Alexandria, VA – Those among us who haven’t been out much due to covid precautions will have much new to see in Mount Vernon as we venture back into the world.
Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck highlighted many of them in his annual Town Meeting, ranging from new fire stations, completed and planned, to the replacement of a decades-old restaurant with a cannabis dispensary.
No one who lives or commutes through Mount Vernon can miss the changes on the George Washington Memorial Parkway. According to parkway officials, the “road diet,” as it was called, was instituted to improve sight lines and thus increase safety for drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians. The project reduced the number of car lanes on the parkway by adding turn lanes at designated intersections.
After planned safety efforts are implemented around the Fort Hunt Park area of the parkway, including replacing Bridge 12 near the park and realigning the trail between the park and Waynewood Boulevard, a new playground will be built, designed especially for the park.
One new fire station opened in February, the two-story, $12 million Woodlawn Fire Station. The Penn Daw Fire Station will be re-located to 2801 Beacon Hill Road, on the site of the former plant nursery, co-located with a homeless shelter.
New Affordable Housing Projects coming to Mount Vernon include the long-awaited one on North Hill off Route 1 and The Arden on Huntington Avenue.
Area residents will see the former Messiah Lutheran Church site on the corner of Fort Hunt and Beacon Hill Road become a community of single-family homes right across from Belle View Shopping Center.
Multifamily housing will replace the Brookside Motel on Richmond Highway near its intersection with Fort Hunt Road. And in the same area, the Great American Steak
Buffet, a longtime Mount Vernon staple that closed a while ago, will be replaced by Beyond Health, a medical cannabis dispensary.
Anyone heading down Richmond Highway toward Lorton would be amazed at the huge expansion underway of the Lorton Library, an addition of 6,000 square feet to its original 10,000 square feet, and the creation of an adjacent, completely new, 30,000 square foot community center. When completed this summer, the project will include new playground and fitness areas, walking trails, and additional outdoor recreation.
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