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| New trees on the Southeast Quadrant. |
Fairfax County officials knew the property on the corner of Columbia Pike and Moncure Avenue was going to be torn up when AvalonBay starts construction on an apartment building on that site, but went ahead and planted 16 trees there anyway.
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| This site is slated for redevelopment. |
That vacant property, next to the Bailey’s Crossroads Community Shelter, is part of the Southeast Quadrant land swap, which was approved by the Board of Supervisors in February.
The site had, until recently, been occupied by a temporary building housing the Bailey’s Crossroads Volunteer Fire Department while a new, permanent firehouse was developed a few blocks away. The old building had to be replaced because its roof collapsed during a snowstorm in 2010. The new firehouse opened in fall 2014.
The new trees were planted because “we were obligated to restore the site to what it was before,” says county spokesperson Matthew Kaiser. “The county is held to the same obligations as a private developer,” and that agreement was approved before the county had a definite start date for the AvalonBay project. The trees, a mix of red maples, red oak, and willow oak, cost $6,034, he says.
Current plans call for the homeless shelter to be closed by March 2017 so AvalonBay can start demolition and site preparation. The county plans to relocate the shelter to a field behind the Lincolnia Senior Center on N. Chambliss Street in Lincolnia.