Community members speak out against redevelopment proposals in Annandale and Seven Corners
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| The Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center on Row Street in Seven Corners wants to develop a community center. |
Local residents spoke out against most of the six nominations for redevelopment projects in Mason District at a Planning Commission hearing last week.
The projects have been nominated for inclusion in Fairfax
County’s Comprehensive Plan Amendment Work Program for 2021. The Planning
Commission is scheduled to decide on Dec. 2 whether those proposals should move on to the
next level.
The proposal for a large mixed-use project in Annandale’s
west end drew the most opposition at the hearing. About 16 members of
the public urged the Planning Commission to reject that 830,000 square-foot
project between Little River Turnpike, Hummer Road, and Woodland Road.
The 10-acre site includes two existing office buildings
within the Annandale Community Business Center and six properties containing single-family
homes outside of the CBC. The plan calls for 575 units of multifamily housing, 156,000
square feet of office use, and 100,000 square feet of retail. It also proposes the CBC
be expanded to encompass the whole site.
Related story: Fairfax County staff oppose plan amendments for two projects in Annandale, one in Seven Corners
Fairfax County Planning staff opposes the project, mainly
because it would lead to commercial encroachment into a residential area, which
is discouraged by the Annandale section in the county’s Comprehensive Plan.
Residents of the Hummer Woods neighborhood and others who
live in the area along Hummer Road, Woodland Road, and Horseshoe Drive raised
many of the same concerns:
- Already-congested traffic would get worse.
- There would be no transition between single-family homes and
the proposed multifamily buildings. - High-density development is incompatible with single-family
homes and would destroy the rural character of the neighborhood. - None of the nearby commercial businesses along Hummer Road between Yechon and the 7-Eleven and along Little River Turnpike from
Chicken Loco to McDonald’s would be included in the project. - The development would have a negative impact on the ecosystem and
wildlife in nearby parks. - Increased traffic would be a safety hazard for children.
- Hummer Road and Little River Turnpike already have high
rates of accidents. - Annandale needs redevelopment, but a project like this would be better if located in central Annandale.
A Mason District task force formed to review the six
nominations voted 11 to 2 in support of the project. Task force member Joshua
Booth told the Planning Commission he supports the nomination with
modifications, because the area needs more housing.
Related story: Annandale residents say a large mixed-use development would destroy their neighborhood
The other proposed project in Annandale involves demolishing
the one-story Public Storage facility at 4312 Ravensworth Road and replacing it
with a four-story climate-controlled storage facility.
No one from the public commented on this proposal, but Bryan
Botello, a planner with Fairfax County, said the staff opposes it because the Comprehensive
Plan recommends residential or commercial development and discourages
self-storage businesses in central Annandale.
The plan for Annandale also recommends the consolidation of
smaller properties, but the Public Storage proposal would not incorporate
nearby commercial sites.
Mark Viani of Public Storage told the Planning Commission
the building could accommodate first-floor retail and allow for an internal street
grid within the block in the future.
The hearing also considered four plan nominations in Seven
Corners. One proposal, for affordable, senior housing on land owned by First
Christian Church on Leesburg Pike, was discussed in a previous blog post.
Another nomination for Seven Corners involves a proposal by
the Gibson family to build five to eight homes for seniors or the disabled on
their one-acre property at 6152 Leesburg Pike. No one spoke about that project
at the hearing.
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| The owners of this house at 6152 Leesburg Pike want to add up to eight small cottages in the rear lot for the elderly or disabled. |
Both the planning staff and task force recommend it be added
to the work program and that it should be considered in conjunction with a
proposal by the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center, which includes that property in a
larger redevelopment project.
Dar Al-Hijrah wants to build a community center and expand
its place of worship. It would acquire 10 parcels, including the Gibson property
and other lots containing single-family homes on Leesburg Pike, Row Street, and Munson
Hill Road.
Related story: Neighbors speak out against senior housing project at First Christian Church in Seven Corners
The community center would have a swimming pool, basketball
courts, and meeting rooms and would be open to the broader community. Previous
plans for retail and senior housing were dropped.
