Fairfax County plans to demolish its existing probation group home for girls and build a new 11,500-square-foot facility in its place.
The Board of Supervisors on Monday approved a $3.2 million contract with Falls Church Construction Corporation to construct the new facility on Lee Highway in Fairfax.
The project will add staff offices, class and meeting rooms, recreation, a kitchen and housing facilities for 12 residents, and is expected to cost the county $5.79 million.
The probation house is part of Fairfax County’s Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court system and opened in October 1975. The structure, once a motel, was built in the 1950s and renovated in the 1970s, said Dennis Fee, the court’s director of residential services. The building has now reached the end of its life span, he said.
“The cost of renovating it and bringing it up to code and standards exceeded what it was worth, given its condition,” Fee said.
The group home houses a dozen girls on probation for typical stays of six to eight months. The occupants will be temporarily relocated for 14 months when construction begins in July.
