Telegraph Road church plans to add senior housing to property

A couple years ago, an elderly congregant at Virginia Hills Baptist Church asked Pastor Bart Purdy if the church had ever considered selling some of its land. The woman was concerned about Virginia Hills Baptist’s future, having seen the 62-year-old church’s congregation shrink and age in recent years.

Purdy hadn’t really entertained the thought before. But the more he assessed the church’s situation, the more taking advantage of Virginia Hills Baptist’s 7.61-acre property on Telegraph Road as a way to secure the church’s future made sense.

“I started to think about it,” said Purdy, who has been pastor at Virginia Hills for 32 years. “Maybe this is a possibility, maybe this is a good thing for us.”

Purdy and members of the church began examining some options, and ultimately decided to partner with a senior living developer to build a 170-unit facility for seniors on the church’s property. Virginia Hills Baptist and Brightview Senior Living submitted their rezoning request for the project to Fairfax County in August, which includes plans to build a 194,000-square-foot continuing care development on the church’s property at 6507 Telegraph Road (see map).

Brightview Virginia Hills, as the facility is referred to in a zoning application filed by the law firm McGuireWoods, would feature both independent living and assisted living residences. The current church and its daycare facility would remain on the site, but would be rebuilt toward the front of the property. Maps on the application show that the senior residences would be closer to the center and rear of the property, which borders Lee District Park to the east and south, and a residential development to the north.

“The addition of this senior living community to the existing community will add a service and a population dimension which will benefit the community,” the application states.

Purdy said that after some initial hesitation, the concept of using the church’s extra land to house seniors got buy-in from Virginia Hills Baptist’s congregation.

“Any time you do something different, any time you try something new, there’s always hesitation,” Purday said. ” We wanted to go very slowly, introduce the concept to the congregation … [in the end] the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of going forward. “

Brightview Senior Living has more than 40 senior living facilities in eight states, according to their website. The application says the Telegraph Road facility would feature a number of on-site amenities for residents, including concierge, security, meals and snacks, housekeeping, laundry and linen service, scheduled transportation, as well as number of social, wellness and healthcare-related programs.

Thirty-six units of the facility would be for residents with dementia and other memory impairment, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

A little less than half of the property would remain open space, according to the application.

“The continuing care facility proposed with this application will provide high quality, personalized residential care services for seniors and for persons with memory impairment disabilities,” McGuireWoods writes in the application.

Virginia Hills Baptist’s preschool program has approximately 100 children enrolled, Purdy said. The prospect of inter-generational activities between the kids in the program and the seniors was one of the most appealing aspects of the plan for many in the congregation.

“We’re real excited to be able to utilize our preschool in that way,” Purdy said, adding that the new church building will allow for more kids to enroll in the school.

Purdy also said that replacing the aging church building will allow Virginia Hills to offer more to the community, including spaces for meetings and a sanctuary that would be able to potentially host a community theater.

“The main thing is that we’ll have an opportunity to rebuild the church,” Purdy said.

The rezoning application is now being reviewed by county staff, and likely would not go before the Fairfax County Planning Commission until at least February. After that it will have a public hearing before the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, who will then vote on the application.