Arrowbrook Centre proposal set for planning commission public hearing

Several pieces of the massive Arrowbrook Centre development in Herndon are barreling toward approval by the Fairfax County Planning Commission.

The commission is set to consider the application — which would transform roughly 54 acres of the site into a mixed-use development — at a public hearing on Wednesday (May 24).

The first piece of the application involves redirecting unused density from six completed land bays into Land Bay A, a nearly 10-acre piece of land on the northern edge of the property. The second piece of the proposal seeks the county’s permission to develop a 435-unit apartment building on a 4-acre site.

“The modifications do not negatively impact the previously approved mix of residential, office, retail and hotel uses or overall approved street network,” county staff said in a May 10 report.

Specifically, the developer has proposed shifting the location of office uses, eliminating a parking garage, relocating some residential uses and a hotel, and consolidating two land bays to allow the development of the apartment building.

The apartment building will include three elevated courtyards, an entry plaza, a parking garage and on-street parking.

In its report, staff recommended approval of the applications.

Overall, nearly 32% of the total property will be used as open space. That excludes nearly 20 acres of parkland dedicated to the Fairfax County Park Authority. It will include a lighted, synthetic turf field, a panic shelter, bocce court, tennis courts, a playground, basketball court, and a butterfly garden,

Most of the public road improvements and internal street system have already been constructed. The new application includes a handful of minor additions, including a 6-foot-wide sidewalk around the apartment building and connections to other areas of the massive site.

The application is one of several in the county that was affected by the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling that temporarily voided Fairfax County’s newly modernized zoning ordinance.

Although the updated zoning ordinance was re-adopted earlier this month, a petition asking the state court to revisit the case is in progress. The current Arrowbrook application was reviewed against both the 1978 zoning ordinance and the latest ordinance, which took effect for a second time after the Board of Supervisors voted on May 9.

Arrowbrook Centre is located south of the Dulles Airport Access Road, bounded by Centreville Road to the east. Upcoming tenants to the development include the South Asian grocery store Hello2India and Ornery Beer Company Public House.