Urban-style high-density development could transform Manassas into a small but vital city and attract thousands of new residents over the next 20 to 30 years, city officials say.
Up to 6,900 newcomers are expected to move to a part of the city that planners are calling the Manassas gateway. Now dominated by car dealerships, gas stations and fast-food restaurants, the area would be redeveloped with homes and businesses. New residents would increase the city's current population of nearly 37,000 by 18 percent.
Manassas Shopping Center, an aging strip mall on Mathis Avenue, is considered a "key redevelopment site."
(Photos Rafael Crisostomo For The Washington Post)
|
|
They would live in thousands of new condominiums and townhouses in the neighborhood, along Route 28 and Mathis Avenue; work in up to 8 million square feet of new office space and shop in up to 700,000 square feet of new stores, said Elizabeth S. Via, the city's community development director.
The numbers were presented to the city's School Board for the first time this month. They represent part of the ambitious redevelopment plans for the area, which the city began working on a year ago. Via and her staff compiled the projections by placing "mythical buildings," block by block, on a map of the neighborhood and then counting square footage. Population figures were based on the city's average household size. Via cautioned that she expected the numbers to drop as the plans continue to take shape.
Sketches imagine an area similar in feel to Arlington County's Clarendon neighborhood or Old Town Alexandria, with tree-lined streets and office and apartment buildings up to eight or 10 stories tall.
Booming real estate values have helped generate interest in the area. In order to grow, the city must increase its density, officials said, cautioning that the plans will take years to carry out, depending on market conditions.
Via said she couldn't reveal the names of companies that might be interested in redevelopment. Any could become involved, she said.
Some of city's projected population growth would come from outward migration, Via said. But, overall, the estimates match regional trends. In the next 25 years, more than 2 million new residents and 1.6 million new jobs are expected in the District and its suburbs, according to information compiled for the Urban Land Institute Washington's recent "Reality Check" leadership summit on growth.
"Manassas is not building in a vacuum," she said.
Some school officials appeared to be caught off guard by the new figures.
"If nothing else, this dispelled the myth that the city was built out," said School Board member Scott M. Albrecht. "A year ago, I don't know if we would have predicted these numbers."
Albrecht and other officials must calculate how many more students to expect and how many more schools might be needed to accommodate them.
If the estimates bear out, Manassas could add more than 1,500 schoolchildren, and the city might need more than one additional school, said School Board Chairman Arthur P. Bushnell.
But the development would also bring an increased tax base, Via emphasized.
