Mason committee to review plans for new strip mall at Annandale Rd/Rt. 50

The Mason District Land Use Committee will consider at its April 26 meeting a request from Bill Page Honda for a rezoning and special exception allowing an expansion of the car dealership and redevelopment of the shopping center it owns on the corner of Annandale Road and Arlington Boulevard.

The committee meeting takes place at 7:30 p.m. at the Mason District Government Center. The agenda item expected to generate the most interest at the meeting, however, is a proposal, already covered here, for a townhouse development at 3236 Peace Valley Lane, Falls Church, which is strongly opposed by the Ravenwood Park community.

The shopping strip that Bill Page Honda plans to tear down includes the Westlawn Supermarket (which closed several months ago; the Joseph’s Coat thrift shop, which benefits Bethany House of Northern Virginia, a shelter for abused women; the Mosby branch of the U.S. Post Office; El Tutumaso, a Bolivian restaurant; A Touch of Class salon; Action Cleaners; and BBandT Bank.

That shopping strip, built in 1968, would be replaced with a new 200,000-square foot commercial strip. Current tenants would be give the option of relocating to the new retail space.

Shane M. Murphy, the Reston-based attorney representing Bill Page Plaza, estimates the entire project—including retail development and upgraded car dealership—will cost $25 million to $30 million. He hopes construction can start in the summer of 2012. The current plan under consideration is scaled back from a previous proposal approved by the Board of Supervisors in March 2010, which called for the dealership to be even larger.

Bill Page Honda is proposing a 15,000-square foot stand-alone, drive-through pharmacy at the Annandale Road/Arlington Boulevard (Route 50) intersection. The developer is working on getting a tenant for the pharmacy, and Murphy says it will most likely be a national chain like CVS or Walgreens. According to the proposal, it would be open 24 hours a day.

At the other end of the property, currently occupied by a two story building that used to house a ski equipment liquidator, a new 5,000-square foot financial institution would be built with drive-through access.

Murphy says the service road along Annandale Road would be retained, at the request of the Westlawn Civic Association.

The proposal calls for the Honda dealership, at 6715 Arlington Boulevard, to be completely reconstructed and doubled in size, to about 60,000 square feet. There would be additional service bays and a garage on top of the building allowing for vehicle storage.

In exchange for enclosing the service facilities within the dealership complex, which the proposal says would shield it from the surrounding residential area, the proposal seeks an additional height of 10 feet beyond what is allowed in that zoning category. That would mean the building would be 50 feet high.

The proposal calls for the car dealership to be open seven days a week, 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Approximately 250 customers are expected per day, and there would be about 115 employees on site at any given time.