Wednesday night’s Town of Farmville Planning Commission meeting could go two ways: It could suggest how the town council may vote later on a controversial plan to build student housing at the intersection of High, Oak and Appomattox streets, or turn into a showdown over homeowner rights versus the will of a group trying to preserve a neighborhood from new development.

Sherry and Robert Martin, who own the land, are asking the town to issue a conditional use permit to allow the construction of apartments geared toward college students at Longwood University. Neighbors say clearing the lot will ruin the neighborly characteristics of the block.

Signs of activity at the site triggered opposition. The couple previously requested repealing a current cap of 10 units per acre in the R-3A Zone. That would’ve allowed a project of nearly 200 residents on the roughly one-acre parcel.

“We’ve listened to the community very closely from the last time,” architect Mike Kelley told the council in early March. “We spent a lot of time studying the ordinance very carefully to make sure that what we present to you would… keep with the neighborhood design.”

The Martins have a very different perspective of the project now than they did a year ago.

“We wish this area was still historic,” Sherry Martin told Herald reporter Morgan White in September 2017. “This area wouldn’t be registered as historic if it hadn’t been for Bobby Martin.”

The current proposed project is to have a series of two-story flats that would house about two dozen students. A separate set of two-story townhomes could house another dozen students or so.

Wednesday’s Planning Commission meeting will discuss the merits of the conditional use permit sought by the Martins. It will also host a period of public comment, likely to result in sharp criticism of the Martins’ plan.

Critics haven’t spared the Martins.

“The Martins’ newest proposal, while smaller in size, still involves tearing down historic structures and replacing them with a new building that is totally inconsistent with the integrity and character of our historic district,” wrote Dan Mossler in a March 14 letter to the Herald. “Sherry Martin’s conclusion that the district is no longer historical is self-serving and just plain wrong. Her conclusion doesn’t pass the ‘eye test.’”