The One University housing complex in Fairfax weathered widespread community opposition, rising costs and a worldwide pandemic during its decade of progression from concept to reality.
But affordable housing supporters are confident that the development near George Mason University’s campus just outside Fairfax City was, in the end, worth the trials and tribulations.
A church that wants to build affordable housing on its campus in the Herndon area will soon step up its efforts to win over skeptical neighbors.
The Community of Faith United Methodist Church announced on Wednesday (Aug. 20) that it has partnered with the affordable housing developer Pennrose on the project, which could bring around 90 apartments to its 8.9-acre property at 13224 Franklin Farm Road.
Members of the City of Fairfax Planning Commission reacted generally favorably to a conceptual plan that would massively redevelop a key stretch of Main Street (Route 236).
“I like the concept, I like the responsiveness,” commission chair James Feather said Monday night (June 14) after a briefing on the proposal by Van Metre Companies plan to redevelop the Fairfax Square Professional Center, an office and retail park at 9840-9946 Main Street.
Plans to redevelop the Crescent Apartments, which trace their lineage nearly back to Reston’s founding, took a key procedural step forward on Tuesday (July 16).
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted 9-0 to transfer the 16.5-acre site to the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority, enabling the agency to work on finding a private partner for the redevelopment project.
Housing costs are daunting for Fairfax County residents in general, but for seniors with limited financial resources, even subsidized housing options are becoming increasingly beyond their means, county staff say.
“We’re starting to see some disconnect,” Fairfax County Department of Housing and Community Development Director Tom Fleetwood said, describing the “emerging challenges” to the Board of Supervisors at a housing committee meeting on Tuesday (July 8).
Fairfax County’s efforts to support additional affordable housing may have received an unexpected boost from the recently passed federal budget reconciliation act.
County officials are working through the details, but the changes in federal law could represent “a significant step forward” in financing affordable housing, Tom Fleetwood, director of the county’s Department of Housing and Community Development, told the Board of Supervisors at a housing committee meeting yesterday (Tuesday).
A high-priority project to create more affordable housing in Merrifield is officially underway.
Officials with Fairfax County and developer Conifer Realty broke ground Monday (June 23) on a project to repurpose the currently vacant, four-floor office building at 2990 Telestar Court as an 80-unit affordable apartment building.
A nearly 60% reduction in initially proposed units has not swayed many Franklin Farm residents to support efforts to bring affordable housing to a church site in their community.
But the project nonetheless took a procedural step forward at a Fairfax County Planning Commission meeting on May 22.
The clock is ticking on a now-vacant Seven Corners homeless shelter.
Plans to replace the Patrick Henry Family Shelter have slowed in recent months, but it won’t be long now until the entire building at 3080 Patrick Henry Drive is razed, a county spokesperson told FFXnow.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors around midnight on Tuesday (May 13) voted 9-0 to move forward with a plan for affordable housing on the soon-to-be-vacated Franconia Governmental Center site.
The vote — unanimous except for absent Springfield District Superivsor Pat Herrity — came after hours of public testimony for and against the proposal to amend the county’s Comprehensive Plan related to the 22.75-acre site known as the Franconia Triangle.
