City Council will hold public hearings Wednesday on a rezoning and conditional use permit request that would allow for a property that was once a peanut processing facility to be developed as apartments.

The Planning Commission unanimously recommended the proposal from Edwin Gaskin of Golden Dreams LLC to rezone 10 acres of property at 273 S. Saratoga St. and grant a conditional use permit that would allow up to 225 apartments at the site of the former Suffolk Peanut Company. It would also allow for unidentified commercial uses. The property would be known as Peanut Crossing.

The site is bordered by Wellons and South Saratoga streets, Norfolk Southern Railroad mainline on the north end and industrial use to the south. It has 17 structures and associated infrastructure that would be turned to a residential apartment community with amenities.

According to the staff report for the proposal, Gaskin would use federal and state historic tax credits to renovate existing structures that qualify for the program and turn them into apartments and accessory uses to serve residents. No additional structures are anticipated, it said, and the proposal fits in with the city’s 2035 Comprehensive Plan and Unified Development Ordinance.

The rezoning change would be from heavy industrial zoning to central business district, and the property’s development would likely be divided into at least four phases, the first being a renovation to allow for 54 units and resident amenities in a pair of buildings adjacent to the railroad tracks. One of the buildings would be a five-story structure and the other a single story, Gaskin told the commission.

He said developing those buildings first would help draw people into the site and address two of the property’s biggest eyesores.

The staff report noted the project’s impact on school capacity to Hillpoint Elementary, Forest Glen Middle and Lakeland High schools — the schools to which the apartments in this proposal would be assigned — as Gaskin has proffered that 180 of the units would be either studio or one-bedroom apartments.

Those apartments would generate five students total — three for Hillpoint and two for Lakeland, according to the staff report. The additional 45 multi-bedroom apartments would generate 23 total students — 18 for Hillpoint, five for Forest Glen and five for Lakeland.

While there is adequate capacity at Lakeland and Forest Glen, there is not at Hillpoint. Since the time of the staff report, the enrollment has increased at Hillpoint to 793 students as of Sept. 12. Another 81 students would be added to Hillpoint through committed development, according to the staff report, putting the school 49 students over its 822-student service capacity.

Council will also discuss its curbside recycling program during a work session at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, followed by its regular meeting at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

Among other public hearings scheduled for the regular meeting include an application for no-wake buoys on the Nansemond River along the Riverwood shoreline, and the Portsmouth Boulevard sidewalk improvement project.

The council will also take up an ordinance that would establish an agricultural advisory committee. Several farmers asked for its revival during an April council meeting.