Cameron

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Greenvest in Alexandria

Journal Newspapers, of Alexandria and Fairfax Virginia. Their site is http://www.jrnl.com/cfdocs/new/ffx/searchall.cfm. The following resulted from a search on 'Cameron Station'. Bold added. Copyright The Journal Newspapers. Posted with permission.

Publication=Alexandria_Journal; Date=05.jan.1999; Section=Front_Page; Page=1; Book=A;

Cameron Station plan would trade open space, density

By STEPHEN HENN Journal staff writer

The developers of Cameron Station will ask the Alexandria Planning Commission tonight for permission to reduce the amount of open space in the 100-acre development and increase the size of several buildings planned for the sprawling former Army base in Alexandria's West End.

Several city planners have expressed concern that Cameron Inc. is searching for every opportunity to squeeze larger buildings onto the site, and City Council member Redella S. "Del" Pepper said many West End residents say the project is already too dense.

"What we have now looks like they are stacking houses on top of each other - just packing them in," said Pepper. "I'm very concerned about any increased density and it's becoming an issue I am hearing about from a lot of people."

When complete, the development will consist of 2,500 homes, 30,000 square feet of retail space, two parks and an elementary school.

The proposed changes to the northwest section of the property would allow builders to increase the size of four apartment buildings by as much as 75 percent in exchange for eliminating 109 surface parking spaces and constructing two underground parking garages.

Although city planners typically favor the construction of underground parking garages, planners expressed "serious" reservations about the proposed changes in their report to the Planning Commission. The report did, however, recommend that the Planning Commission approve the requested changes.

"Some of the changes will result in a less desirable plan than the one previously approved," planning officials wrote. "An already dense development is now getting denser, losing opportunities for open space and landscaping."

The open space created by eliminating the 109 above-ground parking spaces would be taken up entirely by the four larger apartment buildings. And the open space that would remain wouldn't be as appealing as originally planned, according to city officials. Instead of including grass, lawns and trees, it would feature a courtyard on top of a parking garage.

The changes also would eliminate some sidewalks and trees to line the internal streets as well as reduce the space between buildings and reduce the "setback," the space that separates the planned buildings from the street, according to the staff report.

Less sunlight would reach the street because the buildings would be taller and built closer to the curb, according to Director of Planning and Zoning Sheldon Lynn.

But the developers argue that their plans haven't changed fundamentally since the broad outlines of the project were drawn up several years ago.

Cyril "Des" Calley, the attorney for Cameron Inc., described the proposed changes as a minor "tweak" to the approved plans.

"We are really asking for negligible changes," said Calley. "When the developers bought the property, they were told how many units of housing could be built and that hasn't changed. In fairness, they structured their bids for the land around those numbers."

Lynn said city planners decided to endorse the changes despite their reservations after making some small adjustments and determining that the overall difference was "relatively small."

"It was a hard decision," he said.

Lynn said the adjustments will provide residents better access to existing open space.

The original plans for the northwest section of Cameron Station were approved by the city in June 1996. The proposed changes to the plans for Cameron Station will be debated before the City Council later this month following a recommendation of the Planning Commission.

In February, the developers are scheduled to bring plans for the final two sections of the development before the Planning Commission. A fight is already brewing over density in those sections and the size and height of two proposed apartment towers.

"We are very concerned that the developers will continue to move in the wrong direction," Lynn said. "They keep proposing minor changes that reduce the amount of open space. It is real frustrating and it is something we have seen before and will keep fighting against."

Publication=Fairfax_Journal; Date=25.jan.1999; Section=Jump_Page; Page=6; Book=A;

Mayor: Cameron Station growth `out of control'

By STEPHEN HENN Journal staff writer

Construction at Cameron Station has gone largely unchecked and may be getting out of control, according to several Alexandria City Council members and a group of angry neighbors who are worried that the development in Alexandria's West End is becoming too dense and has been poorly planned.

"This has all gotten a little bit out of control," Mayor Kerry J. Donley said at a City Council meeting Saturday. "I think we need to slow it down."

The city's planning department has approved what neighbors and some council members characterized as major changes to the 2,500-home development plan originally approved for the sprawling 100-acre former Army base along Duke Street. When finished, the development will also include 30,000 square feet of retail space, two parks and an elementary school.

The neighbors are furious that the changes were made without public meetings or proper notification of the adjacent owners.

"We were denied our right to voice our concerns and objections and otherwise participate in [a] process that has a material negative effect on our property values," said Susan M. Walters, who owns several neighboring commercial condominiums.

Representatives of the developer, Cameron Associates LLC, say they are simply following plans that have already been approved by the City Council and amended by the city's planning department.

Several neighbors of the development spoke before the City Council Saturday, asking that it revoke the developer's building permits and stop construction on the site.

The concerns have led the City Council to take the unusual step of scheduling a visit to the site to inspect development that has already taken place before making any new decisions about the project. All City Council members will tour the project at the same time, and the visit will be considered a public meeting.

Work on previously approved parts of the development will continue to go forward in the meantime.

Since the preliminary plans for Cameron Station were approved by the City Council in 1996, the planning department has met with developers and changed many aspects of those plans, according to Planning and Zoning Director Sheldon Lynn.

The setback between Walters' property and the condominiums in Cameron Station was reduced from 60 feet to 17 feet. The height of the condos was increased 5 feet and the elevation of the base rose 5 feet as well.

Now, Walters' property looks out on a wall of brick 10 feet higher than the initial designs instead of the 60-foot landscaped buffer that was originally proposed.

The changes mean the developers no longer have enough room to put in the landscaping that was required by the city, leading them to ask Walters and her neighbors for an easement to put the landscaping on their property.

"This is about the stupidest thing I have ever heard," said City Council member Lonnie C. Rich. "I mean, this is a mess. It's nice they want to landscape your property. They can come by my house and landscape it, too, but that has nothing to do with it."

The changes made to the original plan, according to Lynn, are legal and consistent with the city's procedures, which were designed to speed the development process. But, Lynn said, neighbors still should have been notified about the proposed changes, which apparently did not happen.

"We believe that the attorney for the developer did not give proper notice in at least one instance," said Lynn.

Walters said she was unaware that any changes had been made until work began directly behind her buildings.

"We have to clean up the process," Donley said. "We get proposed changes the night before the vote. We are looking at things that haven't been considered by the Planning Commission. We are getting items that were drafted in the back room."

Neighbors are also concerned that Cameron Station will not have adequate parking.

"They have the chance to solve this problem now," Walters said. "But if they wait until everything is built and the parking problem rears its ugly head, it will be too late. All the land will be used up."

Additionally, the garages being built with the condominiums and town houses in Cameron Station are too small to hold the most popular cars on the market today: sport utility vehicles and minivans, according to Walters and Transportation and Environmental Services Director Thomas F. O'Kane.

None of those issues, however, were directly before the City Council Saturday. The City Council was scheduled to vote on a special permit and zoning change that would have increased the size of apartment buildings in one area of the development and reduced the amount of open space. But council members voted unanimously to defer a decision until after the planned site visit.

The Planning Commission had earlier voted unanimously to recommend denial of the motion.

The attorney for the developers, Cyril "Des" Calley, declined to address the problems raised by the neighbors, instead focusing his remarks on the proposed apartment buildings. Calley was unavailable for comment after the meeting.

Publication=Alexandria_Journal; Date=27.jan.1999; Section=Front_Page; Page=1; Book=A;

Civic group may vote planners `off track'

By STEPHEN HENN Journal staff writer

Leaders of Alexandria's Civic Federation are considering a "vote of no confidence" in the city's planning department.

The move comes on the heels of a City Council meeting last weekend during which several members said they were unhappy with the development of Cameron Station and concerned that the project is getting out of control.

