Environmental group hopes to prevent developers from buying Annandale land
Fairfax County has again put up for auction seven undeveloped properties in Annandale in a flood plain next to Accotink Creek.
The land owner, the Al Root Memorial Foundation, hasn’t paid taxes in years, so according to state law, the county has to auction off the properties to the highest bidder.
The auction ends Tuesday, May 31.
The Northern Virginia Conservation Trust (NVCT) and other environmental groups have argued that the forested properties should be preserved as parkland and not sold to a developer.
Related story: Conservation group wants to prevent development of vacant Annandale properties
The properties are accessible from Spicewood Court, near Woodburn Road.
The county was initially planning to auction them last fall but agreed to postpone the auction until this spring to give the NVCT or other nonprofit time to raise enough money to buy the land in partnership with the Park Authority.
Without a deal to sell the land, the auction now must go forward.
Mason Supervisor Penny Gross and Board Chair Jeffrey McKay assured NVCT Executive Director Alan Rowsome that it would be unlikely that the county would approve a rezoning application to permit development.
Since the properties are in a flood plain, they are considered undevelopable, Rowsome says, but a developer could try to seek a waiver.
He is particularly concerned that one of the properties, 8400 Spicewood Court, includes a portion of the Gerry Connolly Cross County Trail. If that parcel is sold at auction, the buyer could block access to the trail. “We can’t allow that to happen,” Rowsome says.
The seven properties are being auctioned off separately, with starting bids ranging from $12,000 to $20,000.
The NVCT has raised enough money to buy them – if they stay at those prices – but is concerned that there could be a bidding war, resulting in substantially higher prices.
In addition, Rowsome says, someone could buy the land at auction and then try to sell it to NVCT later at a higher price.
NVCT has contacted the owners of the surrounding single-family homes to see if they are interested in buying them or making a donation to ensure the land stays out of the hands of developers.
Meanwhile, the organization is continuing to accept donations from the public. Donations can be made here.
Related story: Fairfax County removes flood-prone Annandale properties from land auction
“The Spicewood Court properties present a truly rare opportunity to preserve a unique EQC (environmental quality corridor) by protecting natural resources into the future,” states a May 5 letter to the Board of Supervisors from the NVCT, Great Falls Group of Sierra the Club, Audubon Naturalist Society, and Friends of Accotink Creek,
“Acquiring them would allow the county to expand accessibility and provide a much-needed natural safeguard for Accotink Creek,” the letter states. “With a cumulative assessed value of just $146,000 for seven properties, this investment is a no-brainer.”
These seven parcels are functionally a part of the park that borders them on three sides. They are located entirely in the floodplain and resource protection buffer along Accotink Creek. We need to preserve wooded habitats like these for the health of streams, wildlife, and the Chesapeake Bay.
I’m bidding on those plats, and putting up multi-family units if I win. You can’t it both ways — providing housing and keeping land. Do you choose those experiencing homelessness, or swampy trees covered in vines? Support the economy and those less fortunate. Burn those trees to the ground.
Except that likely will not be approved to rezone to build… Flood plain. I grew up there and it floods often and has gotten so much worse over the years.
Thanks to developers who tear down trees, increase run-off and destroy habitat, the planet is being made inhospitable for all, including the homeless.
How many trees have you planted lately? My group planted hundreds.
If you like the roof over your head, thank a developer.
You’re welcome.
Plenty of others want a roof over their heads too.
Denying them that basic human right is the height of selfishness and hypocrisy.
First of all, troll, I don’t believe that you’re putting in a serious bid. Second, troll, you’d have to be kinda stupid to think that the solution to homelessness is to just keep cutting down trees. Third, you’re a troll.
Typical greedy developer–no concern about the environment ever or people who want and need nature. Nothing matters to you people except money, money, money. Nature hater!
If the county really cared about preserving land, the Board would have cut a deal to sell the land to the Park Authority or NVCT for $1. McKay and Gross can’t guarantee anything about the land’s future in the hands of a developer.
Hilarious Ari! No homeless person would be able to afford housing in that area. If more multifamily housing were built that would be one thing, but that is not what would happen there because it is a flooplain. Prosperity Avenue floods everytime it rains so those trees provide a valuable service because the flooding would be much worse if they weren’t there. Plus they provide oxygen so you can spew what you do.
Save me the YIMBY bull. How about you buy some of the empty office space and turn it into residential units instead of destroying our planet and ruining the neighborhood?
I vote for Zach!
Me too!
How is the cross county trail located on one of these properties, and doesn’t the development of the trail on of these properties imply that an improvement has been done, and as such, adverse possession might be claimed, for at least that one property?
This is being auctioned off by the county tax department which is a process granted by the state. It isn’t a typical situation where the land can be seized because the state doesn’t grant that right to the county. These rules need to be changed so where there is a clear environmental benefit and the taxes are in arrears the county should be able to seize it and sell it directly to the Park Authority or another group to preserve it like NVCT. But state law would have to change for that to happen. It’s complicated and this isn’t an eminent domain situation. This BOS has no problem seizing land for pavement but doesn’t recognize the value these parcels provide.
If the land is truly a floodplain and can’t be built on, how could it be worth anything to any developer? Why can’t the county condemn it to preserve it? They essentially own the land now since it’s in arrears for taxes.
The County won’t sell the property to the Park Authority, or otherwise take possession of it, because they think they can get (a) back-tax owed money from it and (b) continuing tax money from it going forward.
So the County has put a $20,000 (or whatever) assessment value on the land.
They are going to sell it to a developer, who will then necessarily be allowed to DEVELOP the property. Penny Gross can’t be serious when she says it’s “unlikely” that the County won’t grant the zoning needed.
The developers will demand that the property be rezoned, otherwise they would sue the County. Probably for more than the initial $20,000. (Plus the County would have to spend a hallf-million dollars defending itself.)
And after the County sells this land, grants the zoning and development permits, and some kind of housing it built there, the County will once again be getting it’s annual tax revenue from the property.
And, yes, the park trail will be cut off at the property boundary.
That is the plan.
Exactly!
Why is there no county plan for increasing green space? This seems like an easy county project, get on it GROSS!