The Manassas Park City Council is backing a gargantuan redevelopment plan that seeks to place as many as 6,200 military jobs near a rail station in the city, giving an early bump to a proposal that faces fierce competition for the jobs from other Northern Virginia sites.
The Council voted unanimously this week to support the efforts to put the Washington Headquarters Services employees on the 115-acre tract off Manassas Drive, near a Virginia Railway Express stop. The jobs are relocating under federal Base Realignment and Closure mandates, and are part of the 19,000 employees moving into the area by 2011.
The American Building Corporation proposal, submitted to town and Army officials Monday, is the latest of three competing plans to house the new jobs. The other sites sit in Springfield and Alexandria.
The resolution passed this week said the “city’s history and the values of the city’s residents make Manassas Park an ideal location” for the jobs. It pointed to the city’s founding by veterans of the Korean War and World War II, and its ability to attract former and current members of the military.
The proposal is part of a larger redevelopment effort that would include other offices, dwellings and retail space, as well as a city hall, civic center, library and $50 million monorail.
The military is considering the best place to locate the employees. To house the headquarters services workers, all of the sites would need to become part of Fort Belvoir, officials have said.
