Despite Lull In Market, KSI Plans Expansion

Pier, Parks Part of New Harbor Station Designs

Although the housing market in the region has cooled considerably in the past few months, KSI Services Inc. of Vienna is trying to go forward with an expansion of the Harbor Station development on the Cherry Hill Peninsula.

KSI has proposed adding a second phase of the development, Harbor Station South, that would add 1,487 residential units, a marina and an office park with a secure perimeter. Seventy percent of the proposed housing would be restricted to those at least 55 years old; and the office park would be designed to suit a federal agency such as the Department of Homeland Security as a tenant.

A public hearing on the Harbor Station development's expansion will be conducted by the Board of Supervisors at the board's Tuesday-night meeting. That meeting of the supervisors will be the first since Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large) was elected chairman in a special election this month. Stewart, who will be sworn in tomorrow night, ran on a platform of controlling growth in the county.

"I've got major concerns with the plan, probably the most important of which is the traffic impact of an additional 1,400 housing units," Stewart said last week. "The units we have already approved came with virtually no widening of Route 1, that is despite the fact that we already have significant traffic problems on Route 1."

The proposed expansion of Harbor Station would include a Route 234 flyover at Route 1. In addition, KSI plans to build a public pier, a marina village with shops and restaurants, and public parks in the area along the riverfront. The plan also calls for preserving a Civil War battery site at Cockpit Point. The batteries were manned by Confederate soldiers during the war and were used to shell Federal troops using the river. The batteries are currently largely inaccessible to the public.

Stewart said he also is concerned about the environmental impact of additional development in the area. Most of Harbor Station is being built on marine clay, which must be stabilized before construction. "We've already had the Department of Environmental Quality issue a couple of stop-work orders because of the marine clay soil," he said. Stewart said he supports the marina and public access to the waterfront but would like to see the number of residential units reduced.

Hilda M. Barg (D-Woodbridge) said she supported the expansion plan.

"The marina is exciting," she said. "What this does is it opens the area up to the public, which has long wanted access to the water. It allows the public to use the waterfront. This plan actually brings the community to the waterfront."

She said the number of housing units does not concern her because the residences will be built over 20 years and after existing transportation improvements have been made.

Harbor Station is a mixed-use community that is to include a town center, a luxury hotel and convention center, a Virginia Railway Express station, an 18-hole, Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course ringed by million-dollar homes and a Catholic high school that is scheduled to open in 2008. Construction on many elements of the plan is well underway, and the golf course is more than half-way built.

Phase II of the development would cover about 980 acres, 742 of which was part of the original design. KSI recently acquired about 237 acres, and that would be used for the Harbor Station South development.

In addition to the housing, the plan is meant to lure government agencies that will be affected by the proposed relocation of government offices to Fort Belvoir under the plan for base realignments and closures.

According to a description of the expansion plans on KSI's Web site, "The reconfigured Harbor Station South land plan, for instance, consolidates separate, commercially planned areas into a 157-acre land bay that would be attractive to a large corporate entity, government agency, or government services contractor seeking a secure employment campus environment."