Message to architects and developers: Double check your
numbers.
A Marriott-branded hotel project planned for Fairfax
County’s Richmond Highway corridor is months behind schedule and more than
$30,000 in the hole as a result of a mistake the size of a small home.
In July 2012, the county approved Greenbelt-based Baywood
Hotels’ rezoning proposal for a two-acre site at the intersection of Richmond
Highway and Woodlawn Court. The 92-room, extended stay Towneplace Suites by
Marriott was designed to attract tourists and Fort Belvoir visitors to southeastern
Fairfax.
The approved rezoning called for a maximum .62 floor-area
ratio, that is, the total square footage of a building divided by the square
footage of the lot. But when the project went into the site plan stage, it was
discovered the building would be 1,582 square feet larger than previously
anticipated.
The additional square footage pushed the hotel to .63 FAR, a
tenth of a percent shift that Fairfax County’s zoning office could not approve.
Baywood was forced to resubmit amended proffer and special exception
applications, the price tag for which totaled $31,835, and that does not
include the cost incurred for legal and engineering fees.
“The architect made a mathematical error on building
dimensions during the original rezoning submission,” Keith Martin with
Tramonte, Yeonas, Roberts & Martin PLLC wrote in a November submission to
the county. “During site plan preparation the applicant’s architect correctly
designed a building that is 1,582 square feet larger (55,469 S.F.) than shown
on the approved [plat] resulting in an FAR of 0.63.”
Oops.
The applications do not list an architect. Baywood
representatives were not immediately available for comment.
The Southeast Fairfax Development Corp. lists the hotel as
having a 2013 start date. Obviously, that did not happen. The new applications
are expected to be approved in February by the Planning Commission and the
Board of Supervisors.
But the moral of the story is clear — get it right the first
time.
Source: Washington
Business Journal
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