Planning commission defers vote on Kings Crossing development
The Fairfax County Planning Commission deferred a vote on the proposed Kings Crossing development during its meeting Thursday evening.
Mount Vernon Planning Commissioner Earl Flanagan said more time was needed to address issues raised in a planing and zoning staff report. That report, issued June 29, had recommended denial of Novus Property Holding LLC’s application to build a 350-unit development on a 5.29-acre piece of land on Richmond Highway just south of the Kings Crossing shopping center and north of Fairview Drive.
Flanagan said that planning and zoning staff met with the developer, Mount Vernon Supervisor Dan Storck and a representative from the Spring Bank Community Association in the past week to work out concerns raised in the staff report. Some of the issues in the staff report had been worked out, but that more time was needed, Flanagan said.
Among the reasons cited for denial in the staff report is a planned loading dock that would border a new street being built on the east side of the development.
“Staff continues to have concerns that the trash loading will occur on the street instead of within the parking garage,” the report says. “Further, the applicant has not obtained agreement from VDOT that loading and trash pick-up will be acceptable once the street is dedicated to public use. On a practical note, it is unclear how the trash trucks will turn around on the Eastern grid street until such time as the street is connected to the north.”
The vote will now be held at the commission’s July 19 public meeting. If approved, it will be voted on by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors when they meet on July 25.
The proposed development will fill in a space is currently occupied by a Wendy’s, a martial arts school and two vacant buildings — a former Pizza Hut and a building last used as a title loan office. Part of the land is also undeveloped.
Multiple residents from the Spring Bank neighborhood, which borders the proposed development, testified last night in favor of the Kings Crossing development. Some of the residents, noting that they’ve worked with the developer and county officials for years on the project, said they were frustrated and confused by the staff report.
“The things that are holding it up at this point are very insignificant,” said Martin Tillett, a Spring Bank resident for 36 years.