Developer briefs commission on concept for mixed-use redevelopment at Fairfax Square Professional Center

At a Monday work session the Planning Commission received a pre-application briefing for a proposed mixed-use redevelopment of the Fairfax Square Professional Center property (roughly 9840–9946 Main Street). The property owner presented a concept for phased redevelopment that would retain two existing buildings in early phases, demolish several older structures, add nearly 300 multifamily units and modestly increase commercial square footage across a roughly 10.5-acre site.

Planning staff said the concept would likely require a rezoning to a planned development/mixed-use district, a master development plan, transportation and shared-parking studies, a stormwater/phasing strategy, and a major certificate of appropriateness for architecture and landscaping. Staff encouraged early engineering work to ensure fire apparatus access through tight turning areas and asked the applicant to explore consolidating access points and reducing the amount of surface parking along Main Street to improve the pedestrian environment.

In the applicant’s concept the site’s commercial square footage would rise from roughly 130,000 to about 132,500 square feet while adding approximately 293 residential units (about 28 dwelling units per acre on the 10.47-acre property). Staff noted the concept is separate from, but comparable to, development on adjacent Fairfax Square and estimated the combined redevelopment density across contiguous properties would be roughly 20 units per acre.

Commissioners and staff discussed pedestrian connections to neighboring shopping centers, opportunities to improve the Main Street frontage with street trees, sidewalks and café seating, and the difficulty posed by steep grade changes between the subject site and the adjacent shopping center to the west. Several commissioners encouraged the applicant to study connections to the neighboring center where grade allows, to avoid isolating new residents from existing retail.

Affordable housing was a recurring topic. Staff said the applicant is considering dedicating a building of units that could exceed the city’s minimum ADU/affordable dwelling-unit percentage and would require a formal modification request under the city’s ordinance framework. Commissioners asked the applicant to clarify whether dedicated affordable units would be integrated in-market-rate buildings or separated; staff noted county-administered programs sometimes disfavor physically separate affordable units and that the applicant would need to justify any modification request.

Other planning topics identified by staff for future application materials included: tree preservation and urban canopy; street-tree soil volumes on private streets and Main Street; shared-parking analysis; an overall transportation-impact study; phased utility and stormwater planning; photometric and lighting plans to limit spillover to nearby residences; and an affordable-dwelling-unit phasing plan that would identify when units would come online relative to market-rate construction.

Staff said the property owner and potential developer will decide whether to file a formal application. If they do, staff anticipates a City Council briefing in early September and then the full review process (technical review, work sessions and public hearings) would follow.