Historic Overlay District proposed for Holmes Run Acres
Holmes Run Acres residents appear to be divided on whether their community should have a Historic Overlay District (HOD).
How residents stand on the issue won’t be known until October when the results of a poll will be announced. The poll opened Aug. 1 and will close Sept. 9.
Supporters say an HOD will prevent homeowners from destroying the character of the neighborhood, while opponents assert that designation will drive up the costs of renovation projects.
Mid-century modern
According to a presentation by county staff, an HOD is a zoning tool aimed at preserving buildings and neighborhoods that have a historical or cultural significance.
The houses in Holmes Run Acres, built-in 1951-58, have a mid-century modern style featuring open floor plans, plywood panels, sliding windows, large windows facing the street, low-sloped roofs, and prominent brick chimneys.
The houses were situated to harmonize with the natural topography and to provide maximum privacy.
The HOD proposal surfaced a couple of years ago when the Holmes Run Acres Civic Association asked the county to consider establishing an HOD with the goal of preventing homeowners from tearing down original homes and replacing them with out-of-character mcmansions.
A petition showed 72 percent of homeowners supported research on a potential HOD. In January 2022, the Board of Supervisors directed county staff to consider the possible establishment of an HOD.
The study area comprises about 145 acres with 366 properties generally located between Gallows Road, Surrey Lane, Holmes Run, Holmes Run Drive, and Sycamore Drive.
Building permit reviews
County planners are drafting a Comprehensive Plan amendment outlining how a proposed HOD would work in Holmes Run Acres.
The Board of Supervisors will make the final determination. If the BoS approves an HOD, staff will submit a rezoning application. The community’s current R-3 zoning designation (allowing three homes per acre) would not change.
Holmes Run Acres was added to the county inventory of historic sites in 1977, the Virginia Landmarks Register in 2006, and the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
All of these listings are considered honorary and offer no preservation protection. An HOD, however, would be enforceable.
The HOD study area encompasses several properties excluded from the National Register, including the Holmes Run Recreation Association, Woodburn Elementary School, and several homes on upper Executive Avenue and Gallows Road.
If an HOD is approved for Holmes Run Acres, Fairfax County’s Architectural Review Board (ARB) would assess building permit applications and site plans to ensure new construction and exterior renovations would fit in with the historic character of the community.
The ARB would base its decisions on design guidelines being established by the county and the EHT Traceries consulting firm. ARB approval would be required for exterior renovations but not for interior alterations.
Some of the character-defining elements at Holmes Run Acres include post-and-beam construction, minimal ornamentation, the prolific use of glass, low-sloped gable or shed roofs with wide-eave overhangs, and large brick chimneys. Materials include wood, brick, brick veneer, and poured pebble asphalt roofs.
Staff determined that about 58 homes have already been modified to the extent that they no longer contribute to the community’s historic character.
Related story: Neighborhood Spotlight: Holmes Run Acres is an architectural gem
The staff report is expected to be published in January 2023. Public hearings are tentatively scheduled before the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors next February and March.
County staff are proceeding with the study regardless of the results of the ongoing poll of residents, although the poll results will be included in the staff report.
The only way the HOD issue will not go forward is if there is enough opposition for Mason Supervisor Penny Gross to recommend that it not be brought before the Board of Supervisors.
More red tape
A group of Holmes Run Acres residents who oppose the HOD sent a postcard to residents urging them to vote No on the HOD poll.
HOD opponent Mary Howe, who has lived in Holmes Run Acres for 38 years, calls the HOD “another layer of governmental bureaucracy.”
Having to gain approval from the ARB could add two to three months to a project, while the required documentation for a complex project could cost more than $5,000, she says. If the ARB rejects a proposal, an appeal would be even more costly.
According to opponents of the HOD, the process has been confusing. People who wanted the county to carry out the study didn’t realize it would go forward without community endorsement, Howe says. “Now, it’s out of our hands.”
An HOD could make it harder to sell a home, she says, as potential buyers would have to go through a lot more red tape if they want to make improvements. She also predicts mortgage rates and homeowners’ insurance costs would increase.
“I love our community. I raised five kids here. I love my neighbors,” Howe says. “No matter the outcome, it’s still a wonderful community.”
The purpose of an HOD is not to punish the homeowner,” states resident Edith MacArthur in a message to residents.
“Rather, the purpose of an HOD is to put the pause button on teardowns,” MacArthur says, “and to help us all understand the significance of what we have and why we should honor it in our renovations and additions – and to do so while allowing us to still modernize our homes and retain their value.”
