Planning Commission endorses huge senior housing project on Braddock Road

An illustration of the entrance of one of the Erickson buildings planned for Braddock Road.

The Fairfax County Planning Commission on June 26 recommended approval of a massive senior housing development to be built by Erickson Living on Braddock Road on the site of the former Northern Virginia Training Center.

The Board of Supervisors hearing on the project is scheduled for July 16.

The development would have 1,050 independent living and 175 assisted living/skilled nursing units in 12 five-story buildings.

There would be a separate four-story building developed by a third party with 80 units of age-restricted affordable housing for people with incomes up to 60 percent of the area median income.

The 78-acre property would also have a 35,000-square-foot indoor recreational facility, a 27-acre public park, restaurants, dining facilities, activity rooms, underground and surface parking, and a stormwater retention facility.

A courtyard.

The three existing access points along Braddock Road would remain. The property would be surrounded by a six-foot-high fence and there would be guardhouse at the entrance. Erickson would add a 10-foot-wide path along Braddock Road.

Erickson agreed to provide funding for a new ambulance for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department as a proffer to offset the additional need for emergency medical services by the new residents.

Erickson purchased the property in 2017. County staff and a task force of community members formed to consider uses for that property agreed that there is a significant need for senior housing. Erickson developed and manages the Greenspring continuing care retirement community in Springfield, which has a lengthy waiting list.

To prepare for the new community on Braddock Road, Erickson worked with county planning and zoning officials to gain approval of a new zoning classification to allow continuing care facilities. The board of supervisors approved a Planned Continuing Care Facility zoning designation in December 2018.

At a Planning Commission hearing on June 19, there were few concerns raised by commission members or people from the community.

Only a couple of people spoke during the hearing. Mike Doherty, president of Fairfax Memorial Park and Funeral Home, and Bill Parmentier, president of the Briarwood Homes Association, urged the commission to support the project.

The commonwealth of Virginia retains a four-acre parcel on the property that could be used for a future Department of Motor Vehicles facility.