Midtown Hearing Delayed

Planners to Take Up KSI Proposal in March

From the Times Community
By Jason Jacks
Jan. 5, 2006

The public hearing concerning KSI Services' proposed Midtown Springfield development, scheduled for Jan. 11 in front of the Fairfax County Planning Commission, has been tentatively moved to March 23.

Jeff McKay, Supervisor Dana Kauffman's chief of staff, said KSI voluntarily delayed its application because it did not want to be perceived as deliberately rushing the rezoning process through the holidays. Plus, he said, KSI required additional time to finish its paperwork and the county still needed to complete its review of the company's proposed mixed-use development.

“ We are really excited about moving forward,” said Matt Slavin, a KSI project manager, who directed further questions about the hearing date change to KSI attorney Gregory Riegle.

In a brief interview, Riegle seconded what McKay had said and called the hearing change nothing out of the ordinary.

“It's a big application,” he said.

In that application, Vienna-based KSI is looking to squeeze several residential towers, a 10-story hotel, offices, upscale retail space and expansive pedestrian plazas and walkways on the site of the Tower Building and Holiday Inn Express near the Tower Shopping Center in central Springfield.

When asked if the soaring heights of some of Midtown Springfield's buildings might be holding up the company's application, Riegle said: “From the county's side, it has not been a show stopper in the least.”

He said since KSI first filed its application with the county in the fall, the company has acquired another small “piece of property” at the central Springfield site and has only slightly “tweaked” its original plans that were first made public last spring.

With respect to KSI's proposal, according to McKay, the chief concerns Kauffman's office and a task force set up to review KSI's proposal have been hearing from the community have been about increased traffic around the site and that the development's 800 residential units may be too many.

But, as McKay pointed out, the county's comprehensive plan calls for having more people living in Springfield's revitalization district.

And, “that's principally what this application will bring,” he said.

© Times Community Newspapers 2006