More details emerge on Annandale townhouse proposal
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| The layout of townhouses proposed for Annandale. The curved road on the top right is a realigned McWhorter Place. |
The Christopher Cos. are proposed to develop 43 townhouses for the area at the intersection of McWhorter Place and Markham Street in central Annandale.
David McElhaney of Urban Ltd., a land planning and design company based in Annandale, described the project at a virtual Mason District Land Use Committee meeting June 2.
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| The design of the proposed townhouses. |
The site consists of nine separate parcels on 3.38 acres, including a parcel owned by Fairfax County that would be transformed into a small community park.
Of the existing parcels, there are six separate owners. Four are vacant land. The others have small houses that have been converted to commercial uses. Zoning is a combination of residential (R-4) and commercial (C-3).
One of the property owners is refusing to sell, even though the Christopher Cos. tried multiple times to buy the .32-acre parcel. If that lot is eventually added to the site, it could hold another three townhouses.
The development proposal calls for the site of the townhouse project to be rezoned PDH-12.
The townhouses would be a mix of 16, 18, and 24 feet wide and would range from 1,600 to 1,800 square feet. Most would have two bedrooms.
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| The owner of the piece cut out of the site refuses to sell. |
All would have garages, some in the front, and some in the rear. Five of the homes would be “workforce housing units” affordable to households at 80 percent of the area median income. There would be 151 parking spaces.
McWhorter Place would be realigned, and the community park – to be designed in partnership with the Fairfax County Park Authority – would be across from McWhorter Place. The park would have public art, a play area, exercise station, and picnic benches. There would also be a linear park within the townhouse community. There is a possibility for a new crosswalk on McWhorter.
The Christopher Cos. is proposing to upgrade the water line from Route 236, which is now two inches wide, to eight inches. Other proffers include funds for schools and for the community park.
Generally a positive development for such a critical corner in Annandale. Two quick comments (not that it will go beyond here!) 1) the parking seems excessive – almost three spots per unit, units that already appear to have garages. 2) there is a lost of connectivity between McWhorter Place and Markham that seems to significantly reduce potential access.
There's no connection there now by road. Foot and bike traffic looks to be unaffected.
Also, it's closer to 4 spaces per unit, if the numbers given here are correct.
But, yeah, it's good for the area. I hope it happens.
This top drawing actually looks rather poor for bicycling connections. Whether you are ready or not, bicycling is going to get a lot bigger in Fairfax County as bikeshare comes to the different districts. Mason District is probably going to be last, but once you start seeing the big sturdy red Bikeshare bicycles in the next three-four years, you are going to start seeing more cyclists everywhere. At least that is what has happened in DC and Arlington, thus far.
As it is now, McWhorter is a good if not great parallel bicycle route to Little River Turnpike. The little circular walkways in the top diagram look to be fine for walking and children's bicycles, but they do not look great for bicycle connectivity, unless those sidewalks are really 10 foot wide shared-use paths.
There is virtually no bicycle traffic on McWhorter now and very little in Annandale as a whole.
hopefully they don't sell….we don't need anymore housing built in Anon-dale and you know its more than likely gonna be low quality people moving into those new homes…more than likely boujie tranplants who think their poop don't stink…we need all the trees we can hold on to unless you want to live in an inner city
This is definitely a positive development for Annandale. But I have to agree that they need to provide a better bicycling connection on McWhorter. This has previously been identified as an alternate comfortable biking route through Annandale to avoid 236. It looks passable in the drawing, but a direct route would be more useful for pedestrians and cyclist.
Where is the open space in exchange for the increased density. There needs to room to plant real trees. This looks like a plan to line the pockets of the developer.
Great news!
Is there a way to protect some of the trees? It would increase the value of the homes, provide a calming and cooling environment – especially given the increasing number of hot summer days..