Fairfax County supervisors voted to allow up to 2,975 new apartments near the Dunn Loring Metro station in Merrifield. The Board of Supervisors approved a comprehensive plan amendment on Tuesday, Sept. 15, clearing the way to redevelop a 35-acre site that currently holds 706 rental units.

The decision is one of the largest single housing actions this year in Fairfax County, with implications for housing supply across the region, including McLean and the Dranesville District.

The amendment allows Malkin Properties to replace its Merrifield at Dunn Loring Station apartment complex at 8130 Prescott Drive with high-rise and mid-rise buildings, plus 25,000 square feet of retail space, FFXnow reported. The complex was built in 1968, according to Patch. County planners estimate the project would bring roughly 5,200 new residents and 80 employees to the site.

The plan allows buildings up to 150 feet along Gallows Road, with shorter mid-rise structures further inland. It also calls for reducing a planned ring road from four lanes to two, creating a linear park and expanding nearby Hartland Park.

The existing apartments are among the lowest-priced rental options in the area, according to FFXnow. Under county policy, only 250 units of workforce housing would be required in the new development. That gap drew pointed testimony at the Sept. 15 public hearing.

"It is rare to have an opportunity to build this amount of housing walkable to a Metro station," Board Chair Jeff McKay said at the meeting.

Harold Moskowitz, a nearby resident, told supervisors the area is already strained. "Merrifield is becoming congested," he said. "… Every additional high-rise and mid-rise, multi-story development project worsens the situation."

Rebecca Dedert, representing the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said the plan advances the county's housing goals near transit but raised concern that 706 existing affordable units could give way to just 250 workforce units. Elizabeth Bigham, a current tenant at the complex, supported the project but worried about losing a rental she can afford near her job and the Metro.

Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik, whose district includes the site, said a three-year review process improved the proposal. She acknowledged concerns about affordable housing levels and tenant relocation but said those details would be settled during a separate rezoning phase still ahead.

The Sept. 15 meeting also produced a separate 10-0 vote approving a rezoning for the 40-acre Prosperity Business Campus nearby, allowing between 1,700 and 1,900 residential units, according to FFXnow.

The county set a goal in 2022 of adding 10,000 affordable units by 2034. No date has been announced for the planning commission or Board of Supervisors hearings on the Merrifield rezoning application.