A plan to redevelop Van Buren Office Park in Herndon into a mostly residential development could be the first test case of a soon-to-be established zoning district in the Town of Herndon.
Rooney Properties, owner of the office park at 250 Exchange Place, wants to replace the five existing office buildings and surface parking with a 400-unit multi-family residential building and garage as well as 66 townhouse units.
Built in the mid 1980s, the office park is currently home to tenants like Compass Homeschool Enrichment.
The “Exchange Place” application was submitted over the summer as the town contemplates creating a new planned development zoning district for mixed, medium-density residential and office uses in the 94-acre Transit-Related Growth Area (TRG).
Under a plan adopted in April, the TRG is envisioned as a transitional zone between the more intense Herndon Transit-oriented Core (HTOC) directly outside the Herndon Metro Station and existing residential neighborhoods to the north. It covers roughly 25 privately owned and mostly office or industrial properties.
A draft ordinance to create the proposed zoning district was presented on Monday (Sept. 23) to the Herndon Planning Commission, which is expected to take action at its next meeting on Oct. 28.
According to town staff, the ordinance is necessary to enable developers to submit projects in the TRG that are higher in density than what the current zoning permits. Additional zoning districts will be needed to allow other types of development in the TRG, including retail, hospitality and low-density housing.
In its application for Exchange Place, Rooney Properties acknowledged that the submission’s timing is somewhat unconventional, given that the zoning district hasn’t been officially created yet.
“We are proceeding with this [Zoning Map Amendment] application at our own risk given uncertainties regarding the zoning requirements that ultimately govern this property,” the application says. “It is our intention that review of this ZMA application will benefit staff, the public and other TRG landowners by testing certain draft zoning requirement with this real-world proposal.”
The developer hopes to construct a new urban neighborhood with a six-story multi-family building along Herndon Parkway, stacked townhouses further north and an “inviting, engaging” streetscape, according to the application.
The mid-rise apartment building would create a large ring shape with a corridor of units down the middle, creating two gaps within the building. One gap would be filled by a parking garage and the other by an outdoor private amenity space.
“Neither the garage nor the private amenity space will be visible from the street due to their being completely wrapped with residential units,” the application says.
Along Herndon Parkway, there will be two publicly accessible open spaces “flanking” the multi-family building. The plan says the green areas will “act as focal features in the community and amenity spaces for the residences” but doesn’t specify what amenities are being considered.
Vehicles would access the garage off of Park Drive along the north, one of two new streets in the development. The other street, Fairbrook Drive, would run through the western portion of the site.
The townhouses could take the form of either stacked or back-to-back attached units, according to the submitted plan. The attached units would each consist of four levels for a maximum height of 55 feet with rear-loaded garages off of alleys.
Overall, the project will have 600 parking spaces for the multi-family building, 20 surface parking spaces and 152 spaces in the townhouse block, where each unit will get one garage space and one driveway space. An additional 37 on-street parking spots are provided on Park Drive and Fairbrook Drive.
Image via Google Maps
