Affordable Housing, Townhouse Community Opens On Richmond Highway

HYBLA VALLEY, VA — A long-awaited project to bring affordable housing to vacant land along Richmond Highway in Hybla Valley is now complete.

Fairfax County officials and developers held a ribbon cutting Wednesday for North Hill, a new residential community with 279 affordable apartments for families and seniors, 175 market-rate townhouses, and a 12-acre park.

Two Mount Vernon District supervisors who contributed to the development planning were present at the ribbon cutting. Supervisor Gerry Hyland, who served from 1988 to 2015, said the project would not have happened without a woman who pressed the county to fulfill its commitment to develop the land after purchasing the property. Hyland said he was impressed with people in the Mount Vernon community who worked to make the quality of life better.

"I could not be happier to be here today after all of these years with a project that has gone up and down and here and there, and finally it has reached its reality...for the people who are going to have...a place to live in Fairfax County," said Hyland.

Current Mount Vernon Supervisor Dan Storck added in a statement,"For more than 30 years, we have been working to develop an extraordinary plan for this property that would help us meet a critical community need and serve as a keystone project in the continuing redevelopment of the Richmond Highway Corridor, and today we have achieved just that. Residences at North Hill reaffirms our vision of One Fairfax through inclusive development that includes housing opportunities for residents all along the income spectrum so that all who want to live in Mount Vernon can do so."

Patrick Stewart, a regional vice president for developer Pennrose, said this type of project isn't easy. But the developer does it because of the impact it has on people who need affordable housing.

"It means opportunity, high quality, attainable housing, close to jobs close to health care, close to services. It means playing some role in evening the playing field. In Fairfax County in particular, that's really important when you consider that median household income for this county is nearly double the national median household income."

The development effort has been decades in the making. The land had previously been home to the Woodley-Nightingale Mobile Home Park before the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority purchased it in 1981. Part of the land became the Woodley Hills Estates mobile home community, while the remainder will turn into the Residences at North Hill development.

Jeff McKay, the chairman of the Board of Supervisors who grew up in the Richmond Highway corridor, said he grew up with children who lived in the mobile homes that were on the site. When their mobile homes were relocated, they thought the property would be vacant for decades.

"I wish they were here today to see this, because they literally were at risk of losing their mobile homes, sliding off their concrete slabs because of uncontrolled marine clay," said McKay. "And now to see what this has been transformed into, such a beautiful redevelopment such a beautiful opportunity for people to be able to live in affordable housing, to use the park and amenities on this property is just amazing."

The new affordable units are located in five four-story buildings along Richmond Highway. Of these units, 216 are affordable units, and 63 are senior independent living units.

Apartments are meant to be affordable to households with 30 percent to 60 percent of the area median income, which for one person means $29,900 to $59,820. There are also 68 federal vouchers for deeply subsidized units for lower-income residents.

Ivy Dench-Carter, a senior vice president for Pennrose, said one of her fears was getting backlash from NIMBY (not in my back yard) residents. But she said there was none of that with North Hill, which she gives credit to the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens’ Associations and county leadership for educating the public about affordable housing.

McKay hopes the development can "change the narrative" on affordable housing to a positive one.

"To change the narrative entirely that one, you can build affordable housing that is high quality, beautiful and sustainable and unrecognizable as affordable housing. And two, the people who live in affordable housing are the people that we interact with every single day of our lives," said McKay. "Every time you walk in and get a service anywhere in this county, you probably have run into someone working hard, who needs affordable housing to be able to live in Fairfax County."

The 279 new affordable units contribute to the Board of Supervisors' doubled goal to build 10,000 affordable units by 2034.

"You don't build 10,000 houses by 2034 without stretching every dollar you have as far as you possibly can," said McKay. Partnering with the for-profit, not-for-profit, housing development groups that are in the county that are creative and can make things like this happen, that's how we stretch our dollars much, much further."

Apartments at North Hill are a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments. Features include open floor plans; spacious closets, kitchens with dishwasher and electric range; in-unit washer and dryer hookups; individually controlled heating and cooling; ceramic-tiled baths; and more. Community amenities include a community room, fitness center, recreational plaza, playground, landscaped grounds, on-site management, and the 12-acre public park.

The site is within the scope of the county's EMBARK Richmond Highway initiative to improve multimodal transportation and create economic development opportunities in the corridor. North Hill will be next to a future Bus Rapid Transit station, which Fairfax County is planning to run between the Huntington Metro station and Fort Belvoir.