Residents concerned about a proposal for additional single-family homes in one Franconia neighborhood may not have much recourse, they learned at a recent community meeting.
“I don’t have the ability to stop this process,” Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk said at a community forum last Thursday (Aug. 14) attended by about 35 residents.
Developer Joe Francone’s plan to build 16 homes just south of Cobbs Road is permitted by-right under the site’s existing zoning. Called Crested Knolls, the subdivision would be located on an undeveloped, wooded 11.8-acre site near the Runnymeade community of nearly 350 townhouses north of Franconia Road.
The undeveloped site is zoned as an R-3 district, a residential district that allows up to three dwelling units per acre, and the developer isn’t seeking a zoning change to provide additional density.
Francone said his initial plan had been for 25 units on the parcel, which would still fall under the threshold of what is allowed by-right, but he scaled it back to 16.
As a result, the proposed subdivision will require a staff review but not consideration by the Fairfax County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors.
“This is a by-right plan rather than a rezoning plan,” said Francone, who has a purchase agreement with the family that has owned the tract since the 1940s. “It’s been zoned R-3 since there was [a zoning] ordinance in Fairfax County.”
That effectively ties the hands of elected officials.
“I would not be able to interfere as long as it meets the [zoning ordinance] requirements,” Lusk said.
The 90-minute meeting occasionally grew heated, as residents rapped the proposal for its potential negative impacts on traffic and stormwater management.
County staff said the project would have to meet a host of state and local requirements before it could proceed, but that’s the extent of the process.
“Our review will confirm that they comply with existing regulations and codes. We can’t require anything that’s above and beyond,” said Kirsten Munz, director of the site development and inspection division in the county’s Department of Land Development Services.
The developer, Long Land Co. II LLC, submitted a subdivision plan in March that’s currently under staff review, Munz said. The proposal will now shuttle back and forth between Francone and county staff to ensure compliance with all regulations.
“I can’t predict how long that will take,” Munz said.
Residents of the adjacent Runnymeade community have started an online petition objecting to the project, which they say “threatens one of the last remaining natural sanctuaries of peace in our neighborhood.”
“We have major concerns about the environmental degradation, increase in traffic/noise and the increase of hazardous flooding to our community, which already suffers from damaging flooding as it is,” the petition organizers said.
At the meeting, Francone said stormwater-management conditions in the surrounding area would be improved by the project, as new infrastructure will contain runoff that currently follows the slope of the property onto neighboring properties.
One skeptical Runnymeade resident wrote to both Lusk and Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay to voice her fears.
“I am concerned that Crested Knolls will lead to increased flood risk to the Runnymeade community due to the development as well as sediment — both during and after construction — clogging or overloading existing stormwater drainage channels,” Karen McCluskey said.
She urged the county to require “a full stormwater-impact assessment, tree-preservation plan and ongoing maintenance plan … before approval is considered.”
In addition to the Runnymeade townhomes to the southeast, the parcel is bounded by single-family homes to the west and north across Cobbs Road. A portion of the site is located in a government mandated resource-protection area and will not be developed.
At the Aug. 14 meeting, some residents voiced anger that the project documents aren’t readily accessible in the county’s PLUS database for development and permit applications. Munz said that’s because it’s still being reviewed, suggesting residents would have to file requests under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act to obtain more than cursory information at this point.
Also at the meeting, several residents suggested that the county government purchase the parcel and use it for parkland.
“There’s no parks in that area, and it would be a good idea,” said one participant.
Lusk agreed with the sentiment, but threw cold water on the proposal owing to constrained financial resources.
“I wish we had the ability to do that,” he said. “This project is not in the queue.”
While there seems to be no route for neighbors to derail the proposal, their input is valuable, Lusk said.
“We will make sure we hear what concerns you have,” he said. “I’m here to hear the concerns.”
Development plan map via Supervisor Rodney Lusk