The planning department has acknowledged it approved a series of changes that did not require City Council approval to development plans for the 100-acre former Army base without properly notifying the project's neighbors.

"It is really coincidental that the problems at Cameron Station are coming up now," said Jack Sullivan, co-chairman of the Civic Federation. "But I think what is going on there is telling."

Sullivan is drafting the resolution criticizing the planning department and asking the City Council to take action to restore citizen confidence in the city's planning decisions.

"We are not after anyone's scalp," he said. "But we have the sense the planning department is off track, and maybe a directive from City Council could put them back on track."

The resolution will be discussed tonight at the Civic Federation's meeting in City Hall.

Mayor Kerry J. Donley said that while he is aware of the Civic Federation's concerns, he still has complete trust and confidence in the city's planning department and its director, Sheldon Lynn.

"There are always going to be problems," Donley said. "But to characterize the planning department as unfit or incompetent is unfair. I'm not saying that citizens don't have the right to complain or disagree - all I'm saying is that they should look carefully at the record."

Civic Federation members are upset with the Planning Department criticizing but then endorsing three unpopular, large-scale projects during the past year.

The first, a proposal to bring the federal Patent and Trademark Office to Potomac Yard, failed after massive and well-organized opposition to the project convinced the Planning Commission to oppose it.

The second proposal - a new, larger building at the site of Mastercraft Interiors on North Washington Street - was ultimately approved by the City Council and the Planning Commission.

The third project, a proposal to build an apartment building over the King Street Metro station's kiss-n-ride lot, was opposed by the Planning Commission and then withdrawn by developers after more than 200 citizens turned out to express their opposition.

All of the projects were ultimately endorsed by the planning department even though they all initially received an unfavorable or highly critical review.

"The planning department seems to be in favor of everything - even things they don't like," Sullivan said. "They will write a nine-page critique of a project saying all these things are wrong with it and then they will come out in favor of it. And if we are not out there protesting, the projects get approved. We shouldn't have to do that."

Lynn says that criticizing developers' projects and then working with them to make them better is the planning department's job.

That the projects are ultimately endorsed means they were significantly improved, Lynn said, but city activists often disagree.

"I think Sheldon Lynn feels like he is under some kind of mandate by the city manager or someone to approve these things even if they are lousy projects," Sullivan said.

The City Council had adopted a pro-development posture, Lynn said, but the planning department has never been pressured to approve a specific development or approve a project because of its fiscal impacts on the city.

"The City Council wants good, quality development," he said. "They expect us to help developers achieve good development instead of just turning down everything or delaying it."

Alexandria lost more than $1 billion from its real estate tax base during the recession of the early 1990s, and the city's real estate market still hasn't fully recovered. When the city went to the bond market for the first time in 12 years last week, city leaders pointed to the ongoing development of several major areas as evidence of Alexandria's financial strength.

There is growing concern among city activists, however, that Alexandria is trying to build its way out of a potential financial crisis and that the city's planning department has felt pressure to approve second-rate projects.

While City Manager Vola Lawson and Lynn acknowledge that they are cognizant of the city's financial circumstances, both insist that the planning department makes its own decisions and is not under any directive or mandate from city leaders to approve projects.

"We are aware that we only have a few possible developments left, but we have a vision of this city and we want it to remain extremely attractive," Lawson said. "No one has said we have a scorched-earth policy, and we absolutely have to have the highest possible return."

Representatives of the roughly 20 civic associations that belong to the Federation do not expect to vote on the no confidence resolution until it has been discussed by civic association members around Alexandria.

28 jan 99

Built and bought, now battled

City, neighbors say town houses at Cameron are illegal

BY STEPHEN HENN Journal staff writer

A row of town houses in Cameron Station that have already been sold for more than $214,000 each are being built illegally, according to Alexandria city officials.

Now one angry neighbor wants to stop construction, prevent the new owners from moving in and eventually have the controversial buildings torn down.

"I want the whole row of town houses taken down," said Susan M. Walters, who owns a small business with an office next door to the town homes. "If I were a rich woman, I would file suit today. But I am not young and I am not rich and if I started a lawsuit I would be betting my retirement," she said. "I would be going up against people with deep pockets, and they could sink a lot of money into defending themselves. We would be suing the big boys."

The developer, Cameron Associates LLC, which is owned by a company called Greenvest, changed its plans for the Cameron Station town houses without sending legal notices to the neighbors, city officials said.

The original plans called for a generous buffer that averaged 65 feet between the town houses and Walters' property.

But in the new plans, that buffer is gone. The space between the two properties is so small - just 17 feet across - that there wasn't enough room left to put in a drainage ditch and plant the trees the city required.

The new plans also raised the total height of the town houses relative to Walters' property more than 10 feet. Now, instead of looking out across a landscaped hill, her office faces a wall of beige-colored vinyl siding.

"There is nothing within Cameron Station that looks this ugly. We are the depository of all their problems," said Charles R. Guthrie, one of Walters' partners.

Although Greenvest received a building permit from the city to put up the controversial town houses, the permit was not valid because the neighbors were never shown the plans, according to the city's director of planning and zoning, Sheldon Lynn.

"If the approval is granted pursuant to improper notice, that approval is null and void," he said. "We know that there was at least one instance when the neighbors were not notified."

The attorney for the developer, Cyril "Des" Calley, who at one time served as Alexandria's city attorney, said he followed the code when he tried to notify neighbors but received inaccurate addresses from the city.

Neighbors and several city officials, however, have said they believe that he simply looked for the information in the wrong place.

"He should have known better, as the former city attorney," said City Council member Redella S. "Del" Pepper.

Pepper, Mayor Kerry J. Donley and several other members of the City Council were highly critical of Calley, Greenvest and the city's own planning department at the City Council meeting Saturday, saying that development of the 100-acre former Army basehas gotten out of control.

Later in the week, City Manager Vola Lawson was even more specific in her criticism of Calley and the developers.

"They have moved people in without having certificates of occupancy," she said. "They have come in with 24 separate, proposed changes for the first phase of the development, and requested three changes to the second phase.

"They have repeatedly handed in incomplete, inaccurate submissions full of inconsistencies," she said. "They will come in saying that they wanted changes to plan A and when you look there are also dramatic changes to plans B and C."

In the original submission for the town houses adjacent to Walters' property, Greenvest included one set of drawings that suggested the four-story town houses would be 32 feet across and another set that suggested that they would be 36 feet across. When the town houses were built, they were 38 feet across.

While it is obvious that Greenvest's applications have been plagued with mistakes, Assistant City Attorney Ignacio B. Pessoa said, there is no evidence that they deliberately failed to give proper notice.

"No sane person would purposely set out to do this because the downside is too horrific," Pessoa said. "There are too many financial disincentives for a developer to willingly fail to give proper notice." Homeowners could sue, and banks could back out of investments and mortgages.

Pessoa said in other cases the city has been able to go back and approve projects after the fact.

"I would guess that that would be what would occur here," Pessoa said. But the consequences still could be dramatic. The Planning Commission and City Council could deny the after-the-fact approval, which would mean the buildings would have to come down.

For her part, Walters is glad the city is finally taking notice. "They are all waking up and realizing that this is an illegal plan," she said. "The question is are they going to police themselves and stop work on the project or do I have to go to court myself?"

Publication=Alexandria_Journal; Date=02.feb.1999; Section=OPINION_PAGE; Page=4; Book=A;

What gives?

ITEM: A 65-FOOT BUFFER separating new townhouses at Cameron Station from a commercial condominium is mysteriously just 17 feet. Item: Because of the smaller buffer, the developers asked the condo owners for an easement to plant city-required trees and bushes on their (the condo) property. Item: The townhouses built on fill dirt are 10 feet higher than plans first indicated. Item: Eleven Cameron Station homeowners were allowed to move in although the city had not granted occupancy permits after final inspections.

