Yechon parking lot expansion project ready to go forward

“They paved paradise and put up a parkin’ lot.”—Joni Mitchell.

Well, it’s not exactly paradise, but the large wooded lot behind the house at 2141 Hummer Road, Annandale, (above) will be paved over to provide overflow parking for Yechon restaurant. The house, the site of a grisly murder, will be torn down. Chung A. Auh, a holistic healer, was stabbed to death there in July 2009 during a robbery.

The parking lot project is virtually a done deal. The Mason District Land Use Committee (MDLUC) unanimously agreed to go along with a proposal for a zoning special exception June 26, and members of the the Annandale Central Business District Planning Committee also have no objections. The Fairfax County Planning Commission will take up the proposal July 26; then it goes to the Board of Supervisors.

David Barber, treasurer of the Adams Walk homeowners association, said residents of that townhouse community, on the other side of Hummer Road, are okay with the plan because Yechon customers are using their side streets for parking.

Ajay Sharma of Dominion Engineers, who has been hired to design the parking lot expansion, told the MDLUC the plan has been revised to preserve more of the tree canopy and to install a wooden fence, rather than a brick wall, behind the property. There would be a brick sidewalk and acorn street lights along Hummer Road.

The new lot would provide an additional 50 parking spaces. There are currently 48 spaces used for both Yechon and Breeze Bakery next door, both of which are owned by Daniel Shin.