Prince William planners say more houses at Neabsco Commons is a bad idea

WOODBRIDGE — At Neabsco Commons next to Northern Virginia Community College’s Woodbridge campus, there’s a hotel, some retail, and room for office space.

Situated along Interstate 95 in Woodbridge, in an area well-positioned for growth, office space is what Prince William County planners want for the region. They want it so much, last year the Board of Supervisors agreed to give nearly a half-million dollars in economic incentives to a firm named “Brickyard,” which operates a co-working space Loudoun County, to open a co-work space at Neabsco Common.

Rebecca Horner at the Prince William County Planning Office said the owners of the development were one of two property owners this year to ask county leaders for a change — to rezone the three and a half acres of land on which their development sits to allow apartment houses or condos.

The official term: urban residential medium. “This is fairly high-density residential,” Horner to the county Board of Supervisors.

She told leaders that her office didn’t support the request and that its review found that traffic would be reduced in the area during peak commuting times if the zoning rules were changed. Offices tend to generate a lot of cars, she said.

On the other hand, new homes would put pressure on the school division, potentially putting more children in school seats, and driving up the need to hire more teachers. There are already some apartments on site, called the Flats at Neabsco Commons. Two hotels — a Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites by Hilton flank the property on both sides.

“We’d be losing the capacity for planned office on the I-95 corridor, and we’d be increasing the planned impact to schools,” said Horner.

In the end, Supervisors did not approve the property owners request for a zoning change. They did, however, issue county staff to roll the Neabsco Commons development into the overall Dale City Small Area Plan process — an effort that is looking into how to remake the area along nearby Dale Boulevard into a more desirable place for people to live, work, and play.

For years, there have been studies about how to remake Dale City. Under the Small Area Plan process, county planners have held a series of workshops to refine those studies and condense the findings down into one report and then make recommendations on everything from the types of environmentally-friendly infrastructure to have in place, transportation solutions, down to sidewalks.

Once the report is complete, it’ll then go off to be reviewed later this year by the county Planning Commission. The Board of Supervisors is expected to make a final decision on the matter.

In Lake Ridge, Donnie Gray, owner of Lake Ridge Nursery on Old Bridge Road won his request for a rezoning. The property on which he built his nursery in 2005 is zoned agricultural land, but he asked to rezone it for commercial use.

His explanation to the Board of Supervisors: We’re already selling stuff here, why not make it official.

“We’re trying to catch the property up to its [current] use,” Gray told Supervisors.

And one day, it’s possible that Gray will want to sell the property.

“We’re not going out of business tomorrow, but the independent nursery business is in decline. We see the writing on the wall,” added Gray.

Occoquan District Supervisor led the charge in making the zoning change.

“I do not agree with the staff recommendations,” said Anderson.

After the Board cast its unanimous vote, not only did Gray’s property win new commercial zoning, but so did two adjacent parcels at 3611, and 3621 Old Bridge Road. Those properties were changed from suburban residential low, which would allow up to four houses per acre, to commercial.