By KJ MUSHUNG
DUMFRIES, Va. – The plans for Dumfries’ first town center has skidded to a halt while developer Pete Singh works to get all the landowners on board with the project.
Plans for the town center were first submitted to the town in June 2011 and have changed several times since.
“Conceptual drawings and final construction can be ages apart,” said Town Manager Dan Taber. “It was a pretty good plan that he came forward with, and the town was excited about it… But it required some amendments to existing allowances because he wanted to have the height of some of the buildings above what the current zoning [ordinances] allow.”
According to the plans, the buildings will range from four to seven stories and mostly be residences over retail shops and other businesses. The parking lot for one of them is slated to be located inside the parameter of the structure instead of outside as it typically is for most buildings. And the seven-story tall building, if allowed, would be the town’s tallest. Singh’s plan needs a zoning text amendment in order to build a building that tall.
In November, the town received notice from two of the landowners that the agreement they had with Singh to use or purchase their land had expired and that they had pulled out of the project. According to a memo from Taber, the parcels of land are needed for the completion of the town center project but “the landowners do not want their parcels included in any future plan submissions or approvals.”
Taber said that he cannot dedicate any more staff or hours to the project until the matter is resolved. He met with Singh about the issue and said Singh is working on getting a new agreement with those landowners.
When asked about how he planned to move the project forward, Singh said by telephone that the matter was “tedious” for the media to report on and declined to comment further.
If it moves forward, the town center will be located on land that runs from the rear of the ACTS building up to the two-story building next to Town Hall.
