The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors gave developers the go-ahead last Tuesday (May 21) to build a condominium high-rise in Tysons’ Arbor Row neighborhood in place of a previously approved office building.
Even as they gave their approval on an 8-1-1 vote, some supervisors conceded county staff were “right” to recommend denial of the application based mostly on prospective condo developer Renaissance Centro’s plan to provide cash or off-site workforce housing in lieu of on-site affordable units.
“Measured against the [affordable and workforce housing] policy, it’s not meeting it to the exact letter of the law,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said. “What this board is responsible for doing is something larger than that, which is recognizing that, in the real world, at this time, given the nuances of this application, does it meet the spirit of what the recommendations are? And I feel like it does.”
Last updated in 2021, the county’s Tysons Comprehensive Plan requires all development projects with a residential component to include price-controlled affordable or workforce dwelling units (ADUs or WDUs). There are provisions for developers to “aggregate land” for off-site units or contribute cash to the Tysons Housing Trust Fund instead, but on-site units are preferred.
In particular, the policy stresses that cash should be accepted instead of WDUs only in a “rare event.” The amount must total 3% of the contract sales price for each market-rate unit in the building.
The developer’s workforce housing proposal
Renaissance Centro has proposed a maximum cash contribution of around $4.8 million in lieu of WDUs in the 23-story, 240-unit condo building it plans to build at 7925 Westpark Drive, where it’ll fill a currently undeveloped, 2.9-acre site between the recently opened Monarch condos and The Mather, a senior living complex.
An initial amount of $2.25 million — calculated based on the average sales price per square foot at Monarch, which was also developed by Renaissance Centro — would go to the county when the first residential use permit is issued. The remainder would be determined by the building’s actual sales prices once 50% of units are sold, according to Walsh Colucci land use lawyer Lynne Strobel, who represented the developer at the public hearing.
The developer has opted not to provide WDUs in the proposed building based on its experience with Monarch, where the condo board recently approved an 18% fee increase. Strobel said the increase will cover additional services, such as a valet and longer pool hours, though Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik said she’d heard “different things” from residents.
“As condominium fees go up, it becomes unaffordable, and then [the WDU residents] haven’t built up a lot of equity, [and] they have to sell the unit,” Strobel said. “It’s just a tough situation that I don’t know how to solve.”
County staff agreed the application is “unique” for being an “extremely high-end” office-to-residential conversion, justifying consideration of a cash contribution or off-site WDUs.
However, they remain concerned that the “artificially capped” cash offer would fall short of the actual affordable housing need generated by the development. County planner Sunny Yang also told the board that it’s unclear how any off-site units would be administered, even with the developer giving the county final approval in all cases — a concession made after the Fairfax County Planning Commission’s May 15 vote.
“Progress has been made with respect to the structural aspects of the WDU proffers,” Department of Housing and Community Development Director Tom Fleetwood said. “…We remain concerned about how the cash contribution is calculated and whether or not it is sufficient to what we anticipate the value is out in the future when the project is delivered.”
County board questions developer
Strobel said her client hopes to start construction on the Arbor Row project in the “foreseeable future,” possibly in about 18 months, but some supervisors sounded skeptical.
Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn noted that Renaissance Centro has yet to move forward on a condo project in Reston that the county board approved six years ago. In addition, the developer only delivered eight WDUs with Monarch, not the 12 units expected when it came before the board in 2016, he said.
“There’s not a good history here, frankly, on WDUs,” Alcorn said, ultimately abstaining from the vote on the Arbor Row application.
Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck, the lone opposing vote, questioned Strobel’s argument that the developer needs a ceiling on its cash contribution in order to obtain construction financing, worrying that the proposed amount will be “fairly low” compared to the value of the units once they’re actually built.
Strobel explained that, to obtain a loan, the developer needs to set “a maximum amount of exposure” for the lender, and if it ends up getting a bigger loan than needed, it’ll have to pay back more in interest.
“I think we have done the best we can to give comfort on the amount but also providing that cap we need to get financing for that building,” she said.
Other supervisors stated that the case exposed some challenges with the Tysons WDU policy, but they don’t want to lose the opportunity to boost the area’s housing stock. The project will also include 8,500 square feet of ground-floor retail and 1.76 acres of urban parkland, designed to connect green spaces provided by Monarch and The Mather.
“There are small things that have risen here and in other applications, whether it’s in the WDU policy or urban parks and how we expect those to be delivered, and the office and residential mix,” Palchik said. “…While there are some minor outstanding issues, and this is not precedent-setting, for the most part, I do believe this application does address especially the needs for additional residential options, for urban parks to be delivered in a way that will be very much useful and connected.”
