Planners Reject Sutton Road Day Care, Preschool

The Fairfax County Planning Commission recommended the Board of Supervisors deny the application for a child care center at the intersection of Chain Bridge and Sutton roads in Vienna at its meeting Wednesday — the sixth time it has done so in nearly three years.

James W. Jackson, the owner of Horizon Child Development Inc., has attempted to build another branch of his Lord Fairfax Academy since he first purchased the 1.29 acre property in 2007, he said. His first application for a child care center was in 2008.

The most recent application called for a two-story, 35-foot building with 25 parking spaces. It would allow for a maximum enrollment of 150 children. Jackson says 120 children would be on site.

Access to the proposed center would come via an existing service drive on Sutton Road, near the intersection of Sutton and Chain Bridge roads.

County planning and transportation staff say their biggest concern is the day care center building size, parking lot and play area take up too much space at the property. Jackson would have to reduce all three of those aspects to the satisfaction of the county's planning and zoning staff in order for the commission to recommend the application for approval, said Barbara Berlin, director of Fairfax County's Planning and Zoning Evaluation Division.

“I am not being treated fairly,” said Jackson, who is also the design and construction manager for Fairfax County. “I continue to be amazed at the unsubstantiated concern that transportation and planning staff continue to raise in their decision to recommend denial that ignores all of the numerous studies and analysis that has been submitted on my behalf.”

Since Jackson purchased the property in 2007 and first applied for special exception in 2008, he has revised the plan six different times at the advising of the county planning staff, he said.

Berlin said Jackson has changed his application from a request for rezoning to a request for special exemption, and has reduced the number of children on site from 200 to 170, and now, to 150. She said the play area and parking lot sizes, however, are still too large for the existing intersection.

“We do have a perfect storm of a situation now with people going towards Tysons, coming off 66 going to the metro and going to Oakton High School,” said Jeffery Hallett, a resident of Vienna who lives near the proposed child care center. “I would really urge you to consider the impact of 100 or more vehicles dropping off children, picking them up. The site is simply too small, the roads are simply too congested, and I urge you to deny this application.”

Hallett’s comments at Wednesday's public hearing were echoed by other residents and representatives of homeowner’s associations in close proximity to the development. They have also claimed parents picking up and dropping off their kids would cause cars to be lined up, backing onto Sutton Road.

Jackson has committed to building a right turn lane from 123 to Sutton Road to ease traffic, though it is not required by the commission.

At the meeting, Will Johnson and Robin Antonucci of Wells and Associates, a McLean-based Traffic and Transportation consulting company, presented a traffic study to the commission, completed on Jackson's behalf.

According to Johnson, the intersection of Sutton Road and Route 123 currently requires no improvements to ease traffic flow, nor is it in the county's comprehensive plan to add any improvements to the intersection.

The day care center would add approximately 677 trips per day with staggered arrival times, Johnson said, and would have little to no impact on vehicular delay at the intersection.  

“This applicant is being treated differently than the other applicants that have come before you for childcare centers, nursery schools and schools,” Lynn Strobel, Jackson’s legal counsel, said during her rebuttal to county staff. 

Though the application has been recommended for denial by the Planning Commission, Jackson's application can still be approved when it is presented to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. The date for that presentation has not been determined.