Planning Commission Moves Forward Hunters Woods Senior Facility

The Fairfax County Planning Commission recommended for approval plan amendments that move along a Pennsylvania company’s application to bring more senior citizen housing to the Hunters Woods Village Center area.

The plans now move on to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for a final approval.

The 4.3-acre lot at 2222 Colts Neck Rd. — the former site of United Chirstian Parish Church — was first approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for 210 senior housing units in 2007.

IntegraCare, which has facilities in Pennsylvania and Maryland,  plans to retain 91 of the 210 previously approved independent living units and to add 79 assisted living, 24 memory care, and 16 high-acuity assisted living/memory care rooms.

The building will be 230,000 square feet in two wings, one along Colts Neck and one along Reston Parkway. The estimated completion date is 2020.

The assisted living facility will feature multiple dining venues, a theater, salon, barber shop, physical therapy unit, fitness center, library and computer center, Club room, sun room, outdoor fitness stations, raised gardening area, and an arts and crafts center, and a Memory Care garden, according to a county planning department staff report.

The staff report highlights the need for more senior housing in Reston:

In the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, 32 percent of assisted living units and 25 percent of memory care units are in communities that offer independent living facilities; however, in the Reston market only has 9 percent. The market feasibility studies concluded that the proposal would bring Reston’s senior living mix closer to the metropolitan regional average.

Earlier this month, the Board of Supervisors approved plans for a 135-bed assisted living facility to be built on Leesburg Pike near Baron Cameron Avenue. Last week, the Fellowship Square Foundation said it is teaming with a developer to build a new Lake Anne Fellowship House, an senior independent living complex.

Some more details about the Colts Neck project from the staff report:

• Both the independent and assisted living facilities will accommodate residents age 62 years or older.
• Two stages of memory care will be offered at the assisted living facility.
• Changes from the 2007 proposal include a covered driveway to the main entrance to the assisted living wing; a covered walkway to the independent living facility wing, and a revised community garden layout.

Some development conditions added to the plan in October:

• A minimum 65-foot-wide buffer should be provided from existing edge of pavement of Reston Parkway.
• Affordable housing at a minimum of 20 percent of the total number of units should be provided.
• Restoration and enhancement of the impaired Snakeden Stream Valley that is located in the northern portion of the parcel should coincide with redevelopment.
• Pedestrian access from the site to the Snakeden Stream Valley trail, the abutting multifamily housing development to the south, the Village Center to the east, and Colts Neck Road should be provided.
• A total of 128 parking spaces are required and 177 spaces are being provided to meet the parking requirement for the independent living facility and medical care facility (assisted facility) uses.

Some of the developer proffers:

• 20 percent (18 units) of the independent living facility units will be offered as affordable housing units.
• The County’s Health Care Advisory Board (HCAB) recommended that four percent (five beds) of the proposed assisted living facility beds be provided through the Auxiliary Grant program of the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services.
• Fairfax County Fire and Rescue requested funding for the cost of two preemption devices for traffic signals ($10,000 each) located along the primary travel route from the Fox Mill Fire and Rescue Station.
• The Park Authority recommended clustering the outdoor fitness stations rather than dispersing them along the 8-foot wide asphalt trail along the northern boundary. IntegraCare has proffered to cluster the fitness stations.
• The applicant previously proffered to apply a contribution of $161,300 to the Reston Association Walker Nature Center, but that proffer has been revised and may be applied to not only the Nature Center but to pedestrian improvements and/or public art in the vicinity, according to the staff report.
• The developer will construct a pedestrian trail along the Property’s frontage on Colts Neck Road.

Photos: Top, rendering of South elevation of facility/Credit: Fairfax County