Fairfax County Planning Commission members gave their unanimous support on March 25 to a planned relocation of the Penn Daw Fire Station to a parcel that will also include supportive housing and an emergency shelter.
The plan, which will be considered by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on April 14, would put the new fire station and housing on a 3.5-acre site at 2801 Beacon Hill Road, one block east of Richmond Highway.
The county government spent $3 million in 2020 to purchase the former site of the Hybla Valley Nursery, and has been planning its future ever since, led by an advisory committee with residents, county staff and representatives from relevant organizations.
“The community has been totally engaged with this,” said Mount Vernon Planning Commissioner Walter Clarke, whose district includes the site.
The planned two-story, five-bay fire station would total 24,000 square feet and provide 22 bunks and 44 parking stations for personnel. It would replace the existing Penn Daw Fire Station, located about two blocks north at 6624 Hulvey Terrace.
The current station opened in 1967 and no longer meets current fire-department standards, county staff said at the planning commission meeting.
Plans call for the existing Station 11 to remain open until its replacement is completed and operational.
The emergency shelter and supportive housing would occupy two three-story buildings totaling 55,000 square feet. The shelter would provide 50 beds, while housing units would total 20 for individuals and 10 for families.
Construction of the three buildings would leave about 1.25 acres of open space, some of it open to the public and the remainder restricted to those living in the site’s housing.
The site is surrounded by residential and retail properties. A bus rapid transit station for the county’s future “The One” route is slated to be located just across Richmond Highway from the parcel.
Though unanimous, the planning commission’s vote to recommend approval of a comprehensive plan amendment and rezoning application for the site didn’t come without some qualms.
Chris Landgraf of the Franconia District brought up issues regarding retaining walls, stormwater control and the impact of growing trees on the site’s planned photovoltaic solar system.
There also was extensive discussion on whether the site should be exempted from the urban park requirements imposed on most developers.
Braddock District Commissioner Mary Cortina raised a red flag about the tendency for project developers to seek simultaneous approval of plan amendments and rezonings. Past practice has been to hold separate hearings on different dates to tackle those two procedural steps.
Putting them together in one meeting is a disservice to the community and planning process, Cortina said.
“There is not the opportunity to really talk about the planning choices, because we have a rezoning right behind [the plan amendment]. It’s kind of too late to ask about them,” she said.
After voicing that concern, Cortina said it was for future consideration.
“I don’t think we should hold up this application for that question,” she said.
A number of speakers at the public hearing voiced varying opinions on the proposed 50-bed emergency shelter.
Mary Paden, who chairs the housing committee of the Fairfax County NAACP, called it “long overdue.”
She noted that funding for the project had been approved by voters in a 2016 health and human services bond referendum, but it was not expected to be completed until 2030.
“That will be 14 years,” she said.
In 2022, county officials expressed optimism that construction on the overall project could begin within two years, but that timetable has obviously passed with the planning phases still underway.
Tanya Greenfeld, a resident of the Spring Bank community adjacent to the parcel, said the new fire station and supportive housing would be welcome to the neighborhood, but “it has been well-documented that our community has issues with the emergency shelter.”
The shelter should provide services that help people “regroup and become viable citizens again,” Greenfeld said.
“The permanent emergency shelter [as proposed] doesn’t appear to me to be doing to anything to eradicate the condition of homelessness,” she continued. “Most of these people had jobs, families and homes, and they want those lives back. This emergency shelter isn’t going to solve that problem.”
The future shelter facility is designed to replace the aging Eleanor U. Kennedy Shelter, located on the grounds of Fort Belvoir about seven miles south of the new facility.
The Kennedy shelter, which opened in 1986, provides space for 38 men and 12 women. County staff said the building it occupies is more than a century old and has outlived its usefulness for the current purpose.
Staff left open the possibility that the Kennedy shelter might still operate after the new facility opens, at least for a period of time, but said no decisions have been made.
