At Napa Pipe, 3,200 doesn’t actually mean 3,200.

The number is just a starting point, Napa Pipe developer Keith Rogal said this week, explaining that the proposed development at the south county site will probably feature fewer homes than the 3,200 originally proposed.

With a series of environmental studies nearing completion, Rogal said the project will be modified to reflect new data and input from the community. Critics of the mixed-use project have long challenged the idea of 3,200 new townhomes, which would go down as the largest development of its kind in the county.

“The numbers will be less than 3,200, but we wanted to put enough specificity in that you could do this study,” Rogal said. Though he could not say exactly where the numbers might fall, Rogal said the proposal will likely include “some residential development that’s mixed-use that’s less than 3,200.”

The proposal originally pitched to Napa County features 3,200 townhomes, a hotel, restaurants and retail, as well as 550,000 square feet of light industrial and office space.

“This plan was a starting point — it was the result of considerable study — but not ever intended to be final,” Rogal wrote in an e-mail. “Rather, it was intended to allow for detailed analysis and public input.”

Now, Rogal wrote, “we have more information to use in refining the project plan.” Three studies on the potential impacts of development at Napa Pipe are scheduled to be released this week.

Rogal lists key factors in determining the final number of proposed units as: “the number of people per acre needed to make neighborhood stores and services work, including transit, the affordable housing issues, (effect) on area intersections … and which intersections can be improved, types and costs of public facilities desired (such as art and artisan spaces, active recreation facilities), and desired average housing prices.”

“We’re confident that there is a number that will work in this community — that will balance these sometimes competing interests — and we will be exploring this in detail, in the months ahead,” Rogal wrote.

Rogal said he will also modify plans for industrial use on the site’s southern 50 acres. Because of the expected impacts on commuter traffic, “we are planning to reduce that square footage, and alter the types of uses proposed there,” Rogal wrote.

Napa County Supervisor Mark Luce said he is not surprised by Rogal’s comments.

“I’ve sensed that for a long time,” he said. “I don’t know how many fewer (homes will be proposed), but things always change through the process, and we haven’t gone through the process.”

Noting that the proposal still must undergo a detailed environmental impact report and appear before the Planning Commission, Luce said, “It’s really in an infant stage. You sort of have a vision but you don’t have a project.”