What in blazes is going on over at Cameron Station?

Cyril "Des" Calley, the lawyer who represents the Cameron Station developers, says the city didn't give him proper addresses of neighbors he was supposed to notify about construction changes, but that doesn't wash. Oh please. How difficult could it have been for the former city attorney to get a few proper addresses? And anyway, that doesn't explain the wiped-out buffer, or the taller buildings, or the effort to landscape someone else's property.

Did the altered plans get a decent once-over at City Hall? Where were city inspectors when those buildings were built so close to the property line? And why were lending institutions approving mortgages before seeing occupancy permits?

We don't know how much of it all happened deliberately or because a whole lot of folks were asleep at the switch. As far as the townhouses and the buffer go, what's done is done. But the city has to find out what went wrong, and redouble its inspection efforts to make sure the rest of Cameron Station is built according to a properly approved plan. And make sure these problems don't crop up elsewhere.

Publication=Alexandria_Journal; Date=03.feb.1999; Section=Front_Page; Page=1; Book=A;

33 bought illegal townhouses

By STEPHEN HENN Journal staff writer

Thirty-three Cameron Station home buyers unwittingly broke the law when they moved into their new townhouses in the sprawling former Army base in the city's West End, according to city officials.

"They have been moving in without certificates of occupancy," said Jannine Hazel, acting director of the city's code enforcement department.

City regulations require building inspectors to issue certificates of occupancy before anyone can move into a new home, but according to Alexandria officials, developers at Cameron Station did not get the certificates before selling the homes.

Instead, the developers presented incomplete documents to homebuyers and banks, pushing through deals before the city had fully inspected the homes, city officials said.

The buildings are safe and well-built, according to city inspectors, but there is a budding legal challenge to the zoning approvals in Cameron Station that could threaten the home buyers' investments.

Many of the homes in Cameron Station, including several that were sold without certificates of occupancy, were built illegally, according to the city's planning staff, because the builders did not have valid zoning approval.

Several builders changed their plans without notifying neighbors, city officials say, and now some of those neighbors are considering filing a lawsuit aimed at forcing the developers to tear the controversial townhouses down.

City officials have spoken to the project's developer, Greenvest LLC, and some of the other builders involved about the problems with certificates of occupancy, but no one from the city contacted the lending institutions that are risking upwards of $200,000 on every loan, or the residents whose purchases of the homes have been thrown in jeopardy due to the string of errors.

Members of the city's code enforcement and planning and zoning staffs said yesterday that they would continue to allow new home buyers to move into the disputed townhouses using temporary occupancy permits.

"We expect these problems to be resolved by action of City Council," said Planning and Zoning Director Sheldon Lynn.

The City Council has scheduled an unprecedented on-site inspection of Cameron Station for Feb. 16, after which its members will decide whether to give several projects after-the-fact approval or take action to have the buildings removed.

Several neighbors who are considering filing suit said the city staff decision to allow people to continue to invest in properties that were built illegally is reckless and irresponsible.

"For the developers even to ask for this is a little presumptuous," said Paul Burke [no relation], who is president of a neighboring condominium association that is considering taking legal action.

"They are assuming that the city will back them up 100 percent, and I'm not sure they should do that, and the city should make sure it does what is right for the people who are moving in."

Burke's condominium association has asked its attorney to file an injunction against the developers in an attempt to prevent anyone else from moving into the disputed townhouses, with or without a certificate of occupancy.

Normally, it is impossible for a home buyer to close a deal on a new house without presenting a certificate of occupancy to a bank, but the Cameron Station buyers unknowingly passed off preliminary inspection notices as the city's final approval to the mortgage companies and the banks that approved their loans.

Several lenders and companies involved in the mortgages expressed disbelief when told that they had closed on loans before the city had given its final approval and issued the necessary documents.

"As far as we knew, we had certificates of occupancy for everything we did down there," said Allen Walker, president of Walker Title Co.

The documents used in the closing were provided by the builders of the new homes: Miller and Smith Inc., the Drees Co., Ryan Homes and NVR Homes.

But all failed to get the certificates of occupancy before they sold the homes, according to city officials.

Representatives of Miller & Smith, which sold four homes in Cameron Station without certificates of occupancy and three homes with the proper documents, could not be reached yesterday.

City officials said several builders claimed they were confused by the city's three-step approval process, an explanation that raised questions of its own.

"These builders are building elsewhere in Alexandria, and they seem to be doing OK," Hazel said. "Quite honestly, any builder who is licensed in Virginia should know what a certificate of occupancy is."

Members of the Alexandria's Department of Code Enforcement and the Department of Planning and Zoning have spent the last few days scrambling to inspect and approve the buildings that residents of Cameron Station have been living in for more than a month. They issued temporary occupancy permits to residents of three of the disputed townhouses Monday.

Publication=Alexandria_Journal; Date=17.feb.1999; Section=Front_Page; Page=1; Book=A;

City leaders inspect Cameron Station

By STEPHEN HENN Journal staff writer

In an attempt to calm city residents' concern about a recent spate of problems at Cameron Station, Alexandria Mayor Kerry Donley, the City Council and most of the city's top appointed officials took an unusual "field trip" to the 166-acre development in the city's West End yesterday.

Originally billing the trip as a chance to inspect problems with the development, which is built on the former site of a military commissary, Council members went out of their way to assure new homebuyers that although some homes in Cameron Station were constructed with invalid building permits and roughly 30 new homeowners moved in before the city issued certificates of occupancy, no homes would be torn down and no one would be asked to move out.

"I am not going to vote for the demolition of any home," said Council member William Cleveland.

Instead of challenging the approvals, Donley decided to establish a two-member City Council committee to review some of the Department of Planning and Zoning's decisions in regard to the development.

Council members, developers and the press toured the development in a packed city bus, which was trailed by three van-loads of residents. Residents joined Council members for a question-and-answer session in the development's visitor center that lasted for more than two hours.

Council member David Speck said during the session he didn't think tearing down homes was even an option.

In a recent written opinion sent to the City Council, City Attorney Philip Sunderland wrote that while several building permits were invalid when they were issued, he felt that too much time had passed for them to be overturned and that the permits should be treated as valid.

But citizen opposition to the project appears to be building.

Members of the city's Environmental Policy Commission have drafted a letter that, if approved, will ask the city to "hold developers responsible for their failure to provide public notice of plans that have already been vetted and approved ... and put some teeth in the city's development approval process."

The draft also asks the City Council to require the builders to demolish the townhomes that were improperly approved.

Council members, however, were resolutely opposed to demolishing homes that have already been built and sold - a position that was music to the ears of many homebuyers who attended the field trip yesterday.

Several Council members also apologized for criticizing the architecture and appearance of the development in the past.

"Driving around and looking at what is being built - clearly this is high-quality, attractive housing," said Council member Lonnie Rich, who previously compared the development to a public housing project.

"Clearly that remark was inappropriate, and I regret having said it," Rich added.

Many homebuyers who came to the meeting left feeling reassured that the massive development was still on track and that the builders would eventually succeed in creating the vibrant urban community the homeowners were promised when they moved in.

"I think there were a lot of people here with just a little information - that is a dangerous thing," said Dana Johnson, who is waiting to move into her new townhome.

But developers, the city staff and several Council members acknowledged that there are still serious problems with the development's interactions with the city.

Several Council members and the developer characterized many of the recent problems at the site as administrative snafus. In the past, city officials in the departments of Planning and Zoning and Code Enforcement had placed the blame squarely at the developer's feet.

