By Brian Trompeter
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted 9-1 in favor of a comprehensive-plan amendment June 11 that supports future expansion of the county’s Judicial Complex in Fairfax to include up to 2 million square feet of public facilities, plus affordable housing, retail and park space.
County officials hope to redevelop the site – located at the southwest corner of Chain Bridge Road and Main Street in Fairfax – over a 20-year period. The plan would keep 1.3 million square feet of existing public uses and provide 700,000 more square feet of space to expand the Judicial Complex (including retail space for convenience stores and food services) and accommodate other county agencies not currently located there, as well as nonprofits and volunteer groups that support the court system’s operations.
The site also could incorporate up to 300 housing units, child-care facilities, a central green and a network of open space.
The two-parcel, 47.8-acre site is in Providence District, despite being completely surrounded by the City of Fairfax. Facilities currently located there include the county courthouse, adult and juvenile detention centers, police evidence-storage facility, the historic jail and courthouse, William J. Burkholder Administrative Building, Legato School and parking structures.
The 196-foot-tall Massey Building, which formerly housed the county government’s operations and later its police and fire-and-rescue departments, was located at the site until its demolition in 2020.
The master-planning process, conducted from 2018 to 2021, was coordinated by the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services’ Capital Facilities Section and included 22 public-outreach meetings.
Efforts to redevelop the Judicial Complex have spanned the tenures of two Board of Supervisors chairmen and three city of Fairfax mayors, noted Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay (D).
“We’ve been at this a long time,” he said. “I appreciate all the work that has gone into this. It’s important to get this right.”
Supervisor Pat Herrity (R-Springfield) voted against the proposal.
The Fairfax County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors will hold public hearings this fall on a final development plan for a proposed 180,000-square-foot “Building 1” with public facilities at the Judicial Complex. Other plan elements, like affordable housing, will be evaluated later.
