The Prince William County Planning Commission voted 8-0 on Sept. 16 to recommend rezoning a wooded 4.25-acre parcel on Richmond Highway for 56 stacked condominiums.
The case is Rezoning REZ2026-00012, Wescott, in the Potomac Magisterial District. Applicant Wescott DD, Inc. wants the land at 16760 Richmond Highway, near Panther Pride Drive, changed from B-1, General Business, to R-16, Suburban Residential. The buildings would be four-story two-over-two units sold under a condominium regime.
The vote was on the commission’s expedited list. Commissioner Gary Blake Ross of Gainesville moved recommend approval of Wescott with three other expedited cases, subject to the conditions in the Sept. 16 staff report. Commissioner Raheel Sheikh of Occoquan seconded. All eight members voted yes. No one signed up to speak for or against Wescott. The Board of County Supervisors still has to hold its own hearing.
Staff planner Micah Modesto recommended approval. The site sits in the Southbridge Activity Center and the Highway Corridor Overlay District. The Comprehensive Plan maps it RN-4, a residential neighborhood with a transect-4 target of 8 to 24 dwellings per acre and buildings of four to eight stories. The plan on the table is 13.18 units per acre and four stories. Staff put open space at 49 percent of the site; the RN-4 minimum is 20 percent.
Self-storage flanks the parcel on the north and south — Extra Space Storage at 16744 and 16780 Richmond Highway. Directly east, across the private access road that ties the site to Route 1, is River Ridge Plaza, the CVS-anchored strip at 16708–16712 Richmond Highway at River Ridge Boulevard. Wyndham Pointe apartments sit to the west at 16705 Harwood Oaks Court. Potomac Middle School and Mary Williams Elementary School are on Panther Pride Drive, just north of the site. Staff wrote that the applicant met with that complex, which sent a letter of support: “A condominium community would be a great improvement and we would welcome a neighborhood next door.” Staff said it had no other written comments and knew of no organized opposition.
Five of the 56 units are proffered as affordable or workforce housing. Three would be offered to households earning up to 80 percent of area median income. Two would be offered up to 120 percent. The July 13 proffers give the applicant a six-month marketing window after the first residential building permit. If a unit does not go under contract with an income-eligible buyer in that window, it may convert to market rate. The applicant would then pay the county Housing Proffer Fund 50 percent of the gap between the market price and the base affordable price. Resales would carry a 10-year deed restriction.
The same proffers do not include a school cash payment. Prince William County Public Schools, in a Nov. 10, 2025 impact statement, assigned the site to Mary Williams Elementary School, Potomac Middle School, and Potomac High School. The applicant counted 18 students and dropped the five affordable units from that math. The division said it does not accept that method and put the yield at 23 students — 12 elementary, 5 middle, 6 high. Even at the higher figure, PWCS said the three schools have room. Staff listed school capacity as a strength.
Monetary proffers in the staff report total $8,397.31: $75 an acre for water-quality monitoring ($318.75) and $144.26 per unit for police training-facility capacity ($8,078.56). Access would use an existing private connector from Route 1. Private roads and sidewalks would stay with a condominium or property-owners association. The plan includes a tot lot for ages 2 through 12 and a grill and picnic area.
The applicant asked to shrink the required 50-foot Type C landscape buffers on the north and south to 30 feet, citing grade change, stormwater limits, drive-aisle width, and emergency access. Staff accepted a 6-foot board-on-board fence and the full Type C plant count in the narrower yards, plus a waiver to leave an existing sanitary-sewer easement inside the buffer.
One staff weakness stayed in the file. Fire and Rescue Station 23 is first due. The site meets the 4-minute fire and basic-life-support travel time and the 8-minute advanced-life-support window, but the station ran 9,110 calls in fiscal 2025 against a 6,000-call workload capacity. Staff still called the application consistent with the Fire and Rescue Plan.
The Historical Commission reviewed the case Nov. 18, 2025, and recommended no further work.
A recommend-approval vote from the Planning Commission is not a building permit. Supervisors have the last vote on the rezoning and the July 13 proffers.
