Board of Supervisors Denies Application For Sutton Road Day Care, Preschool

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors shot down a special exception application Tuesday

Nine residents came to a public hearing at the Fairfax County Government Center to speak against the application from James W. Jackson, the owner of Horizon Child Development Inc., to build another branch of his Lord Fairfax Academy.

Jackson, an area developer and a design and construction manager with the Fairfax County Department of Housing and Community Development, purchased the lot in March 2007 for $1.1 million. He has altered his application six times over the past two years in attempts to win the board's approval, his attorney said at the hearing.

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.

At the hearing, Supervisor Linda Smyth (Providence) said the layout of the site was still too greatly affected by the proposed enrollment level, and the intensity of the proposed building.

“This proposal also suffers from its geographical location at the intersection of Chain Bridge Road, a major arterial, and Sutton Road, a collector road which is used extensively to access Vienna Metro station and Oakton High School, and also as a bypass for congestion on Chain Bridge Road," Smyth said.

As part of his application, Jackson pledged to install road improvements to ease potential traffic or congestion, including a right turn lane from Chain Bridge Road onto Sutton Road, but nearby residents who came to speak at the meeting said they were not satisfied.

“A for-profit enterprise disturbs the residential nature of the property, and there
will be serenity lost to noise generated by the children and more traffic
coming through everyday,” said Robert Hunter, a homeowner along Hidden Valley Road. “Our quality of life would be greatly diminished. Support our interests and allow us to live in peace.”

The Fairfax County Planning Commission forwarded Jackson's application to the Board of Supervisors in February and recommended the Board deny it. Many of the residents who came to speak at that meeting returned to the Supervisors' meeting Tuesday. They said they were concerned about how the center would affect their property values, which typically fall in the $700,000-$800,000 range.

Several of the residents who were against the child care center said the land should instead be used to build another single-family dwelling in an effort to keep the area from becoming a "hotbed" of commercial development.

Jackson’s lone supporter, Jody Miller, a director at Jackson’s Horizon School’s Reston location, said residential areas are exactly where schools should go.

“You put schools in the middle of a residential area. You don’t put them in a
shopping center,” Miller said. 

Miller's argument wasn't enough to sway the Board: Residents let out cheers of joy as the Board unanimously voted down Jackson’s application.

Jackson has not yet announced plans to modify and resubmit the application or appeal the Board’s decision.