In the Media
Peninsula District Wins OK
October 6, 2006 PotamacNews.com
By Elisa A. Glushefski
KSI, a Vienna-based developer, got approval from the Prince William Planning Commission for 1,487 residential units and an employment center on the Cherry Hill peninsula. The commission voted to recommend the rezoning of 237 acres from heavy industrial to a mixed-use district that would integrate residential and commercial development, granting a special-use permit to build a private marina on a portion of a 51-acre property, combining several properties to create an employment center, and amending the long-range land-use plan for 979 acres.
Wednesday evening's approval was not without dissent.
Occoquan Commissioner Kim Hosen voted against all four proposals presented at the meeting. Commissioner At-Large Michael C. May voted against the rezoning proposal and Neabsco Commissioner Bruce Holley voted against the rezoning and the proffer amendment that created the employment center.
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors is scheduled to hear the Harbor Station proposals on Nov. 21 and will make the final decision.
The employment center, which may be one multi-use building or several buildings, clears the way for the building of more residential units closer to the Potomac River waterfront.
Holley argued that this would compromise the response times of emergency vehicles. Holley also said he was dismayed that there were no phasing restrictions proffered in the proposal that would slow development until the new River Oaks Fire and Rescue Station opens.
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors originally rezoned Southbridge, a development planned for the entire peninsula, in 2001. The first phase of the development is complete. Construction has just begun on the second phase, renamed Harbor Station, which will include a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course, a luxury hotel, a town center and a Virginia Railway Express station. When completed, Harbor Station will have 3,987 residential units - many of which would be age-restricted - said Mike Lubeley, KSI's lawyer.
The station, at the intersection of River Ridge Boulevard and U.S. 1, is scheduled to open in 2008.
Dumfries Commissioner Rene M. Fry supported the proposal and said he was particularly pleased that land was proffered for an elementary school and that heavy industrial zoning along the river would be replaced with mixed-use development.
Mark Perry, a Dumfries resident, said the project would offer economic and cultural aspects that would allow the county to compete with surrounding jurisdictions.
Dumfries Mayor Fred E. Yohey spoke against the development during the public hearing primarily because of the proposed interchange that would connect Va. 234 to Harbor Station Parkway and necessitate a flyover interchange at U.S. 1.
If the interchange is constructed as planned, access to several restaurants that generate more than $200,000 in meals tax revenue for Dumfries would be cut off. The interchange includes a service road that connects Va. 234 to U.S. 1 and would pass those businesses. But if a person driving east on Va. 234 missed the service road, which would be on the right-hand side, he or she would have to make what Yohey said was basically a 180-degree turn onto U.S. 1 to get onto the service road.
Lubeley said the Virginia Department of Transportation is designing the interchange and that KSI would handle the construction. VDOT, which initially was going to build the interchange, abandoned the project several years ago and a development authority was formed in 2005, taxing homeowners in the Harbor Station development to raise money to pay for the interchange and the proposed VRE station.
The commissioners requested that KSI work with VDOT and Dumfries officials to resolve potential problems.