just override to destroy it to build more overpriced, expensive junk houses.