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A Vienna-based developer submitted plans today
for a $1.3 billion project that would bring thousands of housing
units, six schools and a hospital to an area just west of Dulles
International Airport in Loudoun County.
Greenvest wants to establish a "workforce
housing initiative" that would devote a segment of the
development to below-market priced housing, in order to meet
the needs of Loudoun's growing job market. Of the 15,000 residential
units planned for the development, 1,800 units would be priced
up to 25 percent below market levels, or as low as $200,000.
"We're trying to create upward mobility within the development,"
says Packie Crown, Greenvest's vice president of planning and
zoning. "We'd like young couples to get started in the
workforce housing area, then perhaps progress to a larger home
when they start a family. Right now, there are a lot of families
moving out of this county and this state because they can't
afford a home."
Greenvest filed a comprehensive plan amendment
with Loudoun County today for the 4,200 acre property, which
spans four parcels on the north and south sides of Route 50.
Although much of the land is already zoned residential, the
plan amendment is necessary to create the workforce housing
district as well as an age-restricted development on one section
of the property.
Crown says the county's planning commission probably
won't examine the amendment until October or November, and if
it's approved, the plan would still need an actual zoning change
before it could proceed. Part of what may be attractive to the
county, Crown says, is Greenvest's plan to spend $207 million
to add a six-mile extension to Route 659, as well as make various
upgrades to Route 50 near the property.
The entire project will be privately financed
and could bring an estimated $650 million in taxes to the county
during a 20-year period. If the county approves the project,
the first set of residences could be built in mid-2007, says
Greenvest CEO Jim Duszynski.
-Washington Business Journal, Tuesday, August 31, 2004
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