The residential building coming to 6707 Old Dominion Drive will be modest — at least compared to the high-rises going up in Tysons to the south — but it has already altered the future of downtown McLean.

Contractor Trinity Group Construction anticipates beginning work next week on the nine-story, 44-unit project, which will replace the parking lot behind a three-story office building whose current tenants include Chipotle and Fresh Baguette.

“It’s great to finally be here,” property owner Winthrop Investment Group head Hans Schmidt said after a ceremonial groundbreaking yesterday (Wednesday). “…Folks conceptualized this project back in 2016, and here we are in March of 2023, and we’re finally moving dirt. We’re really excited about it. We think it’s going to be a great project.”

The 94,000-square-foot building will stack five stories of condominiums — including five units of workforce housing — on top of a parking garage with four above-ground levels and one-and-a-half underground levels, according to a Trinity spokeperson.

Per a development plan approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 2018, amenities will include a 3,850-square-foot roof terrace for residents and a combined 6,100 square feet of public open space from a corner park and a plaza park.

The garage will serve the new residents as well as tenants and visitors at the adjacent office building, which will remain in place, Schmidt confirmed.

Both the developer and local officials admit that shepherding this particular project into being was difficult, from a fraught battle to amend the county’s comprehensive plan to more recent supply chain issues and related cost increases.

“We’ve been working for the past eight months with [Winthrop], finally got it to where it was affordable,” Trinity CEO Mil Wallen said.

One of the biggest challenges was the need to establish a temporary parking plan for office tenants during construction, according to Schmidt, who said the development “would’ve been dead” if no parking sites were found.

Fortunately for Winthrop, three local churches — St. John’s Episcopal Church (6715 Georgetown Pike), St. Luke Serbian Orthodox Church (6801 Georgetown Pike) and St. John the Beloved Roman Catholic Church (6420 Linway Terrace) — have agreed to let commuters use their parking lots, providing a total of 140 spaces.

During construction, which is expected to take about 18 months, drivers will have access to valet service as well as a shuttle that will travel to and from the off-site parking areas. Some on-site spots will also remain available.

Wallen says the shuttle and valet service will “start as soon as necessary,” which may not be the instant construction begins next week.

“We’ll have fencing up that will guide traffic all over the place,” he said. “It’ll be a little congested, but I think it’ll be okay.”

Potential parking and traffic issues were part of why the project initially struggled to win over some community members, who argued it was incompatible with the surrounding, mostly lower-lying buildings.

That debate helped inform the county’s roughly four-year-long overhaul of its plan for downtown McLean.

“I think we learned some good lessons along the way, and hopefully, the next project that comes forward will move much smoother,” said Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust, who represents McLean.

The residential building “will be a fantastic example” of what a revitalized downtown could look like, Foust says, telling FFXnow that the planned parking garage “is the way to go” compared to the “ugly” surface lots currently prevalent for commercial properties.

“This project will contribute to helping us achieve our vision for downtown McLean, which is more vibrancy, more pedestrian, ground-level activity, more people actually living in downtown McLean,” Foust said. “On top of that, it’s going to be a beautiful addition to the visual of downtown McLean.”

Hundreds of residential units on two parcels on Association Drive could be on the horizon.

The plan by JLB Realty and Toll Brothers calls for a six-story, 400-unit building on the northern end of the horseshoe-shaped road, along with a 39-unit triplex on the southern end, according to Brian Winterhalter, land use attorney with DLA Piper.

The proposed development is the first of several that could come forward on Association Drive, which consists of 10 different office parcels owned by multiple owners near the Dulles Toll Road in Reston.

Winterhalter said it’s unlikely a consolidated plan will be proposed, but the development team will coordinate with other owners if and when opportunities for collaboration arise.

“We are hoping that it will be formally accepted for processing any time now,” Winterhalter said, referring to the county’s formal acceptance of the plan.

At a Reston Planning & Zoning Committee meeting on Monday (March 20), some members expressed concern about the density and overall design of the project.

Matt Stevison, a committee member, said he was concerned about the way the triplex units — which would be for sale — are designed without any architectural cohesiveness.

“The way the units are stacked from an architecture standpoint.” Stevison said. “It just doesn’t work for me.”

Committee member Tammi Petrine said she were concerned about the residential units’ close proximity to the Dulles Toll Road. She also said the impact of the applicant’s proposed grid of streets would have a detrimental impact on specimen trees on the property.

