Stone Haven dead: Developer withdraws plans for 718-acre neighborhood, school site

Stone Haven will withdraw its rezoning request to develop 719 acres of land in western Prince William County.

The contentious development would have brought 1,006 new homes to the property in Bristow, located bordered by Linton Hall, Wellington, and Devlin roads. It also would have brought a mixed-use center with retail, commercial development.

The land would have been rezoned from agricultural to planned mixed residential, and planned mixed business.

Stone Haven developers also included an 85-acre site to construct a much-needed 13th high school in western Prince William County to open in 2020. Now the school division or county government must look to obtain a site for a new school, and that could come at the expense of taxpayers.

“Somehow, some way, the School Board and county are going to have to find a school site. The problem is not going to go away on its own. We’ve got a growing population, and we to do it quickly,” said Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman, At-large Corey Stewart.

Stewart said the county could consider purchasing land at the Stone Haven site for a new high school. Developers of Stone Haven needed to make a decision on whether or not to build as they are responsible for the upkeep of the land and continue to pay taxes on the property, added Stewart.

Stone Haven developers proffered a total of $74 million to the county to include the school site, as well as improvements to area roads and had agreed to build a 2-lane extension of University Boulevard to serve residents of the community.

The Board of Supervisors deferred a final vote on Stone Haven one year ago. It was scheduled to take a vote to approve the development at Tuesday night’s meeting. Stewart said he was confident there were not enough votes on the Board for Stone Haven to win approval.

Late last month, Stone Haven developers on their Facebook page urged residents to contact the Board of Supervisors in support of the project.

We appreciate your continued engagement and support for Stone Haven which proposes to deliver:

• A well-planned community with an appropriate mix of uses
• Employment opportunities on land with Wellington Road frontage
• Reduced vehicle trips compared to the current County planning designation
• Construction of 3 + miles of new roads (2 lanes)
– Rollins Ford Road from Linton Hall to Wellington Road and
– University Boulevard from Devlin Road to Progress Court
• Active Recreation (54 acres dedicated to County for fields)
• Passive Recreation (125 acres with natural trails created as a public park)
• Attractive landscaping and wooded buffers
• The 13th High School site to maintain the 2020 opening date and provide relief for overcrowded western end high schools

A public hearing on the project was held in October 2014, and a final vote by the Board of Supervisors in December 2014 was deferred until Tuesday night. Stone Haven developers following last year’s Board action reduced the total land to be developed from 864 to 717 and reduced the number of homes to be built from 1,650 to 1,006.

A new high school is needed to alleviate crowding and Patriot and Stonewall Jackson high schools. Traditionally, new school sites are proffered by developers in future neighborhoods approved by the Board of Supervisors, not the School Board.

If a new high school were to open inside the Stone Haven development, School Board estimates show it would open at near or full capacity.

“It is a generous proffer package [by Stone Haven], the problem is you’re using the existing proffer system to address the existing crowding problems, and that is only going to create more overcrowding problems,” said Occoquan District Supervisor Mike May.

Supervisor Jeanine Lawson, who campaigned against Stone Haven, issued this statement about the the project:

“For too long we’ve relied upon approval of thousands of homes in order to secure school sites. This has led to schools opening at or above capacity and leaving no room for responsible future growth. Our next high school in western [Prince William County] will be at or above capacity without students coming from new development. I fully understand that most families of existing neighborhoods prefer their children attend a Linton Hall area high school. However, adding a housing development of this size will simply make this more difficult because the new school will fill so quickly due to Battlefield and Patriot being extremely overcrowded by 2020. New developments competing twith existing communities adds to the difficulty of new boundaries with no guarantees of who goes where at this time.