Planning department officials have accused the developer, Greenvest, of failing to notify neighbors about changes in the development's plan.

Code enforcement officials said several builders went ahead and sold homes and moved new owners in without getting certificates of occupancy from the city first.

In addition, representatives of a neighboring condominium association are furious that many changes were made to the development's plans without the benefit of a public hearing.

Planning and Zoning Director Sheldon Lynn has complained that the plans submitted by Greenvest are often plagued with mistakes and inconsistencies.

Jim Duszynski, vice president of land development for Greenvest, countered yesterday that the city staff had arcane and difficult procedures and that they consistently dragged their feet during the approval process.

Duszynski also asserted that the city, not Greenvest, failed to properly notify neighbors.

From the beginning, the approval process at Cameron Station raised eyebrows among many people familiar with the city's planning process.

In the early phases of the project, the City Council and the Planning Commission effectively handed over much of their decision-making power to the city's planning department.

The City Council approved a conditional plan and instructed the developers and the city's staff to work out the details.

That conditional approval process is used fairly often, according to city officials, but has never been attempted on a project of this size.

"It seemed to me that Council wanted me to expedite development," Lynn said.

City officials said they are eager for the development at Cameron Station to "come on line" and add millions of dollars of new taxable real estate to the city's tax rolls.

But conflicts with neighbors and the recent mistakes have led the City Council to re-examine the use of the conditional approval process at Cameron Station. Donley said yesterday that the special two-person City Council committee on Cameron Station will meet privately and work to resolve disputes between the developers and the planning staff in the future.

Publication=Alexandria_Journal; Date=22.feb.1999; Section=Front_Page; Page=1; Book=A;

Development plan sent back for revisions

By STEPHEN HENN Journal staff writer

The Alexandria City Council attempted to calm residents' fears over a string of problems at Cameron Station Saturday while simultaneously taking steps to rein in what many have come to view as an out-of-control development in the city's west end.

"No one should believe that any house is going to be torn down or any settlement isn't going to go through," said Council member David Speck, speaking at Saturday's City Council meeting. "And after this meeting, there should be no doubt that the City Council loves this project, that we think it is a great investment and that we support those who made the decision to move in."

But minutes later, Speck and the rest of the Council members sent the developers of Cameron Station back to the drawing board, ordering them to rework plans to increase the size of several new condominium buildings on the northwest corner of the former Army base to preserve 15,000 feet of open space that would have been built over.

The move could force developers to eliminate as many as 48 units from their plans, according to Jim Duszynski, vice president of land development for Greenvest, a condition that he said would make the condominium project "unviable."

Greenvest hopes to build more than 2,500 new homes, several thousand square feet of new retail space and a community center at the 166-acre site in the city's west end.

The City Council also instructed Greenvest to offer a neighboring commercial condominium complex more than $23,000 to replace an aging retaining wall as well as to plant the border between the two properties with more than 50 six- to eight-foot-tall evergreens at no charge.

The neighboring condominium complex, Pickett Center, has not yet met to discuss the offer.

The original plans for Cameron Station called for a 45- to 75-foot buffer between Pickett Center and the nearest row of residential townhomes, but those plans were changed without proper notice and the property line of the proposed townhomes now backs up to the Pickett Center property.

"I think this was a setback for Greenvest," Mayor Kerry J. Donley said in an interview yesterday. "Their plans are going to be held in abeyance for 60 to 90 days, and they could end up losing units."

While several neighbors urged the City Council to take tougher action, future residents of the development praised the council for what they called a "balanced" decision.

Karen Smith, who bought a townhome in Cameron Station with her husband several months ago, encouraged the Council to protect the reputation of the development by not "caving in" to the developer's demands for reduced open space.

Smith, who described how she and her husband had scrimped and saved for years to buy their first home, told Council members that any drastic action or statements condemning the development could have devastating consequences for first-time home buyers.

"Remember there are victims here," she said.

Three weeks ago, the city's planning staff revealed that more than two dozen townhomes had been built with invalid permits. A few days later the Department of Code Enforcement found that at least 30 buyers had closed on their homes and moved in before before the homes had been fully inspected and approved by the city.

The city's code enforcement department scrambled to rectify the situation, inspecting all the homes and issuing temporary certificates of occupancy in just a few weeks. The department also reviewed its procedures with builders at Cameron Station in an attempt to prevent similar problems in the future.

In an opinion written last week, City Attorney Philip Sunderland said that while several townhomes had been built with invalid permits, those permits would be treated as valid because of a 1996 state law that prevents challenges to building permits after more than 30 days have elapsed

Publication=Alexandria_Journal; Date=18.mar.1999; Section=Front_Page; Page=1; Book=A;

Building boom dampens home values

Residential property prices rose less than 1 percent last year

By STEPHEN HENN Journal staff writer

Despite a booming economy and a buoyant real estate market, residential property values in Alexandria increased only 0.7 percent last year - the second slowest rate of growth in suburban Washington after Prince George's County, Md., according to a report released by the city yesterday.

While new construction soared and demand for single-family homes was strong, property values in some neighborhoods depreciated and the residential real estate market remained patchy across the city.

"One of the primary reasons that properties have not increased in value is that we have so much new construction," said Director of Real Estate Assessments Richard Sanderson. "While we like to have the building, it does compete with existing properties and hold prices down."

The average home in the city appreciated in value from $179,496 to $180,752, meaning the average real estate tax bill would rise almost $14 to $2,006.35, assuming the tax rate of $1.11 per $100 of assessed value remains unchanged.

Residents and civic association activists have expressed concern recently that building in Cameron Station and plans for new townhomes in Potomac Yard will drive down prices in older communities.

"I know a lot of people who are trying to sell their homes in Del Ray who expected to get higher prices than they did," said Rod Kuckro, a past president of the Del Ray Civic Association.

Arlington County's residential real estate property values appreciated at four times the rate of property in Alexandria, and Fairfax and Montgomery counties both had slightly higher rates of growth.

"The primary reason that the average existing residential property in Arlington County increased at a greater rate than Alexandria is the fact that fewer new residential properties were constructed," Sanderson wrote in his report to City Council.

The city's annual report of real estate assessments also revealed what's hot and what's not in the city's real estate market.

Across the city, the assessed value of the average single-family home rose 1.59 percent, from $239,061 to $242,862, while the assessed value of the average condominium fell 1.93 percent, from $103, 689 to $101,688, according to the report.

Condos, especially moderate- to affordably-priced condominiums, saw their assessed values fall for the eighth straight year, falling a total of 14 percent since 1991, City Manager Vola Lawson said.

The steepest declines came in older condominium complexes, with several properties losing 10 to 12 percent of their assessed value this year alone.

Single-family homes in Rosemont, Old Town, Del Ray and Old Town North all increased in value, with the hottest older neighborhood in the city being that off North Quaker Lane. The assessed value of houses on Vicar and Bishop Lanes increased 8.31 percent, from $786,162 to $851,462.

But just around the corner on Key Drive and Marshall Lane, assessments dropped 2 percent, from $387,112 to $379,335.

"There is more competition for homes in that price range," Sanderson said. "The real estate market is very dynamic - it changes with demographics and with what is going on with wages."

Old Town saw a continued demand for real estate, with single-family homes in Old Town appreciating at an average rate of 4.47 percent and condo prices rising an average of 1.9 percent.

"With all the construction planned for the Springfield interchange, I think people are beginning to look seriously at moving inside the Beltway," said Judy McVay, chairwoman of the Old Town Civic Association. "It is nice to see home values going up again when for several years they didn't."

Assessed property values went up in Old Town North as well, with single-family homes rising 0.35 percent and condominiums 0.71 percent from $118,437.