“Basically, this Association Drive area has some of the most beautiful trees in Reston and you all are talking about a grid of streets that has not taken into account where the specimen trees are,” Petrine said.

A total of 57 affordable units are planned on the property, along with a little over two acres of open space and 1.2 acres of urban parkland.

Winterhalter said the development plan includes a grid of streets that is in Reston’s comprehensive plan.

That grid is different from one suggested by a task force that recommended revisions to the Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan for Reston last year. A draft of the new plan is currently under review by the county and slated for discussion by the Fairfax County Planning Commission later this month.

Winterhalter said seven of the 10 property owners on Association Drive are in support of the county’s current proposed grid of streets.

The proposal is moving alongside a Site-Specific Plan Amendment currently under review for Association Drive. That proposal calls for shifting the zoning from office uses to residential uses — including at 1900 and 1920 Association Drive.

“We can develop this property prior to the development of the other properties,” Winterhalter said.

The first few hundred of more than 2,000 residential units planned in Reston’s Isaac Newtown Square development are slated to come online.

At a Reston Planning and Zoning Committee meeting on Monday (March 20), APA Properties and Peter Lawrence Co. offered a glimpse of a final development plan for the apartment building.

Andrew Painter, a representative for the development team, noted that a previous plan for townhouses on another portion of the property was dropped due to rising mortgage rates and changes in the housing market. Amid ongoing negotiations, the team then shifted to the current development plan.

“It’s basically 10 pedestrian-friendly development blocks,” Painter said, referring to the entire development.

The first building will have a maximum of seven stories with up to 345 residential units, 47 of which will be set aside as workforce dwelling units. The site is currently in the process of being razed and cleared.

The development is bounded to the south by the Washington & Old Dominion Trail, the west by Hidden Creek Country Club, and the east by Wiehle Avenue.

The apartment building is part of a 32-acre development approved by the county in 2019. Once completed, the mixed-use neighborhood will include 2.8 million square feet of new construction, including 2,100 residential units, 300 hotel rooms, 260,000 square feet of office space and nearly 69,000 square feet of retail uses.

An on-road bicycle lane and 10-foot-wide shared-use path is proposed on the western side of Wiehle Avenue, along with an 8-foot trail as part of open space on the northern side of the building called Nature’s Edge Park. A 6-foot elevated sidewalk is proposed as part of Willow Oak Park — another park on the southern front of the building.

The conceptual development plan was approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 2019, followed by work with an arborist to find ways to maintain willow oak trees on the property. A final plan for road and infrastructure work was approved by the Fairfax County Planning Commission in October 2021.

The applicant is now working through the county review process on the final development plan for Block N2, which consists of the apartment building. Final development plans only require planning commission approval.

Planning and zoning committee memebers lauded the development team for the design of the buildings.

Mike Jennings, a committee member, said he was happy the architecture did not mirror what he called a “spreadsheet facade” that looks like an Excel spreadsheet with darkened areas.

“I really like this plan, this design…the amount of park and dog space and recreation…things that we commonly we don’t get any of,” Jennings said.

One of Fair Lakes’ first office buildings — Parkway Woods — could flip into a residential development.

TPC Hornbaker LC is seeking the county’s permission to redevelop the three-story office building and parking lot spread across nearly 4.4 acres into an apartment building.

The development application, which targets 12801 Fair Lakes Parkway, argues that higher office vacancies and lower office and retail demand justify the need for redevelopment.

The existing office building was first built in 1987 and is roughly 64,000 square feet in size.

“Many of Fair Lakes’ first generation office buildings, including Parkway Woods, must now compete with newer buildings in transit-served mixed-use submarkets in Northern Virginia which have a strong brand identity, modern infrastructure, floor plates, and amenities, and closer proximity to Metrorail,” the March 17 application says.

The plan lays out two options for redevelopment.

The first option would include two phases with two residential buildings totaling 317 units. The first phase would include a nine-story, 204-unit building, including 16 workforce dwelling units (WDU), and the second phase would include 113 units with nine WDUs across seven stories.

The proposed building heights are around 110 feet and 80 feet, respectively.

The second option stipulates a single 289-unit residential building with 23 WDUs. That building would be roughly 75 feet tall.

