Fairfax planners order up county’s first Wawa

Coming soon to Fairfax County: The world’s most prolific maker of hoagies.

Unlike Loudoun County planners, who are not pleased with a bid for that jurisdiction’s first Wawa, Fairfax staff has no issue with the Peterson Cos.’ proposal to bring the wildly popular, Wawa, Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain to the proposed Dulles Discovery South retail center.

Dulles Discovery Retail, to be located east of Route 28, south of Air and Space Museum Parkway and north of Historic Sully Way, will include the 5,500-square-foot Wawa, a 4,900-square-foot Chick-fil-A, a 4,000-square-foot bank and a 12,000-square-foot Primrose daycare for 184 children. A Planning Commission hearing is scheduled for June 25, and a Board of Supervisors vote on July 1.

The 6.36-acre site is adjacent to the 2.4 million-square-foot Dulles Discovery North and South secure office complexes, and just east of the Smithsonian Institution’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

If approved by the board, construction is expected to kick off immediately after the plans and permits are in hand.

According to the staff report, issued Wednesday, the Peterson Cos. has refined its proposal to improve circulation throughout Dulles Discovery so employees “can safely drive, cycle or walk.” While the retail could not be incorporated into the existing secure office buildings (leased in part by the CIA), the design includes enhanced planting areas, internal travel lanes, pedestrian and bicycle facilities to address the “mixed-use intent of the Comprehensive Plan.”

The project, staff concludes, “would be a reasonable use” of the site. Planners recommend approval.

Hear that, Loudoun?

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