Small shopping center proposed to replace two rundown houses on Route 1
A proposal to turn a pair of deteriorating houses on Richmond Highway into a small shopping center will go before the Fairfax County Planning Commission next week.
The two homes, located at 8212 and 8118 Richmond Highway (see map), are actually on the same property and are already zoned for commercial use. The owner is proposing to demolish the homes to make way for a 9,200-square-foot shopping center, according to a Department of Planning and Development staff report released last week.
The shopping center would consist of two 4,600-square-foot buildings, with a driveway that intersects with Richmond Highway separating the two buildings. Parking would be in the rear of the center, behind the buildings. An outdoor seating area would be allowed in front of the buildings should a restaurant or restaurants move into the spaces.
The proposal to build the shopping center has been worked on between the applicant, Alwadi LLC, and the county since 2016. The staff report indicates that there has been ongoing work with the applicant over proffer conditions, including a requirement for green building practices and for a site environmental assessment since car repairs were done on the lot. Additionally, the staff report says that while the overall plan for the shopping center passes muster, the company’s application still contains errors and could cause delays should the Board of Supervisors approve the application.
The property’s current rundown state is also mentioned in the staff report. It references ongoing code violations dating back for years, and says that approval of the application to build the shopping center is separate from the ongoing issues the property owner has with the county.
“The site has been the subject of a variety of code compliance violations dating back to 2004, and as of the date of this report, is still under Notice of Violation,” the staff report reads. “The current violations pertain to unpermitted outdoor storage and unsafe structures. The Department of Code Compliance (DCC) has referred the violations to the County Attorney’s office for legal action.”
Alwadi LLC, whose address matches that of a title loan and car rental business in the City of Falls Church, purchased the Route 1 property in 2014 for $1 million. The previous owners had, for a time, operated a plant nursery and contracting office out of the houses after a 2002 rezoning that made the property okay for commercial use.
The two lots were last used as a rental car facility and a title loan business, respectively. The title loan business has been closed since 2017, and in 2018 the windows of the other building were boarded up after the car rental business moved. As of last week, the front area of the homes was overgrown and some vehicles remain in the rear of the lot. Neither house appears to have been used in some time.
The Planning Commission pubic hearing is scheduled for September 19, with a Board of Supervisor public hearing and final vote scheduled for September 24. Both dates are subject to change. The planning commission schedule can be checked here.
Blighted properties on Richmond Highway have been common since moving to the area in 1981. All the formulates proposed by developers, quasi-government agencies such as SFDC and Fairfax County planners have yet to deal with the problem in a manner that makes much sense to this citizen. I’ve seen numerous other places such as this example replaced with redevelopment that includes more automobile dependent strip shopping centers in an area that is full of empty buildings where so called redevelopment has taken place. The former Safeway in the Hybla Valley area, the vacant former Rite Aide at the intersection of Richmond Highway and Beacon Hill Road, empty spaces at numerous other small strip shopping centers and more to come with Walgren’s Drug stores and Bed Bath and Beyond among other major retailers set to shutter their doors. I’m all for the elimination of run down, blight inducing properties on Richmond Highway, however, those that make the decisions with respect to supporting proposed redevelopment options are seemingly failing to take into account the outcomes of similar past decisions. In time, the empty spaces in all of these previously approved strip type shopping centers will deteriorate and become just another type of blight on the corridor. It would seem that a fresh new approach is needed that is less developer centric and more community centric with respect to new development on Richmond Highway.
Martin, you are 100% correct. There has never been a strong, cohesive plan for the corridor. All we’ve seen over the years is patchwork development that itself becomes blighted in a relatively short period of time. The corridor, because of its close-in location, should be so much nicer.
Mr. Tillett, I enjoyed your email and wonder if you have any suggestions as to what else could be built on sites on Richmond Highway. Perhaps a park? But then we have the problem of after hours crime in a park. I would seriously love to hear of yours and others suggestions.
I know this property well. Since the widing of the highway is forthcoming is this one of the properties that will be effected by that?? I have not seen a list of properties so far other
than contact will be made soon on these properties. Is there a list of them somewhere that I can see?? I have lived on this highway all of my life and know all of it pretty well.
Any information you can send me would be appreciated.
Thank you, looking forward to a reply
Open space venues with adequate lighting would be a good start in my view. A skate/bmx bike/roller blade park installation with room for some ancillary small business options for users of the park would be a good start. Maybe an additional dog park would be in order as well. There really needs to be some sort of out of the box creative thinking on the part of local planners. Redevelopment is not just about retail and housing. I like the idea of an outdoor park with an art focus that could also house other public functions like a weekly farmers market, community yard sales and maybe even a band shell or stage setup. Seems like these kind of amenities are always given priorities to more exclusive neighborhoods where there is less of a public perception of crime. I believe much of the public perception regarding crime on Richmond highway is in part due to an effort to keep real estate prices low to the advantage of developers and their minions. I’ve heard the argument many times from developers that certain desired development on the corridor isn’t feasible because the FAR (floor space to area ratio) rental rates won’t support better types of development. I’ve been hearing that since 1981 and this is still the argument being put forth by developers. This argument for a place so strategically located close to a multitude of cultural attractions is just developer speak to increase their bottom lines in my view. More strip shopping centers are a manifestation of old ideas that just are not working. I live next to an area with approximately 15 acres of undeveloped open space with stream valleys behind the Walmart at Kings Crossing. This is now county owned land. This space could serve a multitude of purposes. Historically there was a Civil War Union encampment on the site called Camp Vermont. How about a public use park with a focus on the victors of the Civil War to balance out the Civil War monuments to the losers in this conflict. This open space has enough room to have a children’s playground or even a built in ropes and zip line course as much of the land is sloped and with some deep ravines. It can also provide some passive nature trails and family recreation areas. With all of the current development in the Kings Crossing area with new apartment residences approved and coming, more recreation opportunities are sorely needed for what will be an influx of more people living nearby with a longstanding lack of such amenities which are common to neighborhoods closer to the GW Parkway communities. We need a different kind of visioning for the Richmond Highway corridor. I’ve paid my taxes that helped underwrite many of the great amenities existing in nice communities throughout all of Fairfax County. I think it is time that residents along the corridor get some of the love from Fairfax County that has been dispensed elsewhere in the MV District and other areas of the county. Who knows, some actual investment to benefit the citizens of the corridor might be the first step in changing the current perceptions that only work against the goals of goals of becoming a more vibrant community that is in reality a potentially great place to live, work and play.