A plan to put in what detractors call an "urban center" at the corner of Claiborne Parkway and Croson Lane in Ashburn has caused an outcry among neighborhoods south of the proposed development.
Pulte Homes of Fairfax has applied for permission to rezone a 54-acre tract to develop up to 86 single-family, detached units and 107 single-family attached units at a density of 3.57 units per acre.
The Revised General Plan permits the area to have up to four units per acre.
"The Pulte installation will be above all the existing neighborhoods and at the top of the watershed," said John Cullen, president of the Forest Manor Homeowners Association at the Dec. 13 Planning Commission public hearing.
"All these areas around Forest Ridge, Forest Manor and Bella Terra have all made significant open space easements with the county, with the assumption that the open space would be maintained," Cullen added.
The proposed Pulte development would lie on a ridge above the southern neighborhoods, destroying not only the view shed, but endangering the watershed as well, neighbors said.
"The water is going to come down and have to be drained," said Paula F. Glick. She added that the runoff stream near her house that goes to Broad Run is already "at the top of its banks."
FOREST RIDGE resident Vernon Wong registered his anger with the proposed development.
"I'm mad, maybe more angry," he said. "Why should I have to be here protecting my property?"
It was personal for Ron daSilva as well.
"This property places two single-family homes in my backyard," he said.
The Planning Commission voted to send the Pulte application to committee for further discussion.