The office parks around the I-66 and Route 50 interchange in Fairfax County have been on the drawing board for a while now, and last week the county took a big step toward turning a good chunk of that ground into housing.
FFXnow reported that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted 10-0 on Tuesday, Oct. 13, to approve comprehensive plan amendments covering key parcels near that intersection.
"These plans have all really come as a result of I-66. It increases the development potential," said Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, whose district takes in one of the areas.
Land Unit K
The biggest piece is Land Unit K, 129 acres in the Fairfax Center area just east of I-66 and Route 50. Waples Mill Road runs through it, and today it holds a mix of office buildings, light industrial operations, multifamily housing and a hotel. The county has been studying it in phases since 2023.
The new plan adds a development option across the site for 1,341 multifamily units, 20,000 square feet of retail and about 400,000 square feet of office. Both county planning staff and the Planning Commission backed it. The vote clears the way for property owners to put together plans and bring them to the county.
The county staff report fills in some details. Those 1,341 units aren't tied to any one parcel. They're a floating pool of density that owners can tap through future rezonings. Compared with the old plan, that's about 680,254 fewer square feet of office.
There's a catch anybody bidding site work should know about. The staff report says the two sewer pump stations serving the area, Pender and High Ridge, lack the capacity to handle more demand from new development. New projects are expected to bring engineering studies of sewer capacity and commit to whatever improvements are needed to cover full buildout of the area those pump stations serve.
One project inside Land Unit K is already moving. FFXnow said a developer wants to raze the High Ridge office building at 3877 Fairfax Ridge Road and replace it with 400 residential units.
"I look forward to seeing how this land area develops," Herrity said.
Townhouses south of Route 50
In a second unanimous vote, supervisors approved a site-specific plan amendment for Sub-Units J1 and J2, just south of Land Unit K on the other side of Route 50. That area has 914,000 square feet of office, 186,000 square feet of retail and 91,000 square feet of vacant land.
Two owners there got land-use changes. At 4035 Ridge Top Road, a 6.78-acre site with just under 200,000 square feet of office and structured parking, Crown Ridge LLC wants to build 128 traditional and stacked townhouses around a half-acre public park and playground. Under preliminary plans, the first phase would be 54 stacked townhouses and the park, keeping an existing office building and the parking garage for now. The other 74 attached townhouses would come later.
The second site is 2.1 acres at the southwest corner of Route 50 and Waples Mill Road, where the owner has proposed a three-story self-storage building with an urban park and artist studio. Part of that land would go to the Virginia Department of Transportation for intersection improvements.
Braddock District Supervisor Rachna Sizemore Heizer said the county is envisioning the Fairfax Core area "as a mixed-use, residential [area] with placemaking and walkability."
Other owners in the area, including the Fairfax Court shopping center, have said they're interested in redeveloping someday but have nothing specific on the table, according to county staff.
More votes coming
On Oct. 27, supervisors are expected to take up the third phase of the Fairfax Center Area Study, covering parcels mostly west of the I-66 and Route 50 interchange in the Braddock and Springfield districts. In early 2027, they're expected to consider the second phase of a Fair Lakes planning study, farther west still.
Why it matters for Contractors
This is early-stage work, and nobody's pulling a building permit tomorrow. But plan amendments are where a pipeline starts, and this one points toward a lot of residential construction in one corridor: midrise apartments, stacked and traditional townhouses, office demolition and parks. The sewer piece matters too. Pump station upgrades and engineering studies will be part of these deals, which means utility and site contractors could see work before the vertical trades do. Watch the Oct. 27 vote, then watch for rezoning applications.