Gloria Gordon and her family want to redevelop the property along Lewinsville Road which has been in their family for generations.
“We have supported and withstood all of the changes in Fairfax County,” she said at the April 27 Planning Commission meeting. “Not once did we oppose any of the growth in the area.”
The 8.1-acre property lies on either side of Gordon Lane off Lewinsville Road near Spring Hill Road. There are currently 11 houses on the land, and developer Winchester Homes plans to tear them down and build 19.
The area is planned for two to three houses per acre and abuts an area planned for one to two houses per acre. Jane Edmondson, president of the Lewinsville Coalition, said that her group, and the McLean Citizen’s Association would prefer to see two less houses, putting the development at the very bottom of the planned density range.
Sean Woo, who lives in an abutting property, said he fears that the development would set a precedent for development along Lewinsville Road. “It’s going to establish the baseline for future development,” Woo said.
“I don’t understand what the fight is about two or three houses,” said Gary Weaver, who lives on the property now. Weaver and others who live on the road stressed that the development is within the plan guidelines.
After being questioned by Commissioner Janet Hall (Mason), Gordon said that the sale price of her property is not dependant on how many houses are approved.
PLANNING COMMISSIONERS seemed receptive to the level of development, but had issues with some of the design specifics. Commissioner John Byers (Mount Vernon) noted that if the Lewinsville Coalition thought the planned density on the property was too high, they should have attempted to change it during one of the recent Area Plans Review cycles. “It sounds like you’re a day late and a dollar short,” Byers said.
Commissioner Frank de la Fe (Hunter Mill) noted that the adjoining development is above the minimum of its planned density of one to two houses per acre, and that this density could act as a transition. “They’re also at the bottom end of the two to three,” de la Fe said.
Commissioner Laurie Frost Wilson (at large) and Hall did not like a proposed gazebo, which would be built along Lewinsville Road. Both were skeptical about whether or not families would want to go sit out on the highway.
“I don’t know how many people want to go have a picnic on the main drag,” Hall said. “This is not a density issue, this is a design issue.”
Commissioner Nancy Hopkins (Dranesville) also said she did not like the proposed location for a stub street to an adjoining parcel. The stub dead-ends and is being built in case the adjoining land develops in the future.
Hopkins said that the developer would need more time to work out the design issues, and the commission deferred its decision until May 11.