By Brian Trompeter
Fairfax County Planning Commission members on Dec. 6 recommended the Board of Supervisors approve a proposed Tysons rezoning that would repurpose a nearly four-decade-old office building into residential units and more than double the site’s open space.
The applicant, 8221 Old Courthouse Road LC, “is very excited to be looking forward, turning the page, turning to the next chapter in this building’s life cycle,” said Robert Brant, an attorney for the developer.
The 2-acre property at 8221 Courthouse Road is located in the Madrillon Farms subdivision just north of Freedom Hill Elementary School. The site currently is developed with a three-story office building constructed in 1986.
The applicant seeks to repurpose the office building for up to 55 residential dwellings, including six workforce-dwelling units. About 70 percent of the units would have one bedroom and the rest two bedrooms, Brant said.
No major changes would be made to the approximately 47,000-square-foot building’s exterior.
The site would feature a 7,840-square-foot publicly accessible “pocket park” along Old Courthouse Road, with benches, a pergola, bicycle racks, 6-foot-wide walkways and other amenities. The developer also would provide an 8,400-square-foot private outdoor amenity space for residents along the site’s eastern side, which would have a grilling area and seating.
The applicant seeks to adopt lower multi-family parking rates used in the Planned Tysons Corner zone, remove 90 existing parking spaces and then provide 66 on the site. At least 2 percent of the spaces would be set aside for electric-vehicle charging.
“We are meeting the parking requirements on site,” said Brant, adding that the applicant would provide an additional eight striped on-street parking spaces along Lord Fairfax Road.
In addition, the developer would update the site’s streetscape along Old Courthouse Road with an 8-foot-wide sidewalk and 8-foot-wide landscaped amenity panel. On the portion of the site bordering Lord Fairfax Road, the applicant would provide another 8-foot-wide landscaped amenity panel and 6-foot-wide sidewalk.
Overall, about 40 percent of the property would be open space, up from the current 19 percent.
At the intersection of Old Courthouse and Lord Fairfax roads, the developer would install high-visibility crosswalks and updated curb ramps. Those improvements would be subject to approval by the Virginia Department of Transportation and adjacent property owners, county officials said.
To handle rainwater, the property would have bio-retention facilities (including, potentially, an underground vault), stormwater planters and permeable pavers, Brant said. The goal will be to retain the first 0.85 inch of rainfall at the site, he said.
Converting the property from office use to residential likely would result in a “fairly significant decrease” in the number of vehicular trips generated by the site, he said.
There would be an estimated 64 fewer trips – a 75-percent reduction – in the morning peak hour, Brant said. In the afternoon peak hour, the developer estimates there would be 91fewer vehicular trips, down 77 percent from the office usage.
During an average day, the residential use would generate about 207 fewer trips, which is about a 40-percent reduction, he said.
Planning Commission Chairman Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner, who represented Providence District before recently switching to an at-large seat, saw the initial version of the proposal and said the applicant had made “remarkable, you might even say dramatic,” improvements over the original conception.
