Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to Vote on Rezoning of Property

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA -- Letter to the editor: The following is a letter to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, made available to Patch by Residents Against Rezoning and republished here with permission from the letter writer:

To the Honorable Board of Supervisors,

My name is Chris Wren, I live on Apple Hill Road in the Williamsburg Manor North subdivision of the Mount Vernon District. I am writing to urge you to vote NO on the upcoming proposal Nov 1st to rezone the Bock Farm from PDH5 to R8.

I believe that Supervisor Storck has not accurately represented to the Board the massive opposition from neighboring communities regarding this development, downplaying it as being based on misinformation. It is a majority opposition by residents most affected by this development, it has the support of the local HOAs and the larger Mount Vernon Citizen’s association. It is based on very real and valid concerns of the community. It is an overwhelming NO from this community to not allow this rezoning and this massive complex to be built in our single family neighborhood. Please see the petition, its 563 online supporters (over 200 on paper too), and note that its concerns are very clearly laid out.

https://www.change.org/p/dan-storck-petition-for-no-vote-on-rezoning-bock-farm

On October 26th, 2016, in an unprecedented move by the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens Association (MVCCA), they voted to recuse their previous support for the Bock farm rezoning proposal. Prior to this, Supervisor Storck was fast to call out how it passed the MVCCA unanimously and that was a powerful statement about the sentiment of the community and would weigh heavy in his decision regarding the proposal. The only problem was that only ¼ of the represented communities in the MVCCA voted that night and none of the 5 closest neighborhoods were represented. The recusal of their support this week was the result of educating the neighboring communities about what had transpired and to bring to the attention of the MVCCA what had occurred and that there was a very strong opposition to this development. Now that the MVCCA is opposed to the development, Supervisor Storck seems to be putting very little emphasis on the value of this committee’s opinion, for what purpose he would ignore such a profound indicator of community sentiment is beyond me.

The opposition to this development has put together a petition, which now has well over 700 signatures of locals opposed to this development and all of which are urging the Board of Supervisors to vote NO on the Bock farm rezoning proposal November 1st.

This is not the case of a small group opposed to this development at the 11th hour. This is a massive amount of concerned citizens who feel they were misled and misinformed about this development until it was at the last gate of approval...they are angry, they do not want this development. It should have never made it this far.

There is a covenant on this property. It was signed with the farm’s owner in 1973, and it afforded the development of 2 story medical buildings, as well as townhomes and an apartment building (Briary Farms, River Farms, Mount Vernon House), increasing density in a neighboring tract of land, but with the condition that the farm would be left open space (low density) with a restrictive covenant allowing for 3 single family homes or an Equine center on the property. The current owner knew this when acquiring the property (through foreclosure of the previous owner), and has been working to undermine this covenant ever since. While a civil matter, the current zoning on the property is the direct result of this covenant and as such a matter the Board should consider carefully prior to voting, and should NOT allow this owner to massively upscale a portion of the property to 32 units per acre, inconsistent with the surrounding area by a factor of 4X.

In 1995, a study was conducted by the county at the behest of the current owner, its goal was to go through the communities like Briary Farms and Mount Vernon House and find as much unaccounted for open space as they could with the hope of side-skirting the density restrictions on the Bock farm. This process yielded 4.38 acres, and they included tennis courts, swimming pools and other minor spaces claimed found throughout these developments, through which they have cobbled together a plot on the Bock farm of 4.38 acres, which they would now like released from its previous density requirement.

The rezoning request itself is very unusual, in the past 5 years NO such move from PDH 5 to R8 have ever been proposed let alone approved in Fairfax county, it is a big hike. PDH5 allows for a very wide set of developments to occur on the property. The covenant holders have expressed willingness to negotiate on how to loosen the current restrictions on the property to allow Mr. Bock to develop his land in a profitable way while still keeping in the current zoning and retaining the value of this neighborhood. Unfortunately, the only proposal our neighborhood ever saw was a fully developed plan for a massive complex with the highest density possible on the 4.38 acre plot. Mr. Bock has made NO attempt to honor the existing covenant, and NO attempt to negotiate with the covenant holders or neighboring communities towards a development that would be amenable to both sides. The rezoning is his attempt to run roughshod over the covenant, and to ignore the concerns of the community to build a giant structure which makes no sense for the intended residents, or the community which it is intended to be built in.

Many easements have been included in this proposal, all of which increase density. One of them is to reduce the required footprint from 5 acres to 4.38, two of them reduce the required side yards allowing these buildings to be closer to the street than any buildings in the area, one of them raises the height of these buildings from the required 50 feet up to 55 feet, and one was for allowing the entrance and exit to this complex to dump onto a side-road. What was a bad idea, gets far worse with these easements, they are an attempt to maximize profits with no concern for the surrounding community.

