77 townhouses planned for Columbia Pike
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| This house on Powell Lane will be torn down to make way for townhouses. |
Stanley Martin Homes plans to start work soon on the development of 77 townhouses on Columbia Pike between Powell Lane and Madison Lane. Two long-time businesses on that site, Rosslyn Auto Body and Nicholls Imported and Domestic Car Service, have relocated.
Site preparation for the Ambrose Hills community is expected to start within the next two or three weeks, and demolition would start in late September or early October, says J. Truett Young, director of land acquisition for Stanley Martin. Construction of the models would start in May 2015, with the first sales taking place around August.
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| These auto shops will be demolished within the next few months. |
The property had been rezoned by Fairfax County about 14 years ago and approved for redevelopment, but the project stalled due to several issues.
The new townhouses would be about 2,000 square feet and would range from 19 to 22 feet wide. Some would have garages in the front; others would have rear garages. The prices haven’t been set, and Stanley Martin doesn’t have illustrations to share yet.
The company has submitted a request to the Virginia Department of Transportation to study the need for a traffic signal at Columbia Pike and Powell Lane. Young is confident that it will be approved and the signal could be installed next year. Access to the new development would be from Powell.
Site preparation will include filling in the land and possibly removing hazardous materials in the ground left over from the auto shops. In the 1960s, the land was even lower than it is now and had been filled in improperly with “nonstructural fill materials” from a building that had collapsed in another location, Young says. To prepare the land for building, Stanley Martin will carry out a “dynamic compaction” procedure.
Before all that happens, though, the underground stormwater facility will be improved and redirected to bring water from the other side of Columbia Pike to Holmes Run
The site consists of two properties. Stanley Martin purchased one plot from from Landmark Atlantic, which had initially planned to develop there, and the other from Arthur Walters. The Walters plot, next to Powell Lane, has a vacant, derelict house on it that will be torn down.
Landmark, which built the adjacent Madison Place townhouse community in the late 1990s, succeeded in getting the site rezoned in 1999 from a commercial use (C-8) to planned development housing (PDH-20), which requires the establishment of a homeowners association.
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| Heavy rains cause periodic flooding on Columbia Pike. |
By the time Landmark started planning to develop on the site, the housing market collapsed. Meanwhile a stormwater study determined that to address flooding on Columbia Pike, the stormwater system needed to be relocated.
The only way to make that work would be to install the pipes under Walters’ property but he refused to allow an easement and wasn’t interested in selling his property at that time. He later changed his mind so the project is going forward.
18 responses to “77 townhouses planned for Columbia Pike”
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Just what we need. :/
Actually it's a big improvement over what is there right now, specially if they really fix the stormwater problem.
Will the kids go to Belvedere or Parklawn?
Belvedere, Glasgow, and Stuart.
Word is that they are going to build a new elementary school on the lot of the temporary fire station
any link to verify your statement…?
http://annandaleva.blogspot.com/2014/07/bos-approves-motion-to-expedite.html
Thanks for the link, I thought the initial poster had current news and maybe does. The county is always going to build a school somewhere it seems. This lot, the sears lot, etc… Thanks though
No I don't have any new developments. I heard from an area businessman the other day that as soon as the fire station moves back into its permanent home that they would begin to move forward on the new school. The entire process should take a couple of years before construction begins
77 seems like a lot of homes for an already congested area.
I agree that 77 townhomes is way too many for our already overcrowded schools. They can build a new Elementary School but what about Middle and High School.
You could build 10 new schools but if you don't address and do something about what is causing the overcrowding problem at these schools then you will continue to have issues. Look at bailey's they bring in roughly 300 out of boundary students nearly 20% of the student population combine that with with many apartments in the surrounding area filled with multi-families who have kids attending the school and for good measure the birthrate among the Hispanic community is 3x+ that than non Hispanic and you get and overcrowded school. The problem is not the 77 townhouses, Heck you will probably have as many kids going to school from these 77 townhouses as you have from one apartment building in Culmore.
The streetcar will fix all of the transportation problems
Are you serious?
Actually, I am here at home, watching the taversty of useless tree destruction for the sewage line. Ruthless and senseless cutting down of trees…hearing the irritating chain saw brrrrrrr and hearing the thunderous thump as the tree comes down. It is sad and excessive.
Barb Weber
so much for the tree preservation that Fairfax county flaunts. the tree commission whatever they call themselves say they want the county 40% treed. however, i think they look at it in board feet. just who is getting the money from the tree devastation?
these 77 units are likely "affordable" housing. penny gross is the worst thing that ever happened to mason district. she needs to be voted out. elections are this fall. how about someone running against her.
Is this going to be cutting into the park there?