Fairfax County Public Schools has received the zoning changes necessary to build a future Dunn Loring Elementary School.
The unanimous vote yesterday (Tuesday) by the Board of Supervisors doesn’t mean a school will necessarily be built at the site of the current Dunn Loring Administrative Center, but a four-story building to serve nearly 1,000 students is now allowed, if the Fairfax County School Board ultimately opts to move forward.
The decision proved a tough call for some supervisors, who acknowledged unresolved community concerns about parking, pedestrian safety and other issues with the site.
“The initial outreach … was definitely lacking,” said Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik, whose district includes the site at 2334 Gallows Road.
Even though “it has certainly improved,” Palchik urged FCPS leaders to remain engaged with the residential neighborhoods surrounding the prospective school parcel, located at the intersection of Idylwood Drive and Gallows Road.
“Be a good neighbor,” she advised.
The site’s existing building, which will be torn down, started life as an elementary school in 1939. The last students moved over to Stenwood Elementary School in 1978, and the building has since been used by FCPS as an administrative center.
A number of speakers at the Feb. 4 public hearing said there’s no need for a new school in that location, citing revised enrollment projections that indicate a declining student population across FCPS, at least within the next few years.
“There is really no proof that this needs to be built,” Shari Blackburn, president of the Wheystone Court Association, said. Her neighborhood sits immediately north of the school parcel.
Even if it is required in order to accommodate student growth, Blackburn said, the massing of the building is inappropriate.
“It’s too large of a building being squeezed into this little lot,” she said.
“A massive new school at a massive price tag,” added Tina Doyle, a resident who lives nearby.
“It’s a very dangerous situation,” Doyle said of the parcel’s layout and the conditions around it. “There are a lot of safety concerns and traffic concerns.”
In 2019, county voters approved a school bond that allocated $40 million for a new elementary school in Oakton. However, with community members objecting to the use of Blake Lane Park for the future school, the school board voted in 2021 to instead use the funds for a Dunn Loring school to address growth in Tysons, Vienna, Merrifield and the Falls Church area of the county.
The cost of the project is now estimated at just over $80 million.
A number of supervisors criticized FCPS for what one called a “dismissive” attitude toward historic preservation in general, the Fairfax County History Commission specifically.
Tammy Mannarion, who presented the commission’s views at the hearing, criticized school leadership for “a cavalier approach” to historic-preservation efforts and “a lack of understanding and respect” of the county’s Inventory of Historic Sites.
The Dunn Loring school building is among the roughly 350 county parcels on that inventory. Being included, however, provides no guarantees a property will be preserved.
Land-use attorney John McGranahan, who represented the school system, acknowledged “a lack of in-depth dialogue early on” related to historic preservation. But he said FCPS tried to make up for that later in the process.
“We’ve put a lot of work into this application,” he said.
McGranahan, who came into the process after it had started, won praise from Palchik for calming the waters and working with affected parties to reach agreement.
The Fairfax County Planning Commission held a public hearing on the proposal in October 2023, but twice deferred a final vote.
In the interim, FCPS leaders worked with nearby communities, the Architectural Review Board and other groups. Among the proffers or legal conditions that school officials added to the plan were:
Ultimately, the planning commission voted 9-0 to recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve the rezoning application and development plan — albeit with some of the same concerns expressed by the supervisors.
While the 1939 building will be razed, the entranceway and pediment will be preserved and moved indoors, where it will be incorporated into a part of the new school devoted to the history of the old one.
Supervisors said the school board will make the final decision on whether to build a new elementary school on that parcel. Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn said approving the rezoning “will be another piece that will give some flexibility” to address student enrollment changes.
“We do have overcrowding — certainly in Tysons and the Vienna area,” Alcorn said.
Leading up to the vote, the McLean Citizens Association sent supervisors a letter to supervisors, urging them to defer the rezoning “use the savings for more urgent facilities needs throughout Fairfax County.”
But some supervisors said they aren’t in a position to second-guess the school board on where facilities are needed.
“That is entirely in their purview,” Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman said.
McKay said he was pleased that the design calls for a four-story building, freeing up other space on the parcel.
“The future of schools needs to be looking up, not out,” he said. “Land is hard to find, and so are athletic fields.”
But McKay expressed some unease at how the multi-year process to get to final vote had played out.
It all left him “a little uncomfortable,” McKay said.