Assessed home values in the southwest quadrant, near Old Town, shot up 17 percent for single-family houses and 23 percent for condominiums largely because of new construction at Old Town Village.

New construction at Cameron Station boosted overall property values 4.1 percent in the west end neighborhoods of Landmark and Van Dorn. Condominium prices sagged everywhere across the city except Old Town and Old Town North. Single-family homes increased in value everywhere except Seminary Hill, Strawberry Hill and in the Eisenhower Valley.

Across the city, older neighborhoods with detached single-family homes also did well. Only 65 new, free-standing homes have been built in the city in the last eight years, according to Sanderson, who said free-standing single-family homes with a yard are becoming harder and harder to find.

"The middle section of the city has properties like this, and it's done well, including Del Ray and Potomac West," Sanderson said. "There is an affordability factor there, and there are a high number of single-family detached homes."

23/apr/99

Market trends will determine future of development

By M. FAHEY Journal staff writer

Development of the future will be impacted by various trends that are taking shape in the marketplace, such as housing density, master planned communities and the anti-growth movement.

Washington beyond the year 2000 was the focus of the Urban Land Institute's regional meeting Tuesday at the National Building Museum in Washington. More than 400 people attended the all-day event to learn about future trends from the principals of firms engaged in development.

Jeffrey Sneider, president of Greenvest L.C., spoke on density housing. His firm developed Cameron Station in Alexandria, Va. Sneider said the company spent two years in the planning process and developed a variety of housing to appeal to all segments of the market.

Cameron Station has townhomes that range from 16-foot to 28-foot in width and condominiums that stack, as well as cottages and single-family homes.

"Cameron Station had a lot of negatives," Sneider said. These included a site with no trees or vegetation. The two things he focused on were quality and detail.

With no models to show, the company relied on a virtual reality video that enabled potential home buyers to see the products.

Cameron Station has had 350 sales in its first year and Sneider is optimistic. "What makes Cameron Station work is that we were able to catch the right trend in the marketplace."

People are tired of commuting and traffic congestion and want to come home at night and not use their car, Sneider said.

Cameron Station has attracted a wide audience of buyers, from people in their 60s and 70s to young first-time home buyers.

When complete, the project will contain a mix of 2,500 townhomes, condominiums and single-family homes. Density is 25 units to the acre and Sneider expects build out within eight years.

Builders include:

Craftstar with back-to-back townhomes priced from $212,900.

Miller & Smith with 18-foot front-load garage townhomes with metal roofs and dormers priced from the low $200,000s.

Drees with 16- and 20-foot rear-load two-car garage townhomes that front on Duke Street priced from $222,900 and $234,900.

Cambridge with 28-foot wide townhomes with a library priced from the low $400,000s.

Centex Homes with townhome-style condominiums priced from the mid-$150,000s.

Main Street Condominiums with a garage/levator priced from the mid-$130,000s.

NV Homes with 24-foot garage townhomes priced from $310,000.

Ryan Homes with 20-foot garage townhomes priced from $245,900.

Ryland Homes with two over two garage townhome-style condominiums priced from $159,990.

Van Metre Homes with 22-foot garage townhomes priced from the mid-$200,000s.

Cambridge with single-family homes priced from the upper-$400,000s.

Sneider said Greenvest designed several of the products to ensure variety and a mix of housing styles.

Architectural details, character, materials and location are what make Cameron Station successful, Sneider said.

Sandy Silverman, principal of Weilhe Design Group, is currently involved in the planning and design of eight developments in the Washington area, including Arlington Court House Place, Pentagon Park, Reston Town Center Phase II, Lexington Square, Columbia Center and the Bethesda Theater.

Silverman said that mass transit and reduced commuting time are the key reasons people are coming back to the city to live.

The target market for city living is young professionals, empty nesters and renters by choice.

Fifty percent of this market is one bedroom units with 600 to 800 square feet; 25 percent is one bedroom and den or two bedrooms and the remaining 25 percent of the market is three bedroom units with 1,500 square feet.

Parking is a critical element and new development has one parking space per unit, which costs $15,000.

Arlington Court House in Arlington, Va., was cited as an example with its hotel appearance and two-story lobby, reception desk, ATM machine, business center, exercise room and party room. The building has 9-foot ceilings and each unit has a gas fireplace. The top two floors are reserved for penthouse units.

Pentagon Park in Arlington, Va., has 20 to 25 different unit plans to appeal to a wide variety of the market, Silverman said. In the two bedroom unit, the bedrooms are located on each side with the living area in the middle. When entering the unit, you see directly outside.

An empty nester plan has a side-by-side washer and dryer, kitchen with windows, separate living and dining areas and separate bedrooms. The units also have gas fireplaces.

Pentagon Town Center in Arlington, Va., will contain 800 units, which will rise four stories above the ground floor retail. It will contain underground parking as well as a plaza.

The Bethesda Theater in Bethesda, Md., will be renovated and a four-story apartment building will be built on top. Underneath, Montgomery County will have a 400 space public parking facility and an additional 240 spaces will be reserved for residents.

A session on master planned communities discussed Kentlands in Gaithersburg, Md., by Jeff Campbell of Chevy Chase Bank, whose firm was responsible for the development.

Campbell said people pay a premium of 4 percent to 25 percent to live in a planned community vs. the surrounding area.

Three elements that developers must deal with in planned communities are: economic viability, social and political environment and the smart growth movement.

Campbell also said developers need to keep in mind they are creating towns and need to have all the elements: office, retail and entertainment as well as residential. He said it's important to hit every segment of the market when building a planned community.

Consideration should be given to these factors: Neo-traditional communities work better closer to the city; they need to have 20 to 30 builders with at least 15 different products; streetscapes are important; they need more focus on affordability; they should eliminate the garage look (change zoning codes so garages can be in the back); add vest-pocket parks and consider location (harder to make it work if it's too far outside the city); they should focus on architecture and land plan.

Tom D'Alesandro, vice president of Terrabrook, the nation's largest developer of planned communities, discussed how master planned communities will change over the next 10 years.

He said the trends are: ownership, impact of special focus community, mixed-use town center and the impact of anti-growth and/r smart growth.

He cited Reston as an example of a successful planned community, which celebrates its 35th birthday this year and was a trendsetter in its early days. Reston has evolved with the times and is still a trendsetter, D'Alesandro said.

Reston was owned by Mobil Land (D'Alesandro was vice president of Mobil Land Virginia) and was sold in 1996. Big corporations have sold off land holdings and are now focused on their primary business.

A community feeling and compatability of buyers in certain price points appeal to a certain demographic. Specialty communities such as Heritage Hunt in Virginia serve a particular market niche. Reston is so large that it has created certain niches by virtue of price.

Reston Town Center has been open for nine years and has become the focal point with its public square, where cultural and civic events are held. (Two hundred thousand people visit the Town Center annually.) It also features office, retail, a hotel and residential housing. D'Alesandro said part of the achievement of the Town Center is its architectural detail, such as towers and balconies off the office buildings.

Phase II of the Town Center is an 18-story office tower of which Andersen Consulting will occupy a major portion, with the balance of space mostly accounted for, D'Alesandro said.

And Stratford, a condominium complex across from the Town Center is selling 20 units per month.

Reston was planned as an antidote to sprawl. And D'Alesandro believes that this can still be done without jeopardizing center cities. However, the keys are buying the property at the right price and proper segmentation.

Publication=Alexandria_Journal; Date=06.May.1999; Section=Front_Page; Page=1; Book=A;

Developer hires new engineer, land attorney for Cameron

By STEPHEN HENN Journal staff writer

After a series of public gaffes at Cameron Station earlier this year, the developer of the former Army base in Alexandria's west end is struggling to regain credibility with Alexandria's planning officials.

