The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors shot down a proposal Monday to fill a planned 270-unit apartment complex on the grounds of the county government center solely with county employees, partly on the basis that the county would lose millions of dollars in federal housing subsidies by doing so.
The board’s two-man Republican minority clashed with their colleagues over the purpose of the proposed Residences at the Government Center, which they said was sold on the prospect of finding living space for firefighters, teachers and policemen, when in reality the tenants also would be from the private work force.
Officials have long worried that too many low- and middle-income county staff, especially those involved with public safety, have been forced into neighboring jurisdictions because of Fairfax’s high housing prices, a problem exacerbated by more than $4-per-gallon gas.
“Promises were made to the surrounding community that this project was for county employees only,” said Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, a Republican who made the motion to restrict the units. “Furthermore, it is consistently being billed by this board as housing for county employees.”
Instead, the board’s majority resolved only that the units would be “primarily marketed” to the county’s roughly 12,000 county employees, making no commitment to actually house them there. Herrity and Sully District Supervisor Michael Frey opposed that measure.
“I just don’t think that we should make exclusions and say that those who are not county employees are not worthy to be residents at this location,” said Hunter Mill District Supervisor Cathy Hudgins, a Democrat.
Restricting the tenants would render the project ineligible for a $2.5 million federal tax credit, county officials said.
Fairfax County is in talks with Texas developer JPI to lease the 9-acre site behind the sprawling government center along MonumentDrive. If a contract is approved, the company would seek to rezone, design, build and finance the entire project, said JPI Development Manager Ruth Hoang. She said the building would be made up entirely of rental units.