20 responses to “Historic Overlay District proposed for Holmes Run Acres”
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Did you know it costs $25k tax just to put a pool in, in Fairfax County?
Those mid-century homes are ugly. A post-war thrifty way to build homes so everyone could have one. Like a Honda Civic. Not sure why anyone would want to preserve that look. Do you have a “antique” license plate on your civic?
Adam, perhaps you should take a class in Architecture. McMansions are generally constructed in poor taste, these add to increased parking needs, litter the landscape with ugly, bring down adjacent property values and add to climate change by increasing the heat island effect. The county is too greedy for tax dollars and ignorant to do anything about the expanse of these oversized monstrosities.
Look at Gallows Road, some of the new house are on steroids. Why would anyone need 20’ high columns flanking their entryway. Do they think that gives them class? Nope, all it says is that the owners lack class by promoting fake opulence. Sort of like the gold toilet seat man!The only thing that these monstrosities are good for is increasing the owners maintenance, taxes and energy dollars.
The mid-century modern houses can be repurposed to be gems and meet the demands of the way people live today, and have much greater dollar value in the future than their McMansion counterparts.
I hate McMansions. Why is there one company in Virginia that builds the same blue and white dollhouse over and over?
All the unemployed west coast architects should come here. They’d make a killing.
MCM homes are still dumb.
This is a difficult issue. Appreciating history and charming architecture is important but people also purchased the land and homes under a set of rules and regulations they agreed to at the time such as the ability to tear down and build new should they choose to. I could only see this moving forward with some sort of grandfather clause and anyone who purchases after a certain date will be subject to the new rules. I bought a house in a non-hoa for the exact scenario of tearing down in 10 years and building new. I did my research on the zoning, future county planning, flood forecasting, etc. if the county one day showed up and said “you can no longer do what you want with your own house” I would be straight up pissed.
I live in HRA and voted ‘no’ on the original poll (three years ago) for precisely this reason. The County didn’t even mention a grandfather clause, which means all the people who vote ‘no’ are still stripped of their property rights after spending nearly $1M to buy their homes. You won’t be surprised to hear there are neighbors talking class action lawsuit.
Make no mistake, the HOD was brought forth to combat tear-downs and McMansions, for which there have been a total of (2) in the 70-year history of HRA. Both tear-downs were houses in poor condition. Both are owner-occupied by the individuals who built them. One of these families razed their house and built a contemporary home; the other purchased his “Handyman special / below avg condition” property (as the Fairfax Co assessment database called it) from an estate representative, tore down the structure, and built the residence that he and his family now occupy.
Any nod to history of the Historic Overlay District is being done only as a pretext to stopping development. I deliberately bought into a community without architecture oversight, and now my neighbors are trying to impose one on me.
Homeowners should realize this is the only way to protect your investment. Developers are waiting impatiently to go in to tear down these beautiful mid-century, treed lot, homes so they can build McMansions with apartments in them to make as much money as possible. If you care about your amazing community you should be grateful that you have this choice and fight as hard as you can to keep it.
There have been numerous homes in Holmes Run Acres that have been gutted and reimagined as MCM homes – by tax paying homeowners, no less!
There have been numerous homes in Holmes Run Acres that have been expanded and remodeled as MCM homes – by tax paying homeowners, no less!
There have been numerous homes in Holmes Run Acres that were aging in place, were purchased by Cook Architecture, were totally renovated, and sold to new tax paying homeowners, no less!
https://www.cookarchitecture.com/projects/holmes-run-acres-home-i
https://www.cookarchitecture.com/projects/holmes-run-acres-home-ii
All of these homes are Owner Occupied – not owned by Investors. Real Estate Taxes rose due to substantial improvements to these Properties.
Holmes Run Acres is not a target for Developers.
There are no Bulldozers lurking in the streets of Holmes Run Acres waiting to fell homes.
In 75 years, no developer has ever torn down a home in this neighborhood, so… where’s your evidence that developers are lurking all along Gallows waiting for us all to sell?
And why exactly should all Fairfax County taxpayers pay to fund an ARB that preserves OUR million-dollar homes? Mason District (where we sit) is the poorest district in Fairfax. Does it seem fair to you that all the immigrants here who live below the poverty line and struggle to pay their rent should fund this ARB? Cuz they will.
On the topic of McMansions: There have been two constructed in the Acres. Two in 70 years. That is <1% of our Mid-century Modern (MCM) housing stock lost to demolition.
