There are a number of key issues in the Paradigm Proposal that should be considered by City Council and resolved before the Proposal receives final approval:

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• The Private Road. ​ The 26' two-way private road through the project will have significant functional issues.  

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• Based on its constricted width, large vehicles (trash trucks, delivery vehicles, fire trucks, etc.) will have to swing across the opposite lanes of the private road upon entering from either end.  Bicycles will have to share the private road with the cars and trucks (the private road does not have a bike lane). 

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• As vehicles depart the property at either end of the private road, they will have to enter relatively fast moving traffic from right angles to the traffic flow, with limited sight lines.  Cars and trucks exiting onto University Drive will also have to cross the dedicated bicycle lane.  Small triangular curbs in the center of the entrance/exit at both ends of the private road, intended to direct vehicles to follow the "right in/right out" rule for traffic, may be ignored by some drivers who chose to turn left across traffic.

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• The Transportation Impact Study states in Table 5 that "the proposed development is anticipated to generate approximately 117 new trips during the AM peak hour, 144 new trips during the PM peak hour, and 1,516 new daily trips on a typical weekday."  That's 2.24 trips per minute in and out of the Private Road anticipated during the evening peak hour.  

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• Special events, when University Drive and/or Chain Bridge Road are closed to traffic, present special problems.  During the 4th of July Parade, both University Drive and Chain Bridge Road are blocked off from traffic.  It may be possible for a vehicle to depart the private road with Police assistance, but getting to the property in a vehicle from outside the perimeter of the Parade area would be nearly impossible.​

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• Another sort of "special event" is a major snowfall.  Twelve inches of snow would put an immense burden on the private road, in terms of the potential for collisions and the demand to remove the snow from the premises.  The entrances are two potential points of failure, and the 24' entrance to the ramp to the parking garage is a potential single point of failure under snowy and icy conditions. ​

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• Traffic problems on the private road are likely spill-over onto the public roads.  An aggressive traffic control and enforcement plan will be required for residents, retail customers, short term visitors, delivery vehicles, trash trucks, service vehicles, and emergency vehicles to operate safely on the private road under crowded conditions and in inclement weather.  ​

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• Transportation Impact Study (TIS).  The Transportation Impact Study concludes:  "The intersection capacity analysis results for the Future Conditions with Development are similar to Existing and Future Conditions without Development. Therefore, the development will have a minimal impact on the traffic operations and safety of the street network."  ​​TIS are primarily analyses of nearby intersections and have some value, but they apply generic principles and look primarily at the theoretical impact of a development in isolation.  They "check a block" but are of limited value in considering overall traffic impacts on the City from volume and the manner in which vehicles enter/exit the development.  They do not provide all of the information necessary for decisions-makers to determine the future impact of traffic on the surrounding area.  Imagine the impact in the future, when the large block could have up to seven curb cuts for access driveways from University Drive and seven curb cuts from Chain Bridge Road, for all of the invididual properties, creating a traffic entry/exit nightmare on the main north-south roads. 

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• Stormwater.  There is concern by residents about stormwater runoff from a property that will be ~90% covered by buildings or non-permeable surface and whose rainwater run-off goes directly into Daniels Run.  The Applicant plans to use detention vaults to control the one, two, and ten-year, 24-hour rainfall while sending it into Daniels Run.  The outflow point was identified in the April 2025 submission as the outlet from the storm sewer into the uncovered portion of Daniels Run behind the mail boxes at the eastern end of Breckinridge Lane.  This video shows the water level and flow rate at the outflow point after a 10 minute hard rain on June 18, 2025.  This suggests there may be a capacity problem for the storm sewer system entering Daniels Run to handle the added storm water from the Davies Property.  ​

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• ​​​​​​​​​The Thornton/Davies House.   

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• On April 22, 2025, the Mayor and the City Council officially proclaimed May 2025 to be “National Preservation Month in the City of Fairfax” with the theme of “Preserve the Past; Protect the Future”. The proclamation may be accessed at Celebrating Historic Preservation Month in Fairfax City – Historic Fairfax City, Inc.  ​

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• An assessment of National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility for the Davies House, also known as “The Hill” at 4131 Chain Bridge Road, was conducted for the City of Fairfax in September 2024 by Thunderbird Archeology, a division of Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc., of Gainesville, Virginia. The assessment concluded, "The property, in our opinion, is potentially eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criteria B and C, for association with regionally and locally significant members of the Thornton and Davies families as well as for its architectural merit."  On June 25th, City Staff stated the City is not going to pursue recommending this site for listing in the NRHP.   Even if the Thornton House were listed in the NRHP, it apparently would not be protected from demolition unless Federal Funding were involved. 

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• Paradigm's May 25, 2025 Proffers document states:  "The Applicant agrees to be responsible for documenting any historical artifact or historical natural feature uncovered during construction on the site in consultation with City of Fairfax Office of Historic Resources staff and a Professional Archaeologist...  In the event that City of Fairfax Office of Historic Resources staff in conjunction with the Applicant determine that an historical artifact or natural feature is found on the site and is to be disturbed or removed from the site during construction; the Applicant agrees to contact City of Fairfax Office of Historic Resources staff to determine whether removal or disturbance of the artifact or natural feature is warranted, and if so, what mitigation measures should be undertaken." ​​ 

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• Retail Space.  Paradigm has requested an exception so it can have a smaller amount of retail space on the ground floor of Building A than required by the zoning ordinance (the Small Area Plan does not set a target amount of retail in the TOD).  The Board of Architectural Review, the Planning Commission, and the City Council, in their respective work sessions, expressed varying opinions on this issue.  The final decision on retail content should be based upon hard economic and market data, none of which has been made public.

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• Fiscal Benefit to the City.  City Staff "estimates that this proposal would most likely bring a modest net fiscal benefit to the city. The estimated net fiscal balance is calculated as a range between -$308,000 and +$321,000 annually."  This range of outcomes, with an over $600,000 spread, indicates that the City is unable to estimate a specific cost, or benefit, of the development to the City with any certainty.

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• Impact on Adjacent Properties.   The two modifications of Public Facilities Manual (PFM) requested by the developer (PFM Detail 404.06 and 404.06) to allow the private road to run next to the northern property line may have a negative effect on the "BB&T Property" to the north.  The modifications decrease the minimum corner clearance from the driveway on the "BB&T Property" from 50 feet to 23 feet, and decrease the minimum separation between the access drive and the northern property line from 12 feet to 1 foot.  If approved, these modifications could create two roads exiting onto Chain Bridge Road with only one foot of separation (depending on where the access roads to that property are placed, upon its development).  This could create dangerous traffic conditions and potentially restrict access to the "BB&T Property," thus potentially detracting from the value of that property.

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• The Construction Management Plan.  If the Paradigm proposal is approved, the Applicant will have to prepare a Construction Management Plan.  The location of the Davies Property will present considerable challenges in staging materials and construction vehicles for the crowded work site, and these could affect the surrounding neighborhoods and traffic on the two north-south arterial roads during the long construction period.  Paradigm has offered to provide the Department of Community Development and Planning with the name and telephone number of a community liaison who will be available throughout the duration of construction on the Application Property, and to brief neighboring residents on the plan for Construction Management.  ​​

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