The company, Vienna-based Greenvest, has replaced its land use attorney and hired a new engineering firm to work on the 100-acre project, but it still has a long way to go, according to William Hurd, chairman of the Alexandria Planning Commission.

"The problem with this whole project is that we let them get away with murder when we approved the original plan," Hurd said at a Planning Commission meeting this week. "In the past we didn't insist on enough detail before we approved projects. I think they still have a ways to go before we will be comfortable. They have to show us."

In the most recent phase of the project to come before city officials for consideration, the city's planning staff recommended the Planning Commission reject a proposal to build 191 single-family homes, townhouses and stacked townhouses on 11.8 acres in Cameron Station - not because there was anything specifically wrong with the plan, but because the planning staff didn't trust Greenvest to propose well-thought-out development in the phases still to come.

"I think trust is a major issue," said Sheldon Lynn, the city's director of planning and zoning. "Our concern was that we didn't know if their future plans would be consistent with what they are proposing now."

The Planning Commission deferred consideration of the 191-unit plan, hoping to get a better sense of what future development may bring.

"They showed us plans before of what they wanted to do in the next phase of development, and it would have required significant increases in density, changes to the master plan and a reduction of about 200 parking spaces," Lynn said. "That is astounding in a project that is already very dense and short on parking."

Problems at Cameron Station burst into public view in January and February of this year, when city officials revealed that more than 30 home buyers had moved into new townhouses at Cameron Station before the homes were approved by the city. Approval was later given in a rare, after-the-fact action.

Improperly advertised changes in the site plan infuriated neighbors, some of whom threatened to sue. One neighbor publicly demanded that a row of townhouses adjacent to her property be demolished.

City planners acknowledged that the townhouses in question had been built without proper zoning approvals, but after extensive negotiations and legal wrangling, the city attorney issued an opinion saying the townhouses could stay.

Greenvest representatives declined to comment yesterday.

Publication=Alexandria_Journal; Date=17.apr.2000; Section=Front_Page; Page=; Book=A;

Pedestrian bridge is seen as an intrusion

By TRIGIE EALEY Journal staff writer

The Alexandria City Council has instructed city staff to meet with the neighbors of the misfit Holmes Run pedestrian bridge, after about a dozen neighbors of the out-of-place span came to the City Council's Saturday public hearing to speak up on behalf of their neighborhood.

The 10-foot-wide, 170-foot-long metal span with a rust-colored protective coating arrived one day with what nearby residents say was no input from them.

The bridge extends over Holmes Run and a paved bike path and cuts a narrow swath of park space in half.

Elizabeth P. Wright, speaking on behalf of the Wakefield-Tarleton Civic Association, said the size of the bridge across Holmes Run Parkway, south of Duke Street, has neighbors concerned about automobiles crossing the bridge.

When completed, the bridge's ramp will extend nearly to the curb of Holmes Run Parkway. The bike path will have to be re-routed around the bridge, which is noted in documents as being able to hold a 10,000-pound vehicle.

"That may be for safety," she said, "but it doesn't say it will hold X number of bicyclers, rollerbladers and baby strollers at one time."

At Saturday's meeting, city staff said the $137,000 bridge was placed in the best possible spot based on soil tests revealing "very, very poor" conditions, 100-year flood plain requirements, and the existence of Fairfax County sewer lines along the river banks. The bridge piles had to be placed 15-feet or more from any sewer lines.

City officials have insisted they followed normal public hearing procedures and notified area residents about the development plans for Cameron Station park.

However, Wright said, the city retained no list of which nearby homes were sent letters. Besides, she said, information about the pedestrian bridge was a single mention buried in the plans for the park.

The site plans were never updated with changes since they initially were approved and signed on April 19 of last year, a point that clearly irritated Vice Mayor William Euille, who said "this is a boondoggle."

"Everyone involved has made a mistake," he said.

Euille questioned the city's ability to handle issues related to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge replacement project "when we can't get a little pedestrian bridge right."

Wright said the neighborhood has endured the construction of the new bridge across the riverbed.

"The first thing [was] we got Cameron Station's rats two years ago," she said. "Last year, after they cut down all their trees, we got their crows. Now we've got their bridge, and we've got snakes in our yards."

City Manager Philip G. Sunderland said city staff would meet with members of the Wakefield-Tarleton Civic Association at this group meeting on April 19 at Patrick Henry School. He said he would come back with information for the City Council on April 25, its next legislative meeting.

Publication=Alexandria_Journal; Date=15.may.2000; Section=Front_Page; Page=; Book=A;

Residents lobby to close road

By TRIGIE EALEY Journal staff writer

Residents of the new Cameron Station development are worried.

As the new 60-acre Ben Brenman Park is hurriedly trying to meet the June 17 dedication date, neighboring residents worry about John Ticer Street, running through the nearly $4 million park.

With grassy hills and ball fields lining both sides of the two-way public street, residents are calling for the road to be closed to all but emergency traffic.

"Two-way traffic and children engaged in play is a dangerous mix," reads a flier printed by the Cameron Station Civic Association. "Why risk that? We all know how kids are when they are playing and distracted."

Residents of the development, where only a small fraction of the 2,000 planned townhomes have been built, came to the Alexandria City Council public hearing Saturday morning to voice their concerns about what they see as a public safety problem.

Responding to questions posed by City Council, Richard Baier, director of the city's transportation and environmental services department, said the proposed street "is not a substandard road in design and width," as claimed by the residents.

He said closing the road would only cause excessive traffic delays at other intersections.

Alexandria's Deputy Chief of Police Earl Cook said his department needs the road to cut through the park for quick access to nearby neighborhoods and the park itself. With new plantings just taking root, the mature park is still years away, he said, making law enforcement needs unclear.

"We won't realize the full growth of [the landscaping]," he said. "It will be more important two years from now."

He said the department needs to be able to use its patrol car spotlights to shine into darkened areas of the park.

Other concerns included commuters using the park road as a quick cut-through street, raising fears about drivers speeding along the road, a cellular phone in one hand, a latte in the other and a knee on the steering wheel.

Council members made suggestions for a guardhouse to regulate traffic, speed tables [wider than the typical speed bump], and hiring a park ranger.

Parks Director Sandra Whitmore said the city's fiscal year 2001 budget includes funding for such a position, called a park manager.

Council members William C. Cleveland and Redella S. "Del" Pepper supported closing the road to all but emergency vehicle traffic for six months to a year. Pepper suggested opening the road for non-emergency vehicles for "special events" such as concerts.

"My idea would be to err on the side of caution," Cleveland said in support of closing the road.

Ultimately, City Council passed a motion brought by Council member David G. Speck, keeping the road open to all traffic until May 31, 2001, when the City Council can re-examine the issue.

Speck said it wasn't time to change the park plans when the city's newest park has yet to open.

"I'm not ready to [change the plans]," he said. "Not yet anyway."

Mayor Kerry J. Donley said it would be easier to close the street to traffic later than to open it up to cars after a year as a pedestrian promenade.

"If we close it to vehicular traffic now, it will never re-open," he said.

Cleveland, who along with Pepper voted against Speck's motion, said the decision has already been made to keep the road open forever.

Baier said later the concern he has with opening and closing the road arbitrarily would create a potentially more dangerous situation by creating confusion, especially for children. He said people would never know when the road is supposed to be open or closed to traffic, creating a hazard.

Over the next year, the city will examine traffic data from the area to determine the best use of the road.

Publication=Alexandria_Journal; Date=04.jul.2000; Section=Front_Page; Page=; Book=A;

Townhouse troubles surface

By TRIGIE EALEY Journal staff writer

For most people, the family home is the biggest investment they will ever make. For Paul and Cheryl Darby, the investment they made in their Cameron Station townhouse in Alexandria comes to $304,000, the amount they paid two years ago.

