Board approves change to allow for Sky View Drive townhouse development
Developers plan to clear the two single-family homes on Sky View Drive, seen here last fall, to make way for a small townhouse infill development.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a change Tuesday to the comprehensive plan that clears the way for a small townhouse development to eventually be built on Sky View Drive in the Woodlawn area.
The amendment allows for higher-density residential construction on .875 acres of land currently occupied by two single-family homes. The homes are remnants of a previous neighborhood of single-family homes that was mostly cleared in 2001 to make way for the Skyview Park townhouse development, which borders the properties on three sides.
The BOS approved the amendment unanimously, as did the Fairfax County Planning Commission in March. The new development itself is still subject to a rezoning application, and no hearing date has been set yet.
Both Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck and Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay spoke in favor of the change, saying it was a small but essential step in improving the Richmond Highway area.
“This is clearly one of the little things that can make a difference for the community and the highway overall,” Storck said.
Click to enlarge. (Fairfax County Department of Planning and Zoning image)
The two homes, built in 1955 and 1963 according to county records, have fallen into disrepair, according to a lawyer representing the purchaser of the property.
Two other single family plots from the old neighborhood still remain farther east on Sky View Drive.
A representative from the Skyview Park Homeowners Association spoke in favor of the amendment at the planning commission hearing in March, and both the Southeast Fairfax Development Corporation and the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens Assocations supported the move too.
Byers Drive, next to the lots, was named for former longtime Mount Vernon Planning Commissioner John R. Byers of Williamsburg Manor North. Several streets in the Sky View townhome development were named for planning commissioners at the time. Colonel John R. Byers Park, (formerly Williamsburg Manor Park) on Collingwood Rd was also named for Byers.