Parking concerns raised on affordable housing project

The Columbia Crossroads affordable housing project in the works for Bailey’s Crossroads might not have enough parking, members of the Mason District Land Use Committee said at a meeting on July 28.

The seven-story apartment building will be located on the site of the Crossroads Interim Park on Columbia Pike between Radley Acura and the Alta Nova market-rate apartments. An office building on the lot was torn down years ago.

The apartment building will have 160 units available for households with incomes between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income. The ground floor will house two nonprofits that serve the community: Neighborhood Health and Second Story.

Pamela Lee, assistant vice president at the NHP Foundation, which is developing the project with several partners, told the MDLUC the building will have two levels of parking below the residential units with a total of 169 spaces. That comes to 1.06 spaces per unit.

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That should be adequate, Lee said, because the property is next to a bus stop, within walking distance of another one, and is across the street from a shopping center with Trader Joe’s and other shops.

Each tenant will have one reserved space, regardless of the number of bedrooms they have, she said.

Several members of the MDLUC questioned whether that will be enough, as there is virtually no street parking nearby. Others wondered where residents’ guests and staff and clients for the Neighborhood Health and Second Story facilities will park.

“The only practical solution is to restrict residents from having more than one car,” one committee member suggested, although it’s unclear whether that can be done.

The major restraint to adding more parking is cost, Lee said. “We’re trying to do what we can with what’s available to us. We’re still trying to close a $4 million funding gap.” If the project added underground parking, it would cost $50,000 per parking space, she said.

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The apartments are aimed at drawing families. Fifteen percent of the units will have three bedrooms, 20 percent will have one bedroom, and the rest will have two. The units will be accessible for people of all abilities.

The project includes an extension of Seminary Road to Columbia Pike with a shared-use path. The non-residential space will face Columbia Pike and will have a separate entrance.

The NHP Foundation has submitted a rezoning application to have the property changed from office use to residential. A hearing is scheduled before the Planning Commission on Nov. 4.

Lee hopes construction will start in 2028 and the building will be completed in 2030.

The MDLUC meeting also drew a big crowd for a presentation on Dominion Energy’s proposed substation for the Plaza 500 data center. In addition, Fairfax Water gave an overview on the replacement of the water tank in Seven Corners.

Related story: Planning underway for a new water tank in Seven Corners