| After
months of delay, Mt. Gilead houses OK'd Part of Stanley Martin project within historic district |
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Chantilly/Centreville
Times Article
04/11/02
| After
months of delay, Mt. Gilead houses OK'd Part of Stanley Martin project within historic district |
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| Over the vehement protests of local historians and Civil War buffs, the Board of Supervisors Monday approved a 47-home subdivision near Centreville's historic district. |
| The
Stanley Martin project will rezone a 7.8-acre site between Mount
Gilead Road and Wharton Lane, part of which lies within the 17-acre
historic district, from residential, one home per acre to eight units
per acre. Civil War earthworks, on the southwest corner of the site facing Mount Gilead, will be preserved along with an open vista to the historic home. The roughly one-acre area will be dedicated to the Fairfax County Park Authority. The single-family detached houses will face existing roads with access to driveways to the rear of the homes by means of shared alleys. In stating his support of the project, Sully District Supervisor Michael Frey (R) noted that development if done in the right way does not destroy an historic district, it enhances it. "In my mind, the positives outweighed the negatives," Frey said, adding that without this project the earthworks would not be in the public's hands and would continue to deteriorate. "I asked myself, 'Did development ruin Old Town Alexandria?' Clearly it did not." Two supervisors, however--Gerald Connolly (D-Providence) and Sharon Bulova (D-Braddock)--said, in looking back at historic areas in their own districts that have been lost, they couldn't help but think the Stanley Martin project could have been done better. As a result, both said, they could not support the project. "We can look at West Ox battlefield here and not be very proud of it," Connolly said of the tiny plot at the corner of West Ox Road and Monument Drive in Fair Lakes that is all that remains of that battlefield. While the developer had initially gained support from the Architectural Review Board, the Planning Commission, county staff, the Historic Centreville Society, the Western Fairfax County Citizens Association and members of St. John's Church, area historians cried foul at a public hearing last month, claiming the project would destroy what little history Centreville has left. A phase two archaeological survey determined that other than the largest earthwork, the other mounds of dirt on the site were post-Civil War. Further, the survey found no other areas of significance to preserve. However, several people at a public hearing suggested that an open vista from the earthworks to nearby St. John's Church should also be protected and no homes should be built on the portion within the historic district. While Frey said he understood the desire to preserve the area, he said the appropriate places have been protected. He added that simply falling in or out of a historic district does not mean something is or isn't automatically historic. The Mount Gilead house, which lies adjacent to the subdivision, is considered one of the area's most historic structures. During the winder of 1861-62, 40,000 troops were encamped in the area when nearby Mount Gilead was used as a Confederate military headquarters. In addition to Mount Gilead and St. John's Church, there are three other historic structures in the district. [ BACK ]
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ŠArcom Publishing Inc. - Chantilly/Centreville Times 2002 |