Now the Darbys find themselves questioning the quality of the construction of their expensive residence. They fear the materials might not meet the city's building code.

They are not alone.

Paul Darby said he and his wife purchased their home sight unseen, based on the home's plans and the reputation for quality of Van Metre Homes. The Darbys could have chosen one of 10 other builders at Cameron Station.

Earlier this year, residents in Van Metre-built homes at Cameron Station had to have fire sprinklers installed. Now they suspect a problem in the walls.

Luke and Lynette Gill are the Darbys' neighbors, moving in just a day or two before the Darbys in December 1998. Ever since, the Gills and the Darbys have heard each other through the firewalls that are intended to muffle sounds and help protect their homes from a spreading fire.

"I can hear your phone ring," Luke Gill said to Paul Darby, sitting in Darby's second-floor living room.

"I can hear the toilet flush," Darby replied good-naturedly. "And I can hear your music."

Like the Darbys, the Gills bought their home without ever seeing a model, though Lynette Gill did visit another Van Metre-built community elsewhere in the metropolitan area.

"We love the layout," Luke Gill said. "I heard very good things about Van Metre, that all the fixtures and cabinets were quality."

The Gills and Darbys live in similar 3,000-square-foot, four-story townhomes. The homes have three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a loft with a bathroom, two half-baths, a family room, a living room, dining room, a one-car garage, a small front and fenced back yard and deck area.

The Darbys had their home custom painted. Paul Darby's first floor office is a cool powder blue while the second floor is peach, with two gleaming white columns dividing the living and dining rooms. The flooring is a mix of hardwood and carpet.

Still, it is the walls that concern the Darbys and the Gills. Unlike most neighbors, they are eager to open a hole in the wall that separates their two living rooms.

"We want this house fixed," Paul Darby said firmly.

Kathy A. Holmes, community relations advisor for Cameron Station Community Association, said Greenvest, the company that sells lots to the builders of the townhouses, has been "reluctant" to sell an additional 40 lots to Van Metre, as planned. She said the sale would be on hold until the code enforcement issues are resolved.

Art Dahlberg, Alexandria's Code Enforcement director, said the city will require any problems be repaired up to city code standards, at Van Metre's expense.

Code Enforcement inspectors cited Van Metre Companies after inspectors found fire walls of homes now under construction in Phase 4 where drywall had holes in it, drywall joints were left untaped, and no caulking or sealant was applied.

"Fair or unfair, we have to assume the same problem is in phase 1 and 3 [built by Van Metre]," he said.

Dahlberg identified Van Metre's drywall contractor for the project as Lorton-based Beltway Drywall, a company with which Rick Rabil, president of Van Metre, said he has had no problems.

"First of all, we believe the firewalls are safe," Rabil said. "We believe these walls have been installed properly."

Rabil acknowledges using a firewall system different from the one shown on plans approved by the city prior to construction. However, he said the alternative system was better and still complies with the city code.

In an April 5 letter to Van Metre Companies, Dahlberg said the builder's installed firewall as described by Van Metre meets requirements of city code. He said the firewall installer stated the wall installation complied with the approved design.

That letter, dated March 13, Earl Culbertson, president of Beltway Drywall, said his company installed a firewall system made by National Gypsum called the Gold Bond System. Van Metre's city-approved plans stated they would use a system made by U.S. Gypsum. Both systems have a two-hour fire rating, but have "different shaped studs and resilient channels," Mike Anderson, president of Capitol Building Supply, said in a March 14 letter to Culbertson.

Though the city later approved the change to firewall design as in compliance with city code, Dahlberg wants to see it for himself. He said because there is no independent verification that the installation was properly performed, the walls of more than 50 occupied Van Metre homes must be cut open for inspection.

"It is not the practice of this office to accept self-certification by an installer," Dahlberg wrote to Van Metre on April 5. "Therefore, the firewalls for the 51 townhouses built by Van Metre at Cameron Station shall [be] opened up and be inspected by city staff."

Since that letter, the city has been negotiating with Van Metre to have an independent fire engineering company open and inspect the walls.

Van Metre's Rabil said he has never had problems with firewalls before.

"We've been building in this area for 45 years," he said, noting Cameron Station is the company's first time in Alexandria. "We think [the walls] are fine."

Unlike the recent shutdown by Alexandria's Transportation Department of Saul Centers due to violations of the site's right-of-way permit, the city's code enforcement office doesn't "have the ability to shut down a project."

Dahlberg said the remaining questions are "Did the construction comply with designs on the plans? Did it comply with the building code? And can you make the assumption that all 52 walls are up to code? If not, fixes will have be designed."

For Paul Darby, the experience has been a mix of pleasure and pain. He said he loves his home and wants to stay. He has also expressed frustration with the way the city has "allowed Van Metre to modify its building plans over the past two years," he said in a statement to the Alexandria Building Code Board of Appeals on April 27. The board upheld the Dahlberg's call for city verification of firewall construction.

"I would much rather be spending my time working and enjoying my home," Darby said. "I've learned more about firewalls than I ever wanted to know."

Darby fears the walls between the homes will have to be rebuilt, which he said could take four months and would require him, his wife and their Yorkshire Terrier to find somewhere else to live during construction. Dahlberg would not venture to guess what specific action would be required, if any problems exist.

As a result of this case, Dahlberg said the city now performs specific firewall inspections as part of its code enforcement. Previously, the city performed firewall inspections were a component of other inspections.

"Firewall inspections are now done across the board in the city," Dahlberg said.

It remains to be seen whether it is too late to help the residents of more than 50 homes at Cameron Station.

Publication=Alexandria_Journal; Date=13.oct.2000; Section=Front_Page; Page=; Book=A;

Cameron homeowners resist rentals

By TRIGIE EALEY Journal staff writer

Renters took one on the chin last night at the Cameron Station Homeowners Association meeting when a group of about 120 residents voiced nearly unanimous opposition to a 300-unit apartment complex proposed for the site.

"Put a brick wall between us and them," one man said.

"We know our kids won't be spray painting the school," said a woman. "We don't know about their kids."

John Wallenstrom, an executive with Archstone Communities apartment builders and operators, appeared taken aback. He seemed to be trying to balance between assuring residents that the renters would not use Cameron Station's small internal parks while also saying apartments are neighborhoods as much as single-family homes.

"Why is that not part of the neighborhood?" he asked. "[Apartments are not] a bad thing. It's a different thing, but it's not a bad thing."

Many of the residents, talking with Wallenstrom in the hall outside the Beatley Library community room, said that with the pride of ownership comes a "vested interest" in cleaning up after the dog, picking up litter and being a good neighbor.

"Transient" people who live in apartments would own homes if they could afford or why else would they be renting, some residents asked. Others asked if Section 8 public housing would be included in the complex. The answer: no.

Wallenstrom said lifestyles, mobility and other factors make apartments a choice of many professionals. Though final rent ranges won't be known until next year when the units are ready, he said the starting rents would range from $1,200 to $2,300 a month.

While Cameron Station residents pay into the homeowners association, apartment dwellers will have no such obligation. Jim Duszynski, senior vice president of Cameron Station developer Greenvest, said covenants would be placed on the property requiring Archstone and any subsequent owners of the complex to keep the same maintenance and landscaping standards as the rest of the development. He said a one-time donation "in the low six-figures" would be made to the association on behalf of Archstone and a proposed 12-story senior housing high rise, slated for across the street from the new Samuel Tucker Elementary School.

If apartment dwellers are riffraff, residents of nearly half of Alexandria's 64,849 total housing units could be described as such.

