Klein Development Public Hearing will be held in 2020

Last week the Prince William Planning Commission recommended the current iteration of the development of the Klein property for approval. Stanley Martin Homes wants a Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPA) to change the long-range land use designation for the over 100. acres from CEC, Community Employment Center, and SRR, Semi-Rural Residential, to CEC with a Center of Community Overlay and with an expanded study area. These changes would allow Stanley Martin build in this version 74 townhomes, 56 single-family homes, 120 low rise condominiums and 145,000 square feet of commercial space and an elementary school. The properties in the development will be connected to public water from supplied by Prince William Public Service Authority and with surface water as the source supply. So, there will be no increase in the use of groundwater in the immediate area.

This change requires a public hearing before the PW County Board of Supervisors. It was announced by Marty Nohe that hearing will now be held in the new year before the newly elected Board. Stanley Martin Homes made the request for the delay. It was impractical to hold the hearing in the middle of December. 

The Kline Farm property encompasses a bit more than 100 acres and is generally located south and southeast of the intersection of Prince William Parkway and Liberia Avenue, and north of Buckhall Road. The property is located in a transitional area of the county that is adjacent to the City of Manassas. North of the site and across the Prince William Parkway is the Prince William Commerce Center, still under development and will contain mixed retail/commercial/office uses, as well as the suburban residential neighborhood of Arrowood and the semi-rural residential neighborhood of Hyson Knolls to the northeast. East and southeast of the site is semi-rural residential communities and A-1 zoned property. To the west and northwest is the City of Manassas with existing retail service/commercial strip development. Southwest of the subject site is existing suburban residential development.

Water sustainability needs to be addressed. The residents within the abutting Hynson Knolls community, homeowners bordering Buckhall Road and homes along Lake Jackson Drive rely on private wells for water. In a “Preliminary Hydrogeological Assessment-Klein Site” prepared by SES/TrueNorth they do a preliminary look at whether the development of the site is likely to have an adverse impact on surrounding private wells and septic systems. The properties in the development will be connected to public water from supplied by Prince William Public Service Authority and with surface water as the source supply. So, there will be no increase in the use of groundwater in the immediate area.

In developing the theoretical groundwater budget the Stanley Martin Homes consultant assumed that the groundwater recharge rate for the site was equivalent to the average groundwater recharge for Prince William County when it was more than half open space. Changing ground cover changes groundwater recharge. We’ve recently seen that based on the work of the US Geological Survey (USGS) and Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in Fauquier County where they found groundwater recharge at less than 2.5 inches a year near Route 29.  

Geology varies across the county with different water bearing and storage potential in the different hydrogeologic groups, but the changing amount of open space in this area Prince William county will impact the future recharge of the groundwater in the immediate area. The actual groundwater recharge for the area needs to be determined and the impact that the development will have on the future recharge of groundwater needs to be estimated to ensure the existing residents will continue to have adequate water for their homes. It could take years, but changing land use has the potential to disrupt groundwater recharge.