Amended 12/16/23, Ordinance 5514
Please refer to Notes 1, 2, and 3 on page i
Office development has focused in two locations: near Duke Street, and to a lesser degree in the Eisenhower Avenue area. Near the Duke Street/Shirley Highway Interchange, the Plaza 395 Office building with 76,000 sq. ft., APGA Office building with 45,000 sq. ft. and the Landmark Overlook townhouse office project with 11 units and 13,000 sq. ft. have been built in recent years. In the Eisenhower Avenue, the Bush Hill office building with 48,000 sq. ft. was built, along with additional office space in flex-type buildings.
The Landmark Shopping Center renovation and expansion is a major commercial project now underway within the study area. The mall, originally built in 1965, had three anchor stores: Woodward and Lothrop, Hecht’s and Sears Roebuck and Company, and various smaller stores. All of the smaller stores have been demolished, except for a free-standing bank and auto-center. Two of the anchor stores are being expanded by about 40,000 sq. ft. each, and a 600,000 sq. ft. enclosed mall is being constructed and will join the anchor stores. With the additional space, the mall will have 1.2 million gross square feet. Also as part of the expansion/renovation, a two level parking garage has been constructed behind the Shopping Center.
Potential Development Sites
Cameron Station
Cameron Station, a 164.1 acre Federal military installation located on Duke Street at Holmes Run, has been slated for closure under the 1988 nation- wide plan developed by the Defense Secretary’s Commission on Base Realignment and Closures. Under the plan, the closings must begin between January 1, 1990 and September 30, 1991, and be completed by September 30, 1995.
About 65 percent of the this site (107 acres) is now used for buildings, both permanent and temporary, for service and storage and administrative purposes. Another one-fourth of the land (38 acres) is now set aside and used for park, recreation and open space. Much of the park area is located adjacent to the Holmes Run Channel and compliments the linear park system the City has been developing along the Run.
The 1986 Landmark-Van Dorn Small Area Plan called for a mix of uses on the Cameron Station Tract if redevelopment occurred. The Plan also designated a substantial portion of the tract, generally the area around the Pond east of First Street, for Park and Open Space Area.
Existing zoning on the parcel is I-1 Industrial, which allows for industrial and commercial development up to a 2.5 F.A.R. and heights of 77 feet, by right, or to a 5.0 F.A.R. and heights of 200 feet under the P.U.D. provision. This zoning translates into theoretical development rights of over 17 million square feet of development, by right.
There are a number of constraints to development on the site. First, a very large part of the site, 77 acres, is within the 100 year flood plain for the City. Within the flood plain, any buildings must be built on columns which raise the building out of the flood plain, or else must be waterproof to the flood level. In the latter case, where a building displaces flood storage area within the flood plain, a comparable amount of new storage area must be created elsewhere to hold flood waters.
Another constraint to development on the site is relatively poor access. Access to the north, from Duke Street, is limited to a partial interchange and one curb cut. The only other access is from Pickett Street at Edsal Road, to the west. This western access is somewhat limited by already congested conditions at key intersections in the area along Van Dorn Street at Pickett Street and Edsall Road. Access to the metro station at Van Dorn will be limited by this same congestion. An Environmental Impact Study is now underway to explore the impact of possible roadway connections from Eisenhower Avenue to Duke Street in the area of Clermont Avenue. Improved access is needed into the site from the Beltway and between the site and the Van Dorn Metro Station.
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