A Unique Opportunity

The focus of this node will be the preservation of the existing apartments. The buildings along South Thomas Street off Columbia Pike hold special significance as the first phase of the Property and the “spine” of the original Barcroft. Preserving the buildings at this entrance would establish a gateway to the Renovation Area and provide a strong presence on Columbia Pike. This gateway, along with the planned improvements to landscape and streetscape along South Thomas Street, would provide an opportunity to celebrate the original Barcroft.

One of the most important planning opportunities the team identified was creating a location on the site that would be successful for placemaking and serve as a central gathering place for residents and the Columbia Pike community, as well as a location to support new commercial and community uses. The East Development Area was selected as the ideal location for this placemaking vision due to its location off two key transportation corridors – Columbia Pike and South George Mason Drive. It also has less significant topographical challenges, is adjacent to Doctor’s Run Park and the Harris Teeter grocery store, which already draw people to the area. To achieve the vision of an activated central green, the East Development Area would need to be expanded, and more existing apartment homes would be replaced. The expansion also enables the creation of a better urban street grid and streetscapes with the realignment of 12th Road South. The vision also includes a woonerfstyle-street, or a living street where multiple users and vehicles co-exist, adjacent to the central green that could be closed to host events like farmers markets and art festivals for the Columbia Pike community

In collaboration with the County, Jair Lynch will identify potential commercial office space anchors to locate at Barcroft in the East Development Area to spur additional economic development with a daytime population. Universities, hospitals and public or private office space users are desirable.

The West Development Area is unique in that the Commercial Centers Form Based Code and Neighborhoods Form Based Code split the area along the existing South Wakefield Street creating two primary issues to reconcile. First, the Neighborhoods Form Based Code envisions the re-alignment of South Wakefield Street to create better connectivity and improved intersection on Columbia Pike. The re-alignment of South Wakefield will create a new development parcel that extends across both form based codes. Commercial Centers Form Based Code was completed first and set the building heights at four stories to relate to the existing Barcroft buildings. The Neighborhoods Form Based Code expanded the development area and allows up to eight stories. Jair Lynch recommends reconciling the two codes by extending the Commercial Centers Form Based Code to the realigned South Wakefield Street and increasing the height to match the Neighborhoods Form Based Code.

The team also re-examined building heights across the development areas to see if there were opportunities to increase heights to provide for additional housing options and to create potential value that could be shared to achieve additional housing goals. The areas of the West Development Area along Four Mile Run Drive were identified as the best opportunities for additional height due to the adjacency of two existing 13-story residential buildings and the significant drop in grade, which limits the impact of additional height on the adjacent Renovation Area. The team proposes a target of 14-16 stories but noted that construction costs and the amount of parking required for this amount of density may make additional height economically infeasible, so this target will require additional study.