Lot to Replace Woodbridge Shops

County to Clear 2 Businesses, One Not Yet Open, for Parking

The white lines that mark the parking spots around Dharmesh Desai's auto repair shop are freshly painted, awaiting customers who will never come.

For the past 11 years, Desai has worked to meet the county's requirements to run a small auto shop, only to be told before it opened that the county needs his land more than he does.

For the past decade, Prince William County has undergone continuous and rapid residential growth, which has far outpaced road construction. Prince William County has tried to fill the void in transportation by going into business itself building and renovating infrastructure. Using locally approved bond referendums, the county has undertaken large projects, such as the widening of Route 15, and smaller ones, such as expanding commuter parking lots.

The infrastructure campaign has not just been about moving dirt and putting down asphalt. Part of it includes demolishing shops such as Desai's.

Desai's building is across the street from the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission headquarters along Potomac Mills Road in Woodbridge. A commuter and employee parking lot and housing for the commission's buses, built in the early '90s, has not kept up with the growing need for space. The commission says it must expand.

Desai's small business, as well as a transmission shop next door, will be demolished to make way for a commuter parking lot.

"The engineers are saying the only place to locate this parking efficiently is across the street," Deputy County Attorney Angela Horan said. "There is no question that the public use needs to grow."

In between the commission's parking lot and Desai's business is a group home for boys, and to either side of the businesses are woods that are owned, but not in use, by American Fire Equipment. Both seem like alternatives to Desai and the owner of the transmission shop, but not to the commission.

"The whole parcel is too big for our purpose. It would truly take more engineering to make it suitable," Horan said of the woods.

Charles Dean, who owns the transmission shop next door, knows what it is like to have the government buy his land. After four condemnations by state and local governments, the 25 acres Dean once owned has been whittled down to about half an acre.

In all of the previous condemnations, Dean has settled without protest. This is the only time, he says, he has not thought he was getting a fair deal. The county offered Desai $525,000 for his 0.8 acres and Dean $400,000 for his property, which they both think is surprisingly low.

"The appraisal, it was a slap in the face," Dean said. "It was really a shock."