Fairfax County officials have taken the first step to supporting a new housing complex at the Hilltop Village Center near Fort Belvoir.
After a public hearing at its Tuesday (Sept. 29) meeting, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a comprehensive plan amendment to support a 280-unit multifamily residential building for the commercial complex in Kingstowne.
The 33-acre Hilltop Village Center was developed in 2015 and contains a mix of office and retail, including a large Wegmans grocery store. It is next to the Kingstowne Fire Station at the intersection of Telegraph Road and Beulah Street. The property is owned by Kimco Realty, a New York-based investment firm operating under WRI Hilltop Village LLC.
The county previously amended the comprehensive plan in 2008 to support the overall planned development. Subsequently, a developer submitted a rezoning application that included a residential component with the retail and office uses.
By the time the Board of Supervisors rezoned the property in 2009, the residential portion of the proposal had been removed in favor of a 96,000-square-foot office building. That building was expected to cater to contractors serving Fort Belvoir but never materialized.
Since then, the U.S. Army has closed the Telegraph Road entrance to the base, which county staff said makes it a less viable location for office space.
Kimco Realty’s nomination of Hilltop Village Center for the county’s 2025 site-specific plan amendment (SSPA) process is the second attempt to bring housing to Hilltop Village Center.
The site was also nominated for an SSPA in 2019 by a developer seeking to add 300 residential units but faced opposition from the community. County staff also noted concerns about service capacity, the building’s integration into the location and possible safety risks for Fort Belvoir. Eventually, the proposal was withdrawn.
The current proposal is for a 280-unit multifamily building and parking garage directly next to the intersection of Telegraph Road and Beulah Street. It would replace a parking lot behind existing retail along Old Beulah Street.
The Fairfax County Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the proposed plan amendment at its Sept. 9 meeting.
According to a county staff report, the developer held multiple community meetings, engaged with Fort Belvoir officials and worked with Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk and Planning Commissioner Chris Landgraf to address concerns raised in previous iterations of the proposal.
“We are very proud of the amount of outreach we’ve done and the number of discussions we’ve had with the community,” Evan Pritchard, a land-use attorney with Wire Gill representing the developer, said at the planning commission meeting.
The report indicated the complex would have an affordable housing component, but since an official development plan has yet to be filed, the exact number of units is unknown.
The plan amendment focuses instead on a general future use of the property, setting the stage for a future zoning proposal with more details about traffic, amenities, housing and service impacts.
“If the comp plan is amended and we move forward with the rezoning, we would be coming back to these communities with a lot more detail about what we’re proposing,” Pritchard told the planning commission.
Seven people spoke at a public hearing prior to the commission’s vote, with six opposed to a residential development that would increase traffic and put pressure on public services in the area. One speaker supported more housing stock in the community.
However, Kathryn Scott, who lives in the nearby Landsdowne housing development, argued that “Wegmans is already a madhouse on the weekend,” and more people living in the area would just make conditions worse.
“We don’t need more housing or parking garages,” she said. “We need more open space and sky views.”
Landgraf supported increasing potential customers for the existing development.
“I think that putting development into this area where we already have retail, adding rooftops to retail is a good plan,” he said.
