Update On Co-Located Fire Station, Homeless Shelter In Route 1 Corridor Planned

GROVETON, VA — As planning continues to co-locate a fire station with a homeless shelter and affordable housing in the Richmond Highway corridor, an update will come at an upcoming community meeting.

Fairfax County staff will hold a meeting Thursday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the Penn Daw Fire Station, Emergency and Affordable Housing project. The meeting will be held in the Bryant High School cafeteria, 2709 Popkins Ln., Alexandria, VA.

The county is looking to build a new Penn Daw Fire Station at the Hybla Valley Nursery site as well as build a replacement for the current Eleanor Kennedy Shelter at 9155 Richmond Highway in Fort Belvoir. The Thursday, June 8 meeting will involve county staff presenting conceptual design options for the co-location site.

Fairfax County purchased the 3.5-acre former Hybla Valley Nursery site at 801 Beacon Hill Road, Alexandria, VA, in June 2020 as a site for the new Penn Daw Fire Station. The current fire station, built in 1967, presents challenges to expand or rebuild and has outdated features such as apparatus bays that cannot host larger, heavier equipment. The county sees a need to boost emergency services in the area due to "population growth, changing demographics and more residential and commercial development."

The current Eleanor Kennedy Shelter is a 50-bed homeless shelter that can house 38 men and 12 women and is operated by New Hope Housing. The 103-year-old building was converted from a pump home location on Fort Belvoir and does not provide options for supportive housing. The county says expansion potential is limited due to the building's historic status and location within a 100-year floodplain and resource protection area.

The former Hybla Valley Nursery site is seen as a suitable site for fire and rescue services on Beacon Hill Road covering the northern Richmond Highway corridor. As the site is also near Richmond Highway, the county says it is ideal for co-locating another facility — the shelter and affordable housing.

A 2016 bond referendum provided funding for Eleanor Kennedy Shelter and three other shelters. A 2015 bound provided renovation funding for five fire stations, including Penn Daw.

An advisory committee was formed by Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck to engage the community about the co-location proposal. The committee, made up of members of the public safety representatives, faith community and affordable or emergency housing providers, the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens Association, the Mount Vernon Lee Chamber of Commerce, Fort Belvoir and county staff, has been meeting since late 2020.