Prince William County planning staff brought a request to the Board of County Supervisors on Oct. 7 to initiate a comprehensive-plan amendment (CPA) for a roughly 25-acre parcel in the Liberia activity center that the applicant seeks to change from parks and open space to residential. Staff recommended initiating the CPA with an expanded study area so planners can evaluate the long-term compatibility of the change within the activity center.

Ahmed Bezad of the county’s planning office described the application as a request to change the long-range land-use designation of about 25 acres from parks and open space to a residential neighborhood designation; the applicant has a concurrent rezoning request seeking planned mixed residential (PMR). Bezad said the staff recommendation included expanding the study boundary to align analysis with adjacent mixed-use areas and proposed a lower density that the applicant has offered to help match surrounding development patterns.

Local residents and conservation advocates asked supervisors to weigh parkland scarcity in the mid-county area and urged the board not to remove parkland where acquisition would be unlikely. “Your parks department is recommending against removing this parkland because this area has the least amount of parkland of any district in the county,” resident Martin Jeter told supervisors during public comment. Jeter and others noted privately owned green shading on maps can be mistaken for parkland and emphasized that contiguous protected parcels are limited.

The Prince William Conservation Alliance — represented at the hearing by Executive Director Ashley Studholm — urged the board to use purchase-of-development-rights (PDR) tools and to study models used by neighboring counties to preserve large contiguous parcels and protect resource lands, including buffers to Marine Corps Base Quantico and the Occoquan Reservoir area.

Separately, staff asked the board to initiate amendments to the county code that would make the PDR program operational. Katap Shamut, director of Public Works, told the board the code changes would remove obsolete references and broaden the role of the PDR committee; he said staff is coordinating with the base’s REPI (readiness and environmental protection initiative) program to align funding and protection strategies.

The board voted to initiate the comprehensive-plan amendment with the expanded study area; initiation does not approve the rezoning or final plan change but directs staff to analyze the proposal and return with a full staff report, environmental and traffic analysis, and public outreach results.

Staff said the CPA initiation will not itself change land use or ownership; any subsequent rezoning or development request will require its own public hearings and a separate board vote.