Mike O'Malley, a Cameron Station homeowner of one month, said he worries about the value of the property he bought. He said he was told townhouses similar to his were planned across the street. He has learned otherwise.

"We were all deceived, frankly," he said. "We were never notified. Our choice is to oppose it or live with it. We are not rabble-rousers, but we were put in this position."

Duszynski pointed to sections of the disclosure documents, presented to all homeowners, indicating that property plans are flexible and apartments were always possible. Rezoning is not needed. Even with the 300 apartments, Cameron Station remains well below the maximum unit density of 2,510 units. Including the apartments, he said, Cameron Station will have 2,126 units.

For others, it is not just about property values.

What bothers Geraldyne M. LeClerc, a new Cameron Station resident, is the lack of honesty.

"There is a sense of poor sportsmanship," she said.

When LeClerc and her husband moved into their new home on Sept. 22, they expected the vacant lot across the street to soon be covered with similar development.

The LeClercs, O'Malley and their neighbors on Tancreti Lane have decided to pass a petition and mobilize against the proposed rental units.

Duszynski said the Archstone proposal will be good for the community. While noting that the site has an approved height limit of 120 feet, he said the 50-foot-tall apartment buildings will blend in with the 45-foot-tall townhouses across the street.

Not all residents seemed to reject the idea. Emily DeCicco, an active member of the Cameron Station Homeowners Association and a resident of the site's first phase, said she worried about the use of words like "us" and "them" being used.

The neighbors also said they are worried about increased traffic around their homes and the nearby school, possibly endangering the lives of children.

The Archstone proposal is scheduled for a Nov. 9 Planning Commission meeting. If the plans are heard as scheduled, they should appear before the City Council the following Tuesday for a first reading, followed by a public hearing with input from residents the following Saturday.

Publication=Fairfax_Journal; Date=02.nov.2000; Section=Front_Page; Page=; Book=A;

Cameron Station flap is not about renters

I have some concerns about the way the Cameron Station residents' point of view was presented in The Journal's article about the Oct. 12 homeowners association meeting.

I am very concerned about the apartment complex proposal, as my fiancee has also purchased a townhome in Phase IV of Cameron Station (which is very close to the proposed apartment complex and parking garage).

After reading the article, I was a little troubled about the tone of the meeting, which I did not attend. It sounded like the main argument of the Cameron Station homeowners consisted of "renter bashing."

I wish to provide a little more information about homeowners' concerns, which do not include renters at all, since it appears that they were not the focal point of the meeting.

We don't have anything against renters; we've both been renters for nearly 10 years now. We both care about our apartments and take pride in our communities.

The main issues here are Greenvest's deception to potential home buyers, the fact that renters will not be required to pay homeowner's association dues, and the tremendous increase in traffic (particularly near an elementary school) that will result with the addition of the apartment complex and parking garage.

The lure of Cameron Station (as stated in marketing materials, as well as on the Cameron Station Web site) is that it will be "a re-creation of an old-fashioned American small town."

We do not think a large apartment complex with a parking garage that towers over every structure around it fosters the image "of an old-fashioned American small town."

Most of the homeowners along Tancreti Lane in Phase IV of Cameron Station have owned their lots for between eight and 18 months. Yet, during all this time, Greenvest did not mention anything about an apartment complex and parking garage next to Tancreti Lane.

All the literature and maps in the Van Metre model home showed townhomes along Tancreti Lane and Fernando Day Drive. To this day, the "virtual reality tour" in the Cameron Station Information Center and the map in the community manager's office show townhomes west of Tancreti Lane.

Only now, after the lots in Phase IV have been sold and the first homes are going to settlement, did anyone hear of Greenvest's proposal.

If Phase IV homeowners had known, they either would not have purchased homes there, or would not have agreed to pay the prices that they did.

We feel Greenvest knew that. Otherwise, why would they have been so secretive about the new developments planned for the community?

We feel that we are the victims of false advertising. One image of the community was presented to us. We agreed to buy a home there based upon that image, but then that image drastically changed after the contract was signed.

We feel completely betrayed by Greenvest. As first-time homebuyers, this definitely is not the experience that we were hoping for.

The second major issue we have with the proposed development is the fact that the residents of the rental apartments will not be part of the homeowners association, and will not be required to pay dues.

Archstone stated that "the renters would not use Cameron Station's small internal parks," therefore, the fact that they are not paying dues will not be a problem.

But how can you prohibit residents of Cameron Station (renters or otherwise) from using parks and other amenities within their own community? If people live there, they should be permitted to use all of the amenities the community has to offer. It's not fair, plus it's nearly impossible to enforce.

We are not interested in promoting an "us-versus-them" environment. Cameron Station should be a development where all residents feel like part of one big community, not two factions within a community.

The same problem will remain if not all residents within Cameron Station will be required to pay homeowners association dues, yet all will be able to use the parks and other amenities within the development.

The third, and perhaps most important, problem with Greenvest's proposal is the huge increase in traffic that will undoubtedly result from the addition of the apartment complex and parking garage.

The proposed buildings are next to an elementary school as well, which seems like an accident waiting to happen.

I understand that Greenvest circulated a flyer to all Cameron Station residents, claiming that this proposal will actually result in less traffic rather than more..

I would be interested to hear what kind of magic Greenvest has up its sleeve to pull that off.

There is no way you can build an apartment complex with a large parking garage and claim that traffic will not be affected. Cameron Station is already a huge development with only three exits to surrounding roads. Greenvest has made vague claims about how they did a "traffic study," showing that the roads are equipped to handle the additional traffic strain. After our experience, I'm sure you can see why we are not too eager to trust their word on this.

The issues that concern us the most still have not been resolved. Until that occurs, we plan to fight Greenvest's proposal as much as possible.

Marla McClure, a future Cameron Station resident, now lives in Arlington.

Publication=Fairfax_Journal; Date=07.nov.2000; Section=Front_Page; Page=; Book=A;

Letters

On behalf of the Cameron Station homeowners who have expressed opposition to a 300-unit apartment complex proposed for our community, I believe it's important to clarify some of the issues raised by Trigie Ealey ("Cameron Homeowners Resist Rentals," Oct. 13).

While we agree that "nearly unanimous opposition" to Archstone's proposal was expressed at our homeowners' meeting last week, we take exception to the way in which our opposition has been characterized.

We reject use of terms like "riff-raff" that divide rather than unite our community.

While we have expressed opposition to Archstone's proposal, it is not simply because it includes rental apartments. It is because we feel deceived.

Each of us was told that there would be townhomes to the west of us, and we purchased our homes with this in mind.

In fact, that is what the city's planning staff approved for the west side of Tancreti Lane, and the welcome letter we just received makes no mention of the proposed apartment complex.

Unfortunately, while the community's developer decided to modify these plans nearly a year ago, it chose not to notify those most affected, leaving us to complete the purchase of our homes based on false assumptions.

Second, the article fails to mention another major concern: density. The proposed apartment complex and assisted-living facility would account for almost 30 percent of the total units in Cameron Station, but would be concentrated on two small plots of land adjacent to a new elementary school.

We are simply asking city officials and fellow homeowners to take a closer look at the effect these proposals will have on traffic, parking and safety in Cameron Station.

Finally, as to the question of ownership, we are not opposed to rental units in general. In fact, many of us have rented apartments in this community in the past.

However if, as Ms. Ealey points out, "nearly half of Alexandria's 64,849 total housing units" are rental, shouldn't we be promoting higher levels of home ownership in our community?

Isn't that what will deliver the greatest long-term benefit to the city of Alexandria and its citizens?

As the newest residents of this community, we look forward to working with Cameron Station's developer, other homeowners and city officials to resolve this issue in a way that benefits everyone.

MIKE O'MALLEY

Cameron Station