Fairfax County releases plan for new, two-story Tysons community center

Tysons residents will soon get to shape the plan for Fairfax County’s community center in the upcoming Dominion Square West housing development.

The county’s Department of Neighborhood and Community Services (NCS) staff will host a trio of community engagement forums later this month to gather feedback on potential services, activities and programming for the new facility, which will fill 30,000 square feet at the base of a 20-story residential high-rise at 1592 Spring Hill Road.

“In advance of the center’s opening, the county is engaging the community to ensure the new facility meets their needs and interests,” NCS said in a news release on Tuesday (June 28).

Floor plans for the community center suggest it will have two levels and feature a 7,500-square-foot gymnasium, 2,100 square feet of administrative offices, a 675-square-foot kitchen, and multipurpose space.

Accoording to the county’s Department of Housing and Community Development, spaces labeled as multipurpose in the proposed layout will be more specifically defined based on the public’s suggestions for programs and services.

“It is our understanding that the overall square footage of the community center is fairly fixed,” the department said. “There may be some opportunities to refine sizes of the spaces within the community center to a certain extent based on feedback from the community.”

NCS is planning to discuss its vision for the center at two virtual forums — one in the morning, one in the evening — as well as an in-person meeting at the end of July:

• Session 1: Thursday, July 14, 10:30 a.m.-noon *This session will be held virtually via Zoom. The Zoom link will be emailed to you separately.*
• Session 2: Thursday, July 21, 6:30-8:30 p.m. *This session will be held virtually via Zoom. The Zoom link will be emailed to you separately.*
• Session 3: Thursday, July 28, 6:30-8:30 p.m. *In-person session at the PARC at Tysons, 8508 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, VA 22182*

Advance registration is required through Eventbrite. Community members can sign up for more than one meeting, since “each session will build on the prior session,” the registration page says.

Made possible in part by a $55 million grant from Amazon, the Dominion Square project will deliver two 20-story buildings with a total of 516 apartments — all of them aimed at people who earn 60% or less of the area’s median income.

Located near the Spring Hill Metro station in Tysons West, the development will also have five levels of underground parking, with 140 spaces reserved for the community center. Proposed amenities include a 1,900-square-foot skypark for the community center.

Fairfax County is currently reviewing nonprofit developer Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing’s plan for Dominion Square, which was submitted in early June. Public hearing dates for the application haven’t been scheduled yet.