Conference Center Proposed on Rte. 29
Pr. William Receives Rezoning Requests

By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 26, 2006

A hotel and conference center complex is among the 13 applications that Prince William County has received to amend its Comprehensive Plan, a long-range blueprint for zoning.

Manassas National Battlefield Park is asking to be recognized as a "cultural resource" instead of open space, and some residents have united to reduce development from four housing units per acre to one per 2.5 acres.

Raymond E. Utz, the county's chief of long-range planning, said that the applications are the beginning of a long process and that there is no guarantee any of the projects will be approved.

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors will vote in March on whether to allow the Office of Planning and Zoning to continue reviewing the proposals, Utz said.

All the requests for amendments had to be in by Jan. 6, and developers are already promoting their projects as good planning for the county.

Martin's Caterers, which specializes in "mini-convention centers," is a partner in the project to build the hotel and conference center on Route 29, just north of Lake Manassas in Gainesville, said Martin Resnick, chairman of the Maryland company.

What started as a catering business has expanded into nine centers in Maryland. The Gainesville project would be the company's first venture in Virginia, Resnick said.

"It's one of those things where if you want to have a wedding or a graduation party or a debutante ball, they would do the catering and everything," Utz said.

The project includes 195 houses. If all the Comprehensive Plan amendments were approved, they would add 1,600 residential units in the county, Utz said.

The Manassas National Battlefield Park's application is the only one that does not involve housing. The 4,358 acres, dedicated to preserving the scene of two major Civil War battles, are identified as open space in the Comprehensive Plan.

Although the county consults the National Park Service about developments within two miles of the historic park, the "cultural resource designation" would solidify that agreement, said Bob Sutton, the battlefield's superintendent.

"We can say we don't like [development within two miles], but there's nothing saying the county has to abide by what we would want," Sutton said.

Sutton and Utz said that although the county and Park Service have never had a problem working together, the designation would be a safeguard.

The county gave the same designation to Prince William Forest Park, 17,000 acres also operated by the Park Service, in 2004 through a Comprehensive Plan amendment, Utz said.

Just north of Haymarket, residents in the Longlevel neighborhoods are trying to preserve their open space. Longlevel Estates and Longlevel Acres were built about 28 years ago and are now squeezed between the large communities of Dominion Valley and Piedmont and are subject to similar development.

The Comprehensive Plan allows as many as four units to be built on one acre. According to the residents' application, houses in the neighborhoods are on 1.3 to 2.5 acres.

The residents want to keep it that way, said Michael Veness, president of the community's civic association. The zoning change would help the residents "try to preserve our neighborhood and large lots," he said.

Veness, 53, said he has lived in the neighborhood for 19 years and has watched growth clog Route 29.

"Traffic, traffic, traffic. It's difficult to commute to work. It's difficult to go to the store. It's difficult to go to the doctor," Veness said.

Utz said the Longlevel application is the most unusual of the 12 calling for residential zoning changes because "it's the only one that down-plans" instead of seeking permission to build more housing, he said.

Of the applications seeking to increase housing density, three have previously been proposed and were rejected or withdrawn last year. They are Avendale, a proposal to build 365 houses in Gainesville; River Oaks, 112 units in Woodbridge; and a project by developer Mark Granville-Smith.

Granville-Smith withdrew his proposal to build houses in the Rural Crescent -- in western and northern Prince William -- before the board voted last March. "I did that to have more discussion with citizens," he said.

Environmentalists and anti-sprawl advocates lobbied against the proposal. The crescent, created in 1998 to preserve land, limits construction to one house per 10 acres.

Granville-Smith is back again, proposing a bigger project that would take up 1,466 acres and call for building 650 houses on 2.5-acre lots in in Brentsville.

This time, Granville-Smith has the support of residents who own 786 acres of the land he wants to develop.

According to the application, the residents say their land was originally designated for semirural development, which means the 2.5-acre lots were allowed, until the county placed the land under the protection of the Rural Crescent.

Other proposed amendments include the development of 784 multifamily units near Innovation@Prince William technology park and a promise from the developer to give land for a potential Virginia Railway Express station and the development of 192 multifamily units at Liberia Avenue and Prince William Parkway.

Also, the American Legion wants to terminate a lease with the county's park authority, which rents 22 acres from the group for ball fields. The American Legion would like then to change the zoning to allow for as many as four houses per acre.