The Fairfax County Planning Commission on June 3 added its support to a plan to guide development of key Lorton areas for the next two to three decades.
The Lorton Core Study, now headed to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for final consideration, envisions a more urban and connected community.
If approved by supervisors, the package of recommendations would be incorporated into the county’s comprehensive plan and help guide future development efforts.
Keith Shovlin, president of the South County Federation, said the comprehensive plan amendment offers the opportunity to continue the “transformational change” seen in the vicinity.
Areas west of I-95 have seen redevelopment, and “the plan is to try and balance it out on the east,” Shovlin said in remarks at the planning commission meeting.
Growth should not be unbridled, he said, urging county leaders to “make sure that any development for Lorton makes sense.”
Supported by the Planning Commission on a 10-0 vote, the plan has been in the works for a decade.
“It is a framework for creating the ‘center’ Lorton truly has never had,” said Nick Firth, chair of the Lorton Visioning Task Force.
“The greatest potential lies in functioning together as one connected district,” Firth said, calling the planning study an opportunity to “move from thinking about Lorton as a collection of separate destinations.”
The core area is bounded by Pohick Road to the north, Richmond Highway to the east, Gunston Cove Road to the south and I-95 to the west. It includes the Lorton Station Town Center, Lorton Marketplace, Gunston Plaza, and a county library and community center.
The plan’s proposals focus on a host of changes, including updated urban design and taller building heights. Better pedestrian circulation, structured parking, new urban parks and gathering spaces, and “context-appropriate” transitions to nearby residential communities are envisioned.
County staff said there are no plans to coerce redevelopment from property owners not wishing to move forward, and no expectation of using the government’s eminent-domain powers to acquire property.
But during the public hearing preceding the vote, a number of longtime residents raised concerns.
Among them was James Fenton, who predicted that increased development in the corridor would displace mom-and-pop businesses and put pressure on already overtaxed fire and emergency services.
Another speaker, lifetime Lorton resident Kenneth Russell, said the push for increasing urbanization across the county was impacting quality of life for residents and creating further traffic gridlock.
“It comes from the Board of Supervisors constantly approving ever-denser zoning,” Russell said. “The roads cannot keep up with it — it’s impossible.”
Russell said the plan’s desire to preserve Lorton-area wetlands represented a disconnect from reality.
“I’ve got news for you — it’s too late,” he said. “It’s been paved over, backfilled.”
Another speaker, longtime civic activist Riley Jacobs, said changes in Lorton are welcome, but only if done with sensitivity.
“This is not easy,” he said. “The next thing we need to focus on are the details, looking very carefully at those communities that are going to be impacted.”
Mount Vernon District Planning Commissioner Walter Clarke said final adoption of the plan will represent the conclusion of one phase, but not the end of the story.
The plan “places the people of Lorton at the forefront of establishing a community-driven vision” for their future, Clarke said.
He called for a “unified, walkable and mixed-use core area that is intended to support more sustainable growth and development patterns.”
Clarke, in whose district the core area is located, won support of his planning commission colleagues to recommend several changes from the initial staff plan, mostly related to efforts to reduce speed and improve visual elements on Lorton Road.
The plan also looks more generally at the Lorton South Route 1 Suburban Center, which includes the core area. The 3,200-acre suburban center is bounded by Accotink Creek to the north, Fort Belvoir and Old Colchester Road to the east, the Occoquan River and Prince William County line to the south, and Furnace Road to the west.
County planners say areas immediately south of the core area also provide opportunities for increased employment and mixed-use development.
Planning to create a more vibrant Lorton area emerged from the community following the closure of the 2,000-acre Lorton Correctional Complex in 2001, Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck told FFXnow in 2022.
The property was purchased by Fairfax County and has since been turned into a mixed-use community featuring housing, child care and the Workhouse Arts Center, with some of the original prison preserved as a historical landmark.