Both options will include a fitness center, meeting rooms, outdoor recreation areas and seating areas.

“The proposed residential development has been designed to be cohesive with adjacent parcels and does not increase the overall intensity of Fair Lakes as a whole,” the application says.

Approval of the project would require rezoning. The application is in the early stages of the county’s redevelopment process and has not yet been accepted for review.

Spring Hill Road in McLean has no townhouses now, and at least some area residents are unconvinced that there should be any in the future.

During a workshop on Thursday (March 9), the Fairfax County Planning Commission preliminarily advanced a request for more density at the northwest corner of Spring Hill Road and the Dulles Airport Access Road, but said the concept plan must be revised before it’s fully considered.

The decision came after homeowners spoke in opposition to the Spring Hill Assemblage development proposed for the 4.97-acre site.

“There are a number of issues, and they need to be thoughtfully viewed,” Dranesville District Commissioner John Ulfelder said, pointing to compatibility with the surrounding neighborhoods, site access and open space utilization as factors that need to be reviewed.

As part of the county’s Site-Specific Plan Amendment (SSPA) process, property owner Spring Hill Road Investments LLC is asking the county to allow three to four dwelling units per acre at 1336, 1340, 1344 and 1348 Spring Hill Road. The parcels are currently zoned for just one unit per acre, with a future density of two to three units envisioned by the Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan.

There’s “a disconnect” what the comprehensive plan allows and “the reality of how that redevelopment can occur,” according to Matt Roberts, a principal at Hirschler Law who’s representing the developer.

Past attempts to develop the site under the existing plan guidance haven’t worked out, because they “always come in more dense,” he told the planning commission.

“What we see with the SSPA process is an opportunity to address that issue. We can also do it in a way that respects the existing neighborhood and align ourselves with county housing and planning goals,” he said, noting that the proposed concept consolidates the lots and vehicular access points while offering “ample opportunities for on-site open space.”

However, McLean residents challenged the claim that increased density is necessary to make development “economically viable,” as stated in the statement of justification for the SSPA nomination.

Many of the benefits touted by the developer — including open space, trail connections and the new site entrance — could be achieved without altering the comprehensive plan, argued representatives of the McLean Hunt Estates Civic Association and the Lewinsville Coalition, which has homeowners on Lewinsville Road to the north of the property.

“The applicant mentions on-site amenities and recreational areas without defining what they might be,” Irwin Auerback with the Lewinsville Coalition said. “It is hard to imagine how there can be much usable open space on 4.97 acres at the requested density.”

The coalition believes “the amendment is unjustified and would be detrimental to the neighborhood” and fears that “making such a change would open the way for similar actions on other properties in the future,” he concluded.

The Spring Hill Assemblage concept plan calls for 19 townhouses — five more than the maximum currently recommended, county staff confirmed. Read More

An aging office park on Centreville Road could get new life as a developer moves to replace the property with a residential development.

An affiliate of K. Hovnanian Homes hopes to redevelop an office building at 3078 Centreville Road and a neighboring lot into a residential development called Lincoln Park II. The new complex would have 84 stacked townhouse units and 93 traditional townhouse units.

First reported by the Washington Business Journal, the proposal aims to complement Discovery Square, a residential development to the south of the property, according to a March 1 application submitted to Fairfax County.

Owned by the McLean company Toto LLC, the nearly 94,000-square-foot existing office building was built in 2001 and is not fully leased. A second office building that got approved for the site was never built, according to the application.

In the application, the developer says the redevelopment proposal is the “best” opportunity to advance the mixed-use vision for the Dulles Suburban Center.

“As has been the situation with many suburban, non-transit-oriented office parks, the market for additional office/light industrial never fully emerged for this Property and the unbuilt portion has remained vacant for more than 20 years, despite being site plan approved for development at a similar level to its sister parcel,” David Gill, a land use lawyer representing the developer, said in a statement of justification.

The 177-unit development, if approved, would front Eds Drive and Centreville Road. A central green is planned, along with several pockets of open space.

An existing curb cut on Eds Drive and Centreville Road will be used for vehicular access.

The county is also currently reviewing another application — submitted through the Site-Specific Plan Amendment plan process — that could redevelop land south of Discovery Square into 50 townhouses and four live-work units.

The long-awaited redevelopment of Reston’s Golf Course Plaza office building near Isaac Newton Square is going to remain a reality only on paper for a while longer.