Several local realtors have been consulted on the impact of this development on nearby Single Family home prices. It was easy for them all to say this would reduce home values, it was easy for them to agree that a 10% drop in nearby home prices would not be surprising, and the effect on those homes in close proximity to the development would be worse. Add to this that one of the arguments (anecdotally, not supported by data) for this development is that locals who are aging would like to downsize. This intends that 128 homes in the nearby area will be vacated in a short amount of time, causing 2 ugly side effects to the housing market and the nearby schools: The first is a massive surplus being dumped onto a market which has been stagnant since 2008, this will undoubtedly exacerbate home value loss in the nearby area, the second is that it will rapidly accelerate the rate of succession of young families with children moving into the area. This will cause spikes of children being flooded into an already dense school zone.

Traffic in this area centers around the only through road, Collingwood/Parker’s Lane, which connects the GW parkway on one end with Richmond Highway (1) by means of Sherwood Hall. It is the only way to get in or out of this neighborhood. It is backed up on Sherwood Hall and on Parker’s lane daily during commuting hours and often takes multiple light changes to get through any of the intersections in the area. This development plans to add an additional 250 cars right at the epicenter of the traffic woes already plaguing this area. The developer conducted their own traffic study which amazingly reported no additional traffic impact to the area, a bonafide miracle or statistical anomaly. Furthermore, with plans for 55+ housing and expected working professionals and 2 car families, the afforded 210 parking spots will be inadequate for the cars in this development which will add to increased street parking in an area already congested with this. If that isn’t enough, the current traffic problems prevent Fire Engines from getting out of their firehouse (No. 9) on Sherwood Hall, Ambulances getting into the Hospital, and Police entering and exiting their station (all of these civic facilities are within 1 block of the proposed development and all of them share the same roads and intersections. This is a traffic disaster which gets amplified many times by this irresponsible development proposal.

The case for 55+ housing, and a project this massive has been presented anecdotally by Supervisor Storck. Those opposed to this development are not opposed to 55+ housing at all, this density is what is in question. Concerned residents have asked him where this massive demand is coming from and what data supports it. He has even at this late date, been unable to make this claim with anything more than anecdotal evidence, which is a far cry from sound zoning policy. Locally, we have Paul Spring assisted and active living senior center with plenty of vacancy currently, so where is the demand? Less than 4 miles away, “Crest of Alexandria” is building a 55+ complex with over 400 units, mixed townhomes, condos, and single family homes. Walkable amenities like grocery stores, restaurants, shopping, pools, acres and acres of green space, and dozens of other attractors that the proposed complex on Bock farm will not have. This further reduces the demand, and makes the case that it will be difficult to sell these units in this congested neighborhood with no amenities nearby. Residents of the proposed Bock farm community can walk on dangerous streets, clogged with traffic to the nearby Library and the Hospital. There are NO other walkable amenities anywhere nearby, hence these people are driving for every one of their needs, further adding to traffic.

While I support some elderly housing in the area, I believe the choice for 55+ was politically expedient for the owner and developer to avoid any issues of school rezoning. While valid concerns about FHA and HUD exist with this development that may affect the aforementioned, the well being of the neighborhood and the residents of this community seem a distant second to the profitability of this maximum density complex proposed. Again, residents opposed to this development are overwhelmingly in favor of a much less dense proposal to accommodate 55+ housing.

In addition to the concerns listed above, there is also light pollution with 4 x four story, 55 foot buildings complete with pulsing anti-collision beacons for the nearby hospital heli-pad, and four stories of lit up windows at night. There are privacy concerns with four stories of windows now looking into adjoined single family neighborhoods on three sides. There is also a massive loss of natural light in the area with easements butting these buildings right up against streets.

In short, this development just does not make sense for this community and is NOT wanted by this community. The demand is not there and it risks oversaturating the market. It would devalue nearby neighborhoods in an already stagnant real estate market. It fails to serve the basic needs of its planned 55+ community. It multiplies an already bad traffic problem. It sets a very bad precedent of high density rezoning into single family neighborhoods and will make this whole area less attractive further depressing the market. It is BAD for our community, BAD for Mount Vernon district, it is BAD for Fairfax County. In the interest of this community, this county and the great Commonwealth of Virginia, I humbly urge you to VOTE NO on the Bock Farm rezoning proposal on November 1st!

Sincerely,
Chris Wren