The Northern Virginia Daily

May 31, 2011

Officials mull use of Avtex property

Site cleanup expected to be complete by end of June

By M.K. Luther

Cleanup of a chunk of the Avtex Superfund site is scheduled to be completed by the end of June.

Jennifer McDonald, executive director of Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority, briefed town, county and EDA officials on the site's progress at a joint work session last week.

McDonald said FMC Corp. will finish cleanup of the 160-acre industrial park within the next several weeks. The EDA will take control of the site by fall or winter of 2012, after a EPA review process and final approval, McDonald said.

The total 400-plus-acre site used to be home to a rayon factory. The location was declared an EPA Superfund site in 1986.

After a decades-long cleanup to remove waste and environmental contaminants, the EDA plans to take over the rehabilitated land for development as a business park.

The EDA continues to work with the EPA for revision of the site's original restrictive covenants to allow for flexible redevelopment, McDonald said.

The group wants to use a 1998 North American Realty Advisory Services report and study as a guideline for site development.

The initial report detailed a conceptual plan designed to attract investors and commercial growth to the area, creating a marketing strategy tailored to tourism as well as office and technology buildings.

For example, the report included plans for a 200-room hotel and conference center, as well as retail space and possible educational outlets.

However, the restrictive covenants prevent overnight lodging and food service, McDonald said, effectively prohibiting most of the planned commercial uses for the site.

The 240-acre planned conservancy park on the remaining acreage located west of the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks was first slated for a large public greenspace, with walking and hiking trails. McDonald said the covenant restrictions prevent the construction work required for the creation of trails.

"We cannot dig into the ground to create the trails," McDonald said. "Right now, there can be nothing on this side of the site. We cannot penetrate this ground at all."

Town Councilman Thomas Conkey questioned if the proposed mixed-use ordinance created to accommodate site development could keep the town from seeking proffers to offset development costs.

"We could end up with a water use out there that could require water infrastructure that we would have to bill on the taxpayer, we could end up with traffic problems and have to widen roads or build roads in support," Conkey said.

County Attorney Blair Mitchell said the zoning is a "two-step process," with the zoning ordinance's creation and then an owner request, which would still allow for proffers.
Mitchell compared the process to the town's new planned neighborhood development ordinance, which was drafted and approved in anticipation of a rezoning request.

"You would create the zoning district with the ordinance, but somebody would still have to come to ask that the property -- either the whole thing or pieces of it -- to be zoned to it," Mitchell said.