The project is being delayed once again due to “market changes” that have required the landowner Golf Course Plaza LLC to secure new financing, attorney Shane Murphy said in a Feb. 12 letter to Fairfax County Zoning Evaluation Division Director Suzanne Wright.

First reported by the Washington Business Journal, the letter asks the county to confirm if commercial uses can resume in the building at 11480 Sunset Hills Road while the redevelopment remains on hold.

“The Landowner intends to continue the previously-established commercial office and private school/day care facility uses on the Property,” Murphy wrote. “Tenants have been identified and have asked the Landowner to provide zoning confirmation prior to seeking the requisite Non-Residential Use Permits.”

A redevelopment plan for the 3-acre parcel next to the Hidden Creek Golf Course was submitted to the county in 2016. The proposal sought to replace the existing three-story office building and accompanying parking lot with a 392,600-square-foot, 413-unit multifamily residential building.

However, that plan stalled in 2017 and didn’t reemerge until 2019, when the developer requested that the number of units be reduced to 300.

Approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 24, 2019, the project seemed ready to move forward, with all commercial tenants vacating the office building in September 2021. Golf Course Overlook, as the development is called, had even applied for demolition and construction permits, most recently in April 2022.

The letter doesn’t specify what “subsequent market changes” necessitated another delay, but it argues that the county’s zoning ordinance allows old land uses no longer permitted under a site’s approved zoning to continue as long as they ceased operating less than two years ago.

Tenants who vacated the office building included The Callan Law Firm, Bar-T daycare and Berthold Academy, a private Montessori school that relocated to Herndon but has since permanently closed.

Murphy didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from FFXnow, but his letter indicates that the newly identified tenants will be similar to the previous ones.

“The timing of this occupancy is particularly critical because most schools begin their scholastic programs in the late Summer months, meaning the tenants need to quickly perform necessary improvements to the interior space to prepare for student occupancy,” he wrote.

While the Golf Course Overlook project is in limbo, the redevelopment of Isaac Newton Square to the east is still advancing. Some low-rise buildings in the 32-acre office park have been demolished, and a plan for the first piece — a 345-unit apartment building — was filed with the county in January.

To the west, the Hidden Creek Golf Course will remain after the Board of Supervisors rejected proposed comprehensive plan amendments that would’ve opened up both of Reston’s golf courses to redevelopment.

Fairfax County hopes to make use of American Rescue Plan funding to help provide housing for some of those most in need.

In a meeting of the Board of Supervisors Housing Committee last week, staff from the Department of Housing and Community Development said a tranche of federal funding could help local residents in more extreme levels of poverty than most affordable housing programs in the county assist.

“This is a rare funding opportunity specifically targeted to reducing homelessness and can serve populations at the extreme low end of the spectrum,” said Thomas Barnett, deputy director of the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness. “This provides not just housing, but money for supportive services that we know people need.”

Fairfax County was awarded $7.88 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

According to the presentation to the committee:

HOME-ARP funds must be used to primarily benefit individuals or families from the following qualifying populations:

• Homeless
• At risk of homelessness
• Those fleeing, or attempting to flee, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking
• Other families requiring services or housing assistance to prevent homelessness
• Households at greatest risk of housing instability

Barnett said there are around 88 permanent supportive housing projects in the pipeline that the nearly $8 million in federal funding could go toward. The funding comes as Fairfax County deals with an uptick in people experiencing homelessness, caused in large part by the pandemic and related economic turmoil.

“Chronic homelessness has increased disproportionately during the pandemic,” Barnett said. “[It’s] up 34% in the last 5 years.”

Even within that category, some supervisors said they’d like to see funding targeted specifically on addressing youth homelessness. The most recent Point-in-Time Count — a survey of people experiencing homelessness in the span of one night — found 91 people between the ages of 18-24 experiencing homelessness in Fairfax County.

“We have, as you point out, a rare funding opportunity with a big infusion of funds,” Board Chairman Jeff McKay said. “I’m still troubled by, when we get that Point-in-Time Count, that homeless youth count…I would like more information coming back as to what strategies we might employ to help with that, to use this rare opportunity funding to solve what we know is always a difficult thing to work with under normal circumstances, can any of this be used to accelerate that.”

An office building adjacent to Freedom Hill Elementary School is the latest commercial property in Tysons to be considered for housing instead.

