For more than 20 years, the handful of homes on Little Street have been decaying. Their owners — betting on the area's designation in the comprehensive plan which allows for flexible rezoning — waited for a developer to come in and buy them out.
Past attempts to buy out all the owners failed, until the Stanley Martin Companies approached the those still remaining with an offer apparently hard to refuse.
The Herndon Planning Commission, Monday night, gave a favorable recommendation to Stanley Martin's application to rezone the property to permit 43 townhouses on the combined assemblage — consisting of three lots on Spring Street and four lots on Little Street — totaling 4.88 acres.
"I would love to see an application for R-10 [the site's current low-density zoning] … I don't really see anyone putting single-family homes down there. This is the gateway to Herndon and I hate to say it, it's rundown," said Commissioner Ted Hochstein. "We don't have an application for single-family homes. We have an application for townhouse. This has been an eyesore for 20 years."
BUT NOT EVERYONE was impressed with the plans. Several would-be neighbors in the Van Buren Estates and even some commissioners spoke out against the plan during a public hearing that lasted more than two-and-half hours. The final vote was 4-3, with commissioners Jay Donahue, Paul LeReche and William Tirrell Sr. siding with the neighboring homeowners.
"I think it's a great adaptive use, if it was not so dense and compact," said LeReche. "Unfortunately, I think the die was cast when Little Street held out and Van Buren Estates decided not to continue the road through. I don't think single-family is going to fly."
Stanley Martin president Steve Alloy argued the proposal marked the first time in more than 20 years a developer was able to get all of the owners to agree to sell. He said the planned community would provide a great benefit to the neighbors, which include aligning Little Street with Spring Park Place, addressing some drainage issues, providing recreational green space in the form of a tot lot and eliminating a septic business on Spring Street.
"This is an area in decline where the land is worth more than the houses. It will continue to deteriorate because there is no incentive for the owners," Alloy said. "I understand [consolidation] has been tried before and failed. We've brought an application with full consolidation."
Alloy said the company was not willing to eliminate two units as the town had requested. The company had already reduced the project from 44 to 43 units at the planning staff's request.
He said the townhouses are essentially the same size and design as the ones the company is building on Jonquil Lane, also in Herndon, where units are selling for around $450,000. Alloy said the expected buyers are young couples just starting out or so-called empty nesters.
"When you have four kids, you don't live in a place like this," Alloy said.
EVEN SO, those objecting to the proposal cited increased traffic, the impact on local schools and the sheer scope of the development.
"This plan is excess at its best," said John Quinn, an adjoining property owner. "To compare this to Jonquil Lane is not fair. There are no homes on Jonquil Lane that will be impacted like this. The urgency to have this done, I just don't understand."
Many of those who spoke, most of whom live in Van Buren Estates, urged the commission to keep the low-density R-10 zoning, which permits single-family homes on lots totaling 10,000 square feet.
"When I see this, it just makes me sick when I think of all these people squished in these little areas," said town resident Ginger Hunsaker.
The project did have its supporters, however, most of which were the current owners of the assemblage.
"I've lived on Little Street for eight years now. When I moved there, the end of the street, which is now Van Buren Estates, was one house and eight wooded acres. That's what attracted me to Little Street," said Eric Christian, one of the current owners. "That's not what's there now. Things change."
Wayne Weaver, an owner on Little Street for nearly 35 years, said he no longer has top soil on his property. He said the grading work done to install sidewalks after Van Buren Estates was built faces his property, causing flooding. In addition, he said it took 15 years to get sewer service.
"I'M IN FAVOR OF IT. I'm also adjacent to the non-conforming property [the septic business] … I have drainage problems," said Ed Ruiz, owner of the lot that will be located closest to the town houses. "It's an eyesore that will disappear compared to what I look at now. I think this plan is terrific."
In the end, enough commissioners supported the plan, but everyone expressed disappointment with the size and the company's resistance to reducing the number of units. None on the commission thought single-family homes could be built on the site if this plan was rejected because of the lack of a connector road between Little Street and Van Buren Estates. For many, it came down to the plan being a better solution than the current conditions.
"I've been in Herndon for 28 years and Little Street looked bad then and looks worse now," said Commissioner Robert Burk. "This is as far as any application has gotten [for Little Street]. The fact that it hasn't happened in all these years … has to be economics. If it's not single-family homes, then what else can it be?"