Joe Francone/Laurie Greenlief
Fairfax County officials are reviewing a proposal to redevelop an approximately 26 acre parcel of land off of Richmond Highway.
The west side of the site is currently home to two mobile home parks, Engleside Trailer Park and Ray’s Mobile Home Colony, while the east side has some small retail and a house of worship. The homes are located in the 8400 and 8500 blocks of Richmond Highway, in the Woodley Hills area south of Hybla Valley.
Developers would like to change the current plan, which allows for 16-20 residential dwelling units per acre and requires at least 25 percent of the site be office or retail, unifying the parcels into an urban/town center design concept.
Instead, developers propose increasing the dwelling units per acre to 20-30 and limiting office or retail use to five to 10 percent. They also want to get rid of the parcel consolidation requirement so that the entire site will not have to be developed at the same time.
At a recent virtual meeting to discuss the proposal, County staff recommended that the proposal be added to the Comprehensive Plan Amendment Work Program as part of the South County SSPA process, but only if certain conditions were followed. Developers would have to replace the existing affordable residential units on-site on a 1:1 basis and most of the land would have to be consolidated to ensure logical planning and the ability to meet the 1:1 replacement.
Developers argued that a 1:1 replacement was not feasible and they would rather discuss affordable housing units later on in the planning process. They would be happy to meet any zoning ordinance requirements on affordable housing and provide relocation assistance. They also said that no residents would have to move for at least 3 years because the proposal would have to go through the whole planning and zoning process if it is approved.
Members of the Mount Vernon SSPA Task Force expressed concern for residents of the mobile home neighborhoods, many of whom do not speak English and would be faced with the possibility of losing not only their investments but their homes.
Task force members worried that some mobile homes were not in good enough condition to be relocated and that there are no options for mobile homes along the Richmond Highway corridor.
Twelve residents of the trailer parks attended the virtual meeting with the help of the director of Hispanic ministries from Good Shepherd Catholic Church. Speaking in a mix of English and Spanish, residents said they did not know about the proposal before hearing about the meeting.
They said that some residents have lived in the neighborhood for 20 years and that many of the trailers house multigenerational families including grandparents and more than 200 children, some with special needs.
The task force voted to defer the final vote on the proposal until the Sept. 15 meeting to give them a chance to read feedback from trailer park residents. For more information on the South County SSPA process and this nominated project, visit www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planning-development/plan-amendments/sspa/south/track-nomination/pc19-mv-002.