The owner of 8221 Old Courthouse Road has submitted a proposal to Fairfax County that would convert the existing three-story office building into 55 one and two-bedroom apartment units, including six designated as workforce housing.

Filed on Friday (Feb. 10), the application says the conversion will address the need for housing to serve Tysons’ growing population, while revitalizing an “underutilized” site, as the office market continues to cool.

“With pressure from newly delivered office space with high quality amenities growing, older office space in the Tysons office-heavy market is declining as demand for multifamily continues to increase,” Robert Brant, a legal agent for the property owner, wrote in a statement of justification. “The proposed office-to-residential conversion will infuse the neighborhood with some new renewed foot traffic.”

Built in 1986, the office building is on a 87,472-square-foot site owned by 8221 Old Courthouse Road LC, an affiliate of the housing developer Dittmar Company, according to county property records.

Current tenants include Northern Virginia Foot & Ankle Associates, an Atlantic Union Bank and the software company Armedia. However, vacancies “are expected to increase dramatically in the next few years,” the application says.

Renovations are also needed, but the owner has determined they’re “not viable” based on “the current and future outlook for the office market.”

“However, the property is well suited for residential use, being located on the edge of Tysons and adjacent to an elementary school site,” Brant said.

According to the application, the shell of the existing building would be retained, along with a 5-foot-tall brick wall separating the property from Freedom Hill Elementary. No changes to the building footprint or height are proposed.

However, the developer is seeking to eliminate 90 spaces from the surface parking lot, leaving 66 total spaces to serve the new residents.

The parking reduction will allow for a 7,000-square-foot, publicly accessible park along Old Courthouse Road, featuring “a meandering trail,” benches and gardens. The applicant also intends to provide approximately 8,400 square feet of private, outdoor amenity space for residents, including outdoor seating and grilling stations.

According to the submitted plan, the project will reduce the amount of impervious surface, which currently covers 81% of the property, and add landscaping, including an 8-foot-wide buffer between the street and sidewalk on both Old Courthouse Road to the north and Lord Fairfax Drive to the west.

As part of the project, the applicant says it will widen the sidewalks on Old Courthouse and Lord Fairfax to 8 feet wide and 6 feet, respectively.

“New pedestrian paths in the public park space, around the building, along the southern Property line, and to the building entrances at the front and rear…will be provided,” the application says.

The rezoning application hasn’t yet been formally accepted for review by the county.

Photo via Google Maps

The Fairfax County Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of plans for a 113-unit independent living facility in Seven Corners.

The vote, which included one abstention at the Feb. 8 meeting, sends the proposal from First Christian Church and developer Wesley Housing to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for a public hearing on Feb. 21.

Mason District Commissioner Daren Shumate said that the county worked with neighboring residents to tackle two major contentious issues involving the project: increased stormwater runoff in a problematic area and the scale of the project at 6165 Leesburg Pike.

The 7-acre parcel is currently developed with a nearly 27,500-square-foot church.

Aaron Vinson, a civil engineer with Walter L. Phillips, Inc., said the applicant worked to divert runoff away from Ravenwood Park in response to concerns from neighbors and residents about increased stormwater runoff in an area that already floods routinely.

He said the applicant’s stormwater runoff plan diverts runoff towards a “better functioning pipe system.”

Shumate also noted that the actual facade of the building facing a residential parcel is three stories.

“The intent of matching the look and feel of the neighborhood has been met,” Shumate said.

Despite giving the project its support, the commission cautioned that the county should continue to examine stormwater runoff in the area.

Franconia District Commissioner Daniel Lagana said the Virginia Department of Transportation is undertaking a study of the area in response to community concerns. At a public hearing on Feb. 1, residents described what Lagana said were serious concerns.

Shumate said the county is working with residents on the issue. Specifically, the county has given one resident sandbags to manage stormwater runoff near their home.

“The county needs to be very cognizant of these stormwater issues,” he said, adding that the sandbag step was only a temporary solution to what appears to be a bigger problem.

Braddock District Commissioner Mary Cortina said that the commission did recommend language for a Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan amendment that better managed stormwater runoff in the area — but the suggestion was not ultimately adopted by the Board of Supervisors.

“As a commission, we heard the residents,” Cortina said. “…We have to keep our eye on the ball with stormwater definitely.”