Fairfax County’s Redevelopment and Housing Authority requested five more units for planned Murraygate Village, garden style apartments immediately west of the Mount Vernon Crossroads shopping center in the Hybla Valley area near Richmond Highway.

The change acknowledges what is already built; no new construction is planned.

“This is a simple PCA to allow the housing authority to go forward with a grant application,” said Lee District Planning Commissioner James Migliaccio.

The Planning Commission approved the minor change on Wednesday, Jan. 11, that allows “the existing 200 multi-family dwelling units to remain at a density of 23.98 dwelling units.”

The 8.34 acre property includes 17, three-story multi-family buildings and 308 parking spaces.

“Fairfax County Tax Records indicate that the three-story apartment complex was constructed in 1971 for affordable housing for low-income families,” according to planning staff documents; 204 garden apartments were constructed.

The county rezoning the land to the R-20 (residential district, 20du/acres) and HC Overlay districts in 1993 which changed the number of units on paper from 204 to 195 dwelling units. According to planning documents, the county’s Redevelopment and Housing Authority “intended to reconfigure 10 residential units into five larger units to accommodate large families who lived in the complex at the time.”

“The reconfiguration of the 10 units into five units was never implemented for reasons unknown to staff,” according to planning documents. “Therefore, the property continued to have 200 residential units but was rezoned for 195 residential units.”

The county also filed a parking reduction request for 12 fewer spaces, according to Planning Commission documents, to conform with zoning requirements and because of the “development’s proximity to the Richmond Highway Express bus route.”