Holmes Run Valley Community

The special working group tasked to produce a redevelopment proposal for the Sears site at Seven Corners concluded their work on 4 March.  Gross’s Seven Corners task force had proposed to put 719,000 sq ft of floor area on the site, all of it for residences.  The community surrounding the site, with the support of HRVCA, opposed that proposal because (1) the density seemed excessive for the site, and (2) the community wanted replacement of some of the retail services and office space (doctors’ offices) now on the site. Currently, there are 161,000 sq ft of retail and 105,000 sq ft of office space on the site for a total of 266,000 sq ft.

The special working group agreed to 85,000 sq ft retail, 50,000 office, and 395,000 residential (60 townhouses plus 275 apartments) for a total of 530,000 sq ft, 75% of the floor area in the task force proposal. Ellie Ashford provided a summary of the meeting on the Annandale blog.

The Sears site is one of three areas proposed for redevelopment at Seven Corners.  The Sears site recommendation will be combined with the proposals for the other two areas in an integrated Comprehensive Plan amendment and sent to the Mason District Land Use Committee, the Planning Commission, and the Board of Supervisors for approval.  Once approved, developers would be able to propose redevelopment of any of the three areas. A proposal for the Sears site could come in the near future.

HRVCA agreed at our 28 Jan meeting to oppose the integrated redevelopment plan based on the excessive densities proposed for the other two areas. An update will be provided at the HRVC spring meeting in April.

Letter to the Editor, Falls Church News Press.

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

The letter below was published in the Falls Church News Press and on their Web site as one of three letters under the title of the first letter, “Absolutely No Need for New High School in F.C.”

 Misguided Revitalization in Mason District

Editor,

The quality of life in Mason District is threatened by misguided redevelopment in its two revitalization areas. In her “A Penny for Your Thoughts” column in the January 29 Falls Church News-Press, Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross called these areas a blessing, and so they may be for her. But what about the community?

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has given itself the power to amend the Comprehensive Plan to allow virtually any land use in a revitalization area if, in their view, it would advance “revitalization goals.” Gross offers the amendment for the SE Quadrant in the Bailey’s Crossroads revitalization area as an example of the benefits of the Board’s power. The amendment allows the development of a high-rise elementary school on a two-acre site on the curb of Columbia Pike in a busy commercial district with no green space for outdoor activities. Recreation would be on the roof of the garage. Intense citizen opposition to the amendment in the January 13 Board hearing argued that the site is not suitable for a school. In particular, the Comprehensive Plan states that schools should not be located in commercial areas.

But the amendment serves Gross’s purpose. The School Board wants to build a child-friendly school with green space on the five-acre Willston School site in a residential district opposite Seven Corners. But Gross wants that site for a new $125M county office building. She recommends that she keep Willston and the children use the Columbia Pike school site provided by the plan amendment. This is not the first time that the interests of our children have been sacrificed for Gross’s agenda. For years, children at Bailey’s Elementary sat in 19 trailers while the School Board asked for the Willston site. Last fall, relief of sorts was provided by opening Bailey’s Upper Elementary in a converted office building on blacktop in a commercial district on the other side of Seven Corners. The school has no gym, no auditorium, and no green space.

Such are the consequences of misguided revitalization for the community. It’s Gross mismanagement.

Clyde Miller

Falls Church

On 13 Jan, the Board of Supervisors approved the Comprehensive Plan amendment for the SE Quadrant notwithstanding strenuous opposition from citizens.  The amendment allows another “urban” elementary school to be constructed, this one on the curb of Columbia Pike with no green space and surrounded by commercial developments.  The Holmes Run Valley Citizen’s Association submitted a written statement opposing the plan amendment and testified at the hearing.

The supervisors’ decision was a disappointment but not unexpected.  The Board does not recognize that citizen participation is the essential ingredient in land use planning.  Supervisor Gross, in particular, seems intent upon dictating the future vision of our community.

A letter objecting to the Board’s decision and the conduct of the hearing has been sent to Sharon Bulova, the chairman of the Board.  Articles on the plan amendment have been published in the Washington Post and the Annandale Blog.

On Tuesday, Jan 13, the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to hold a public hearing on Comprehensive Plan amendment PA 2014-I-B2 to allow an elementary school to be constructed on Columbia Pike at Bailey’s Crossroads next door to Radley Acura.  The hearing previously was scheduled for Dec 2 but was deferred when School Superintendent Karen Garza asked the county to return the Willston School property to the School Board for use as a school site.  As reported in a Dec 18 article in the Fairfax Times, Supervisor Gross intends that the county’s proposed $125,000,000 East County Center office building will occupy the Willston site; the Columbia Pike location is her recommendation for a school.

A 5-page statement has been prepared to describe the principal reasons for opposing plan amendment PA 2014-I-B2, namely:

• The site is not suitable for an elementary school
• The county has not discussed the proposal with the affected communities
• The School Board has asked for the Willston site, and the School Board alone is responsible for selecting school locations.

The SE Quadrant plan amendment is the subject of two other posts on this blog dated 11 Dec and 22 Nov.

Residents are encouraged to express their opposition to the plan amendment by sending e-mails to the Board of Supervisors and by speaking at the Board hearing. The hearing is scheduled for 3:00 P.M. on Tuesday, Jan 13,  in the Board Auditorium at 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax.

To Send an E-Mail to the Board:

• Send it to: clerktothebos@fairfaxcounty.gov
• Identify the hearing and plan amendment in the Subject line as follows: “Opposition to PA 2014-I-B2, Hearing Jan 13, 3 PM”
• In the body of the e-mail, state the reason for your opposition. It can be as brief as stating that you believe that the site is not suitable for a school.
• Include your name and address so they know you live in Fairfax County.
• Send the e-mail before 9 A.M. Monday, Jan 12, to assure that the Board sees it before the hearing.

