Fairfax County supervisors, acting on state enabling legislation passed in 2017, in September 2020 enhanced the county’s revitalization toolkit by approving an economic-incentive program, said Elizabeth Hagg, who directs the Department of Planning and Development’s Community Revitalization Section.
The program provides a 10-percent reduction in site-plan fees and a partial real-estate-tax abatement based on the increment between a site’s pre-development value and its worth after being redeveloped.
That tax break, which can last up to a decade, is a “significant incentive and we’re finding that it’s generating a lot of interest,” said Hagg, who briefed the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce Feb. 3.
The incentive is not available for development of single-family homes. The program encourages consolidation of smaller parcels and requires at least two property owners combining sites to form a parcel totaling a minimum of 2 acres, she said.
Projects must be built before qualifying for the program. County officials have staggered the tax incentive’s decade-long availability in various revitalization districts.
Economic-incentive areas in Baileys Crossroads and Seven Corners run from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2032; the Richmond Highway and Springfield ones go from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2034; and those in McLean, Annandale and Lincolnia will run from Jan. 1, 2025, through Dec. 31, 2034, Hagg said.
Those time windows are capped by legislation, but potentially could be extended, she said.
“We’re very pro-McLean,” Hagg said. “You guys have a lot of great assets that we want to build on with these design guidelines.”