Fairfax County officials are considering the first step to supporting a new housing complex at the Hilltop Village Center near Fort Belvoir.
The Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing at its Tuesday (Sept. 29) meeting on a comprehensive plan amendment to support a 280-unit multifamily residential building for the multiuse complex.
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 amended the comprehensive plan in 2008 to support the overall planned development. Subsequently, the 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 to planned development commercial in 2010, the residential portion 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.
This is the second attempt to bring residential to Hilltop Village Center. A comprehensive plan amendment was nominated in 2019 to support 300 residential units at the location but faced opposition from the community. County staff also noted concerns about service capacity, integrating it into the location and safety concerns with 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 Eventually, the proposal was withdrawn.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 Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the proposal at its Sept. 9 meeting.
The county staff report for that meeting indicates that 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,” said Evan Pritchard, a land-use attorney with Wire Gill representing the developer.
The report indicated the complex would have an affordable housing component, but without a specific application, the number of units is unknown.
The application focuses on a general future use of the property. If the comprehensive plan is updated, it would help support a future zoning proposal with more details about traffic, amenities, housing and service impact.
“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 said.
Seven people spoke at a public hearing prior to the Planning 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.
Kathryn Scott, who lives in the nearby Landsdowne housing development, said “Wegmans is already a madhouse on the weekend,” and more people living there would just make it 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.
The public hearing for the Board of Supervisors is expected around 4 p.m. Sept. 29 at the Fairfax County Government Center, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax.
