Number of homes planned for mid-county rural area reduced

The developer of a long-debated planned residential neighborhood centered on 340 acres of land has reduced the number of homes it wants to build.

The Preserve at Long Branch, formerly the Mid County Park and Estate Homes, would now have single-family homes on 102 quarter-acre sized lots, sized between one and four acres, down from the original 118. The project site in the center of Prince William County and residents would use both Classic Springs Way, off Bristow Road, and Classic Springs Drive, off Route 234 to access to the site.

In July, the Prince William County Planning Commission recommended denial of both an amendment to the county’s comprehensive land-use plan that would allow the neighborhood to be built, complete with water and sewer lines, in an area where they are currently banned. The commission also recommended denial of rezoning 146 acres of land, from agricultural to suburban, that developer Classic Concept Builders needed to move forward with construction.

“As a result of citizens’ comments and other input received at the planning commission public hearing, we have reduced our proposed density…” Classic Concepts Builders owner Mark Granville Smith told PLN.

The Board of County Supervisors has the final say on the matter, and the project doesn’t yet have a hearing scheduled.

While new homes would be built 146 acres,  the remaining 193 acres of land that makes up the entire project would be gifted to the county for use as a park. The land would include new trails for residents’ use, as well as public access to the Occoquan River.

Smith says he’s also working with the county to register 21 acres of the property as a historic site. The old Maddox and Sinclair Mill site, an intact civil war earthworks, an abandoned gold mine, and a colonial-era roadbed leading to Brentsville County Court House all sit not the property.

In July, residents filled the county’s government center,. and logged in from home to watch the meeting online, and to speak out against the proposed development. Most oppose all new water and sewer lines in the county’s Rural Crescent — an area from the Quantico Marine Corps Base to the Manassas National Battlefield Park carved out in 1998 for land preservation purposes. Those lines, if built, are easily extended, leading to more development.

“More homes means a higher tax burden for the county,” said Ashley McWilliams during the public hearing on the project in July. “This is the first step on a slippery slope to losing our area’s rural identity.”

“You’re taking away my quality of life,” said Paige Page, a nearby resident.

With 118 homes, planners estimated drivers would make, on average 1,200 trips per day in and out of the neighborhood. Residents balked and this, too, forcing the developer to come up with a new traffic plan.

“…we have redesigned the vehicle travel pattern to split vehicle counts. We now have 30 homes using Classic Lakes Way which is the by-right density currently allowed,” said Granville Smith

More than half of the county’s land sits in the protected Rural Crescent. In the past, county leaders have made exceptions to the rules and have granted water and sewer rights to churches.

Last year, county officials unveiled plans for covering a narrow swath of land dubbed the “transitional ribbon,” stretching the boundary eastern of the Rural Crescent, where new homes could be built with water and sewer. The homes would be built in tighter “cluster” developments, a far cry from the development now permitted by-right in the rural area of one home every 10 acres.

Preservationists were lukewarm to the proposal, and it never went anywhere.

In 2013, the county commissioned a study on the Rural Crescent to determine how best to develop and preserve the land. The study was largely triggered Classic Concept Builder’s original Mid County Park and Estate Homes development, which has now been debated for about 10 years.

“The Board of County Supervisors needs to adopt changes to the rural area before we approve changes like this,” said Brentsville District Planning Commission Patti McKay said of the Preserve at Long Branch. “[The development] is like a bowl of Halloween candy at the end of a driveway. It’s very enticing but it’s not going to worth the stomach ache.”

Supporters of the development, of which only two spoke at the July meeting, said rural landowners should be able to develop their properties as they see fit, and that new construction is inevitable as the region continues to grow.

“I am appalled by people who move here and think that the land that is owned by someone else should be controlled by them,” said Patrica Bradburn, of Gainesville. “The Rural Crescent is private property and belongs to the people who own it.”