All of this concern was kicked off by two houses. We are being asked to surrender property rights in perpetuity because two owners tore down their homes and replaced them with larger non-MCM homes. Not property developers, owners.
Developers have actually worked hard to preserve and update many houses in the neighborhood. It may seem counter-intuitive, but there is so much value in our architecture there are already strong incentives to keep it in place and make it work for the future.
It seems the object of concern is really what we do with our own houses, not what developers will do with them.
One of the main issues for me is that the HOD will be punitive for present and future owners of the smaller houses in the neighborhood. Many of our houses are under 1,000 square feet with one bathroom. Although people buy these houses because they are modest, most have an idea that they will expand the houses as their families expand. The added bureaucracy will take time and add to their costs. I genuinely want to encourage young families to move into the neighborhood, not exclude them by making the neighborhood even more expensive.
I think everyone in the neighborhood would like to preserve the elements that make it a great place to live, not just the structures, but more importantly the variety of people that live in them.
Don’t D.C. my Virginia. I don’t want to lower housing costs so a variety of people move into my neighborhood, thank you very much. I like my neighbors and don’t want to replace them with whatever bigoted selection criteria is in vogue this week. If you want a “variety” of neighbors and lower housing costs, go to Culmore, Bailey’s, or Landmark. How are things going there?
Racist NIMBYs usually hide behind coded language like “neighborhood character” and such. But, wow, you really came out and said the quiet part out loud — you want to government to restrict housing development because you don’t want to live next to “those people”…
She did say the quiet part out loud, and she’s 100% correct. You know it, you just don’t have the courage to admit it.
I was on the neighborhood group that worked with the County to develop the guidelines. When the first draft came in, we were horrified. We started this whole project—and sold it to our neighbors—as a way to control massing. We wanted lower height limits and larger setbacks. That was it. Now there’s 118 pages of “guidelines” that “suggest” roof materials, landscaping designs, where satellite dishes should sit, front door colors, and a hundred other micromanagey details. This is not what this neighborhood signed on for.
The County claims that the Zoning Ordinance won’t allow lower heights and larger setbacks unless we establish an HOD and give up our rights to determine our own home designs. Guess who wrote the Zoning Ordinance? The County! So they can rewrite the Zoning Ordinance to make these things possible WITHOUT an HOD.
That’s what we should be fighting for.
The lesson- never involve the government.
Wow, quite an assortment of comments! I live in an area where there are quite a few upgrades and teardowns to create larger more modern homes. Some seem to fit into the overall character of the area, but many are in very bad taste. Not sure how to control the extremes, but developers and owners will build what ‘sells’ in their area. Need to keep the county imposed HOD rules to a minimum. Common sense should prevail, or so one would hope.
I am new to HRA – bought my house within the past 5 years. While I am sympathetic to the prevention of mcmansions this whole HOD study has gone quite out of control. We expected the guidelines to control basic things like massing but the document they delivered to the community regulates things that basically amount to aesthetics. Color, roof shape, window placements, landscaping, even light fixtures!! The county also had a hard time justifying why some of these things were included at the community meeting – and most of them were prepared by consultants anyway. Also, 20% of the houses have been changed enough to be non-contributing so the neighborhood isnt even uniform today.
I like the idea, but I don’t think it will pass for this particular neighborhood.
There are many older neighborhoods nearby that could use protection from developers and homeowners alike building grossly massive completely out of character homes.
IMPORTANT and MISSING COMPONENTS:
Rewrite of the Historic Overlay District Design Guidelines
–> The County is working with a consultant, EHT Traceries, to complete the rewrite of the entire set of the historic overlay district design guidelines.
Comments made in the Sept 8 2022 ARB Meeting
–> The over-arching HOD Guidelines for the the County are a 1992 version, with revisions/updates still not complete.
–> The finalizing of the County HOD Guidelines are on hold until DPD is staffed up to be able to handle it.
The Fairfax County Zoning Ordinance stipulates that the Fairfax County Architectural Review Board adopt design guidelines in order to review applications for rehabilitation, new construction and exterior alterations.
Section 3101 of the Zoning Ordinance explicitly states that the guidelines will be based upon standards designed to preserve the historic integrity of the district.
Updated guidelines should be consistent with the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act legislation and terminology utilized by the National Park Service.
Forging ahead without a set of Final HOD Guidelines at the County level is tantamount to taking money from your mother’s purse without asking her first. No unrestricted neighborhood should be pursuing an overlay so haphazardly.