The local story
Fairfax Crossing is a proposal for Fair Oaks Business Park, near Waples Mill Road and Pender Drive on the Fairfax County side of the City of Fairfax line.
The project is not a single-building conversion. Peterson Companies wants to replace an aging office campus with the bones of a new neighborhood: housing, internal streets, public space, retail, and the infrastructure needed to support people after the offices empty out.
What is proposed
420 apartments, 286 stacked townhomes, and space that works after 5 p.m.
The current concept totals 706 homes: two multifamily buildings with 420 apartments and 286 stacked townhomes. Project materials also describe up to 20,000 square feet of retail or resident-serving space, about five acres of open space, and a 1.6-acre central park.
One multifamily building is planned for up to 140 affordable homes, while the rest of the mix would be market-rate. The phased approach is intended to let occupied office buildings remain until their part of the site is ready to move.
What the county changed
The policy door opened in November 2025.
On November 18, 2025, the Board of Supervisors adopted a comprehensive-plan amendment for the 22.64-acre Fair Oaks Business Park site. The county’s page describes 332,000 square feet of existing offices and a new residential mixed-use option at up to 1.2 floor-area ratio.
A plan amendment establishes what the county considers appropriate. It does not replace the rezoning, development plan, engineering review, permits, proffers, or construction phasing needed to build the concept people see in renderings.
The part to watch
Parks photograph well. Sewer capacity decides timing.
The adopted planning record calls for better pedestrian crossings, internal connections, publicly accessible parks, and a stronger link toward the City of Fairfax. Those are the pieces that can turn housing beside an arterial road into a neighborhood rather than an isolated project.
The less glamorous constraint is utility capacity. County planning materials flag the need to evaluate and improve the sewer system serving this growth. That is where Trent’s larger local thesis repeats: the future of a place is often visible first in the pipe, pump station, crossing, or service road that has to work before the marketing name does.
Watch the field report
The reel that started the story.
Every video here is Trent’s own reporting from @novawithtrent.
Why this matters locally
Fairfax Crossing is a test of whether Northern Virginia can turn obsolete office land into a connected neighborhood. The home count matters; the crossings, parks, utilities, phasing, and relationship to existing residents will decide whether the place works.
Sources and further reading
Where the reporting comes from.
This article draws on Trent’s field video and the following public records, official statements, and attributed local reporting. Each link opens the original source.
