Below are the details on the proposed development on the west side of the Village of Midlothian that were announced on January 2009. 
About a hundred citizens at a community meeting on September 18, 2008 called by Midlothian Planning Commissioner Reuben Waller, who had voiced objections to the plans to build traditional garden apartments.
In response, the James Doran Company, working with Winks Snowa Architects, held meetings with the Village of Midlothian Development Committee to address the objections.
These meetings resulted in a new proposal that, “achieved much of what the Village of Midlothian Volunteer Coalition originally supported at the initial rezoning,” according to the letter Land-use and Development Committee Leaders Gordon Meyer and Craig Scott sent to county planners.
The Planning Commission approved the site plan for 244 apartments at Midlothian Turnpike and Winterfield Road in December.
Developer Shane Doran attended all discussions with the Development Committee. Both county planning staff and several members of the developer’s design team also participated in the meetings, as did a representative from the Salisbury homeowners’ association.
“Shane Doran, along with his design team, were responsive to our concerns,” Peppy Jones, chairman of the Village of Midlothian Volunteer Coalition noted. “This is not to say we agreed on every point, but the discussions stayed respectful and the end result was much more satisfactory."
Looking to the plan for the village area, the architects revised their plan to put “more emphasis on creating a residential scale that fosters a pedestrian-friendly environment,” Ed Winks of Winks Snowa Architects explained. Maintaining a residential feel in the buildings running along Winterfield Road was especially important to the Village of Midlothian Land-Use and Development Committee.
The architects offered unique architectural features for each of the three buildings facing Winterfield Road along with more human-scale elements. The new layout added a substantial courtyard carved out of the larger center building fronting Winterfield Road, a change that cost the developer two units compared to the plan offered in September. (See artwork above.)
The apartment building facing Winterfield Road will now be three distinctly different units, “each with it's own personality,” Meyer noted.“It has been a pleasure working with Mr. Doran and his team, especially Architects Julie Koehler and Edward Winks,” Meyer concluded.
“The collaboration between the developer, their design team, and the VMVC resulted in a design which we feel pleases both the James Doran Company and the community,” Architect Koehler offered.