If they receive approval, developers are hoping to construct another premier subdivision in Lafayette County.

Fieldstone Farms will be located off College Hill Road near the Ole Miss golf course and the airport. The 100-acre condo development will feature three areas with 240 total units, two lakes and is billed as a “conservation neighborhood.”

Planner and lead designer Henry Minor and developer Brian Hill went before the Lafayette County Planning Commission Monday evening to present their proposal.

Minor said the development is heavily wooded and will remain so. Nearly 60 percent of the property will be undeveloped. Minor said the property was logged in 1998 and includes logging roads that will be proposed roads.

“It’s a beautiful piece of property,” Minor said.

Three areas of the development include The Cottages, comprised of 69 units, The Villages, which is 100 town homes and The Preserve, which features 71 homes between 2,500 and 4,000 square feet. Price points were not provided.

Minor said all the homes will be custom designed and “will have minimal impact on the area.”

“This will allow diverse residential products that appeal to a wide range of people,” Minor said. “We are very excited and looking forward to seeing it get off the ground.”

Asked who his target audience is, Hill said he expects half of the occupants will be out-of-towners coming into town for ball games, based upon his experience with other developments he has in Oxford.

“We will have some students who will purchase them to live there,” Hill said. “Parents will buy the condo for a student and they will have one or two roommates and then a bedroom for themselves.”

He doesn’t expect traffic to be an issue.

“Game weekends will yield the most traffic,” Hill said. “What I find is that when people come into town, others leave town.”

Developers, however, have not conducted a traffic study, which is required by the planning commission. They were proposing a turn lane off College Hill into the main entrance rather than spend $10,000 for a traffic study.

County engineer Larry Britt said any development with more than 50 units requires a traffic study.

The developers will go before city officials on Feb. 8 with their plans.

Neighbors concerned

The main concern with the development is a secondary access road on County Road 148 that has neighbors in the area worried construction vehicles will be using the narrow entrance as the project is built and residents of the subdivision will use it rather than the main entrance. The secondary road is required by county emergency officials.

Chad Brown was one of three residents who spoke out against the development due to the County Road 148 issue.

“There is no way County Road 148 can handle that much traffic, whatsoever,” Brown said.

“It would become impassable,” said Richard Whitten, another County Road 148 resident.

Hill responded that if the county would allow, he would be willing to put a gate at the County Road 148 entrance that could only be opened by emergency personnel.

“If that is a concern, I can take care of that right now,” Hill said. “It would be just as much an inconvenience for construction crews to use County Road 148.” He emphasized that crews would be using the main entrance into the development off College Hill.