Matthew Sage of the Lee Boulevard Heights Citizens
Association said the neighborhood opposes the project because it would make
existing traffic congestion worse, exacerbate stormwater runoff, and increase
parking overflow on local streets.
The other Seven Corners project calls for a
90,000-square-foot nursing home/assisted living/memory care facility on a
4.4-acre property on Arlington Boulevard currently occupied by single-family
homes.
Planning staff, the Mason District task force, and local
residents oppose the project, generally because it’s not compatible with the
low-density surrounding neighborhood.
Joseph Pika, president of the Sleepy Hollow CitizensAssociation, said the project would “negatively change the look and feel of the
neighborhood” and would lead to increased traffic and flooding.
If a House of Worship gains control of the Gibson property it goes Tax Exempt and teh rest of the Seven Corners area must make up for the loss of revenue yet maintain the utilities and increased usage thereof, at least transitional housing as the owners propose remains in the real estate market.
This is an excellent summary of the reasons to write the Planning Commission before the vote on December 2 to oppose the notion that high density housing projects that remake our neighborhoods are always "progress." Making the lives of current residents miserable somehow doesn't seem to count as much as it should. Then there is the damage to future generations when mature trees– some 100+ years old — are bulldozed or die a slow death because of the environmental degradation. High density development should be confined to the many plentiful areas of Annandale that have already been paved over and have the infrastructure to support large scale building projects. This is exactly what the Comprehensive Plan envisions. We need to draw the line against sprawling canyons of concrete invading residential neighborhoods.
Amen Susan. Why does Mason District’s new development always have to be stupid and thoughtless? We can have development that doesn't destroy neighborhoods, take down every tree, and infill every piece of open space. In Penny's latest newsletter, she is begging Mason residents to report to the county any new tree that homeowner’s plant. That is because we are the worse district in the county for tree canopies and we are losing daily what little coverage we have. We don’t need enormous buildings like Al-Hijrah Islamic Center which would gobble up 7 nearby single-family homes and destroy the surrounding single-family neighborhood. We don’t need the First Christian Church to infill its open space and forest with as many low-income senior housing units as possible and infringe on the single-family neighborhood right behind it. Mason District is old and does not have the stormwater pipes needed to maintain such structures, nor the infrastructure for more traffic. The development in western Annandale is one of the worse self-aggrandizing proposals one could think of. It would take single-family houses behind it and pretends to propose a new Mosaic. It isn’t a new Mosaic. It’s just a developer’s plan to make money and leave. What happened to Fairfax County’s Fairfax Forward that proposed new developments that were comprehensive? That took into account all the surrounding areas. Many people will call me and anyone who is not in agreement with these new proposals Nimbys. That’s fine. I’d rather be called that than doing stupid development just for the sake of development. Carol T.
I hear you, Carol. Ironically, the people who call you a NIMBY on this blog are very likely the ones whose backyards actually WON'T be affected. Very much like the developers.
–kda
Kindly do a little REPORTING and tell us the members of the task force, who appointed them, what are their qualifications and training, how do they earn a liviing (is real estate development a part of their normal business activity???) what written justification did they have for this change — did they do a matric analysis of pros and cons that they made public??
All the Mason District Task Force members are selected by Penny. Penny said she selected residents who live in the areas where the nominations were made. Penny picked people who agree with her and her philosophy and her philosophy is that all development is good no matter if it is or isn't. Even though this Task Force had some smart folks on it they predictably were pro development and didn't take into account what the surrounding neighborhood residents had to say. There was one nomination on Route 50 that the Task Force voted against. Yes, that development was bad but not any worse than the other proposals they approved. No explaining.
There is a very valid point in this statement, and I am usually a NIMBY accuser! The great point here is that if we want to restructure for higher density we should start with redeveloping the massive wastes of space in the center of Annandale rather than this decentralized piece of land.
That being said, the population of our region is going to keep increasing whether you like it or not. We need to redevelop somehow and not every single-family homeowner is going to get their way in the process. We should focus on smart planning rather than approving projects like this that are obvious cash grabs (or as stated above: "a developer's plan to make money and leave"). The first step here is protecting the interests of the community at-large over the quick-and-easy money from these proposed developments.