Metro, a multibillion-dollar transit agency that employs more than 10,000 workers and shuttles millions of people around the region, has been moonlighting as the landlord of a single-family home for more than 30 years.
The transit agency is now trying to leave the business of collecting rent checks and maintaining the 50-odd-year-old house. But it may have run into a problem: Fairfax County says Metro doesn’t have the zoning it thought it did to get rid of the house.
“It makes sense that they’d want to sell it, but unfortunately there’s a process to go through,” Fairfax County planner Cathy Lewis told The Washington Examiner.
Metro officials said they believe the house is clear to sell and planned to look into the zoning discrepancy this week.
Meanwhile, the house is sitting on a side street off of Interstate 66 about a half-mile away from the Vienna Metro station, not accruing any property taxes for Fairfax County because Metro is a government entity. The half-acre property is valued at $685,140, according to county records, but as recently as last year was assessed at $1.03 million.
Metro bought the house in 1974 when it needed to widen Five Oaks Road as part of the construction of the Orange Line, said Mark Meister, a Metro real estate manager.
Over the years, Metro has bought other properties with buildings, Meister said. But usually those were demolished for construction.
In this case, the land under the actual house wasn’t needed. Fairfax County gave Metro a special zoning exemption, allowing it to use the Sayre Road property as housing, but the residential zoning would not carry over if Metro sold it. So Metro rented it out, maintaining the same tenant ever since.
“It’s been a situation we’ve wanted to get out of for a while,” Metro Assistant General Manager Nat Bottigheimer told the Examiner.
The transit agency has nothing against the person. In fact, the tenant has been “excellent,” Meister said.
But Metro officials have to worry about maintaining 86 rail stations, more than 1,000 rail cars, hundreds of buses, more than 100 miles of tracks, plus rail yards and bus garages around the region.
And this year, Meister said, a tree branch fell during a storm and hit the house, knocking down a gutter.
Metro officials said they believed the zoning had been recently changed, freeing them up to finally sell the house. Staff got permission from Metro’s board of directors last week to sell the land as excess property. Now the agency and Fairfax County need to sort out the confusion over the zoning. The agency could need to go through applications and public hearings before selling the house.
Even so, Metro will remain in the residential property business in at least one way after all is said and done — as a tenant. It is renting a one-bedroom apartment for the temporary tenure of interim General Manager Richard Sarles.
