Thirteen single-family homes could replace Wolf Trap Nursery after the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors votes on a rezoning proposal Tuesday, Oct. 13.

The Fairfax County Planning Commission recommended approval of the plan from Vienna-based Sekas Homes at its Sept. 30 hearing, as FFXnow first reported. The application seeks to rezone the 6.58-acre property at 9439 Leesburg Pike from R-1 to PDH-2, a planned development housing district allowing up to two homes per acre.

The nursery, opened in 1972 by Blair and Dorothy Cupp, has served the Wolf Trap area for 54 years. It announced on its website that it would begin winding down operations at the end of June. A closing sale is underway. The Cupp Living Trust owns the land and enlisted Sekas Homes to redevelop it, FFXnow reported in August 2025.

The proposed neighborhood, called Castleton Hills, would include 13 detached houses at a density of 1.97 units per acre, with an average lot size of 12,400 square feet. The layout places about 50 feet of separation between the homes and Leesburg Pike.

Tree preservation is the plan's biggest sticking point. Only 5,381 square feet of canopy would be saved, falling nearly 40,000 square feet short of the county's requirement. Sekas Homes is seeking a deviation from that standard.

Mike Van Atta, acquisitions and development leader for Sekas Homes, told the Planning Commission on Sept. 30 that the existing canopy was mostly in poor to fair condition and that healthy trees were scattered across the site rather than clustered in one area.

"That's always been a challenge with this application, but it's an infill residential development. There are a lot of different things we're balancing here, and this was really the best we could do," Van Atta said.

The commission noted discrepancies between the county's forest conservation staff and the project's arborist over how many trees could actually be preserved. To offset the shortfall, Sekas Homes proffered funds for offsite landscaping improvements. The spending would be coordinated with the Fairfax County Forest Conservation Branch and Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman's office. Those funds could pay for new plantings and removal of invasive species elsewhere in the district.

The plan also calls for new sidewalks, a community gathering area, an updated shared-use trail along Route 7, and removal of one of the nursery's two curb cuts on Leesburg Pike. Two new internal streets, Castleton Way and Rosewood Lane, would serve the development. All homes would be green building certified and include noise-mitigation construction for the nearby highway, according to FFXnow's reporting on the developer's application.

The rezoning application, RZ-2025-DR-00021, was originally scheduled for a March 18 Planning Commission hearing but was continued multiple times before the Sept. 30 session, according to county records.

The Board of Supervisors public hearing is set for 3:30 p.m. Oct. 13 in the Board Auditorium at the Fairfax County Government Center, 12000 Government Center Parkway in Fairfax.