PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. — The developers of a the 2,000-acre Potomac Shores project remain at an impasse with railway and state officials – there is still no plan to build a commuter rail station on the property.
The mixed-used neighborhood’s town center, which will be located on the Potomac River and feature a mix of condominiums, apartments, retail shops, office space, and a hotel, hinges on a future Virginia Railway Express Station. The hope is commuters traveling to and from Washington, D.C. would use the station. It would be built on the existing rail line that traverses the property, between VRE stations at Quantico and Rippon in Woodbridge.
Property developer SunCal has offered to build the station.
“We’re trying to dangle it in front of them, the option to have a train station build for them in hopes they would just get coordinated,” said Eddie Byrne, a SunCal spokesman.
Holding up an agreement for the station is a third rail that was supposed to have been built with $75 million in federal funding approved by the White House in 2009, form Arkendale in northern Stafford to the Cherry Hill Peninsula in Prince William County, where Potomac Shores is being built. But the project was scrapped when funds fell through.
Local, state, and Virginia Railway express officials are working with track owner CSX on a solution for the problem, but so far there isn’t one.
“I have not seen any money on paper for this project,” said Delegate Mark Dudenhefer, R-Stafford, Woodbridge. “The track, Route 1, and 95 improvements remain a priority for me in Prince William County.”
In addition to its town center, Potomac Shores will boast nearly 4,000 new homes, feature a new elementary and middle school, 10 miles of new trails, a riveside boardwalk, and a a Jack Nicklaus golf course that will open to the public next year.
“We’re not building a country club,” said Byrne. “This is something that will be open for everyone to use.”
Potomac Shores is the latest incarnation on a property that changed hands at least three times over the past decade. Originally dubbed Harbor Station, Potomac Shores will feature homes that “look like they have been there for a long time” with architecture inspired from Mid-Atlantic destinations from South Carolina to Delaware, said Byrne.
The development will set behind the Southbridge neighborhood, and future residents will use River Heritage Boulevard and Harbor Station Parkway (which has been renamed to Potomac Shores Parkway, and now has a planned extension to U.S. 1) to access the property.
As developers plan to connect Potomac Shores Parkway with U.S. 1, a new intersection near Va. 234 and U.S. 1 will need to be built to accommodate traffic, planners said. The developers presented plans for a new intersection that would eliminate all left turns at Va. 234 and U.S. 1, and would force drivers looking to access Va. 234 north to Manassas to travel through a busy commuter parking lot.
While land clearing is underway, construction on the first homes for occupancy will be built starting this fall.