To Speak at the Hearing:

• Register to speak at the Board hearing Web site. The link to register is colored blue in the first line at the top of the Board hearing page.
• You will be allowed 5 minutes if you speak for a neighborhood association, 3 minutes otherwise.

One hoped-for benefit of the redevelopment of Seven Corners proposed by Fairfax County has been relief from some of the traffic congestion.  However, the results of the FCDOT analysis of the roadway improvements proposed by the task force show that network performance would be unacceptable in critical areas.  Today’s traffic congestion issues are not resolved by high-rise redevelopment.

The task force and FCDOT have developed a proposed road network known as Concept B to serve the high-rise redevelopment.  FCDOT has published an analysis of that network in their Phase II transportation study, and  VDOT is in the process of completing their review of the report.  In an effort to support the VDOT review, comments on the Phase II report have been submitted to provide a community perspective and local knowledge of the traffic situation.

In its Phase II transportation study, FCDOT compared the Year 2040 performance of the Concept B network serving the proposed high-rise redevelopment against today’s development served by today’s roads with Rt 50 widened to 6 lanes.  The principal conclusion of the report is that some intersections would perform better in 2040 with Concept B.  However, the report shows that Concept B performance overall would not be acceptable.  Rt 50 would operate over capacity (LOS F) and all through and turning movements at the intersections of Patrick Henry Drive with both Rt 7 and Rt 50 would operate at LOS F.  The VDOT definition of Level of Service (LOS) F is that traffic delays would be unacceptable to most drivers; roadway network capacity has been exceeded.

The FCDOT  analysis of Concept B made optimistic assumptions about the traffic demand that would be imposed by the high-rise redevelopment.  It assumed that traffic demand would be increased very little.  Despite an increase in floor area from 1.7 M sq ft today to 7.8 M in 2040, AM peak hour traffic would increase only 4%; PM peak hour traffic would increase only 7%. Therefore, the 2040 traffic demand applied to Concept B was nearly the same as the 2040 demand currently projected for the area without additional development.  To the extent that the report underestimated Concept B traffic demand, it overestimated the performance of the network.   The traffic demand assumption and other limitations of the FCDOT analysis and Concept B are discussed in the comments.

A broad conclusion from the FCDOT report is that the traffic currently projected for Seven Corners without additional development would saturate the existing road network even with Rt 50 widened to 6 lanes.  The network would perform at LOS F in 2040.  If the Concept B network were implemented in the 2040 time frame (still without additional development), the network would still be saturated.  Rt 50 and the Patrick Henry Drive intersections would operate over capacity (at LOS F).

Seven Corners is the intersection of four major roads in a very small space.  Rt 50, Rt 7, Wilson Blvd, and Sleepy Hollow Rd carry heavy peak hour traffic loads, and there are limited options for better routing the traffic within the immediate area.  The conclusion is that Seven Corners is not an appropriate site for high-rise, high-density redevelopment.

The public hearing re the proposed Comprehensive Plan amendment for Bailey’s Crossroads scheduled for 2 December has been postponed to 13 January.  The purpose of the plan amendment is to allow a public elementary school to be constructed on the SE Quadrant in conjunction with a high-rise apartment building.  On 1 December, Superintendent of Schools Karen Garza formally asked the Board of Supervisors for the Willston School site for use as a school.  The meeting among Dr. Garza, County Executive Edward Long, Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova, and Mason District Supervisor Penelope Gross is described by  an article on the Annandale Blog.  Presumably, the meeting precipitated the hearing cancellation.

As described by an earlier post, the plan amendment was approved by the Planning Commission on 5 November despite community written comments and testimony opposing the proposal.  The Holmes Run Valley Citizen’s Association submitted written testimony to the Board for the 2 December hearing and plans to testify during the 13 January hearing.  Hopefully, in the meantime, the Board will agree to allow our schools to have the Willston site.

On October 23, the Planning Commission published a proposal 2014-I-B2 to amend the Comprehensive Plan to allow a second “urban” elementary school to be constructed in the Seven Corners/Bailey’s Crossroads area. The first urban elementary school (constructed on black top) opened at 6245 Leesburg Pike opposite Seven Corners in Fall 2014. The proposed second urban school would be constructed on Columbia Pike on the west side of Radley Acura opposite Trader Joe’s in Bailey’s Crossroads.  The Bailey’s site is even less suitable for a school than the Bailey’s Upper site.  The school should be constructed on the green Willston School site above Arlington Blvd opposite Seven Corners shopping center.

The Planning Commission approved the plan amendment at a hearing on Nov 5.  While several commissioners asked perceptive questions about the proposal, in the end approval was unanimous.  It was apparent that approval was predetermined; community concerns expressed before and during the hearing were not going to affect the outcome.  A letter protesting the conduct of the hearing was sent to both the commission and the Board of Supervisors.

As described in testimony prepared for the Nov 5 commission hearing, there are two principal reasons for  opposing the plan amendment:

• The site proposed for a second urban school is not suitable for an elementary school
• The county has not discussed the proposal with the affected communities

The 3-page testimony  provides a concise summary of the issues and the opportunity to move the school to the Willston School site, a site well suited for an elementary school.

Residents are encouraged to express their opposition to the plan amendment by sending e-mails to the Board of Supervisors and by speaking at the Board hearing.  The hearing is scheduled for 5:00 P.M. on Dec 2  in the Board Auditorium at 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax.

To Send an E-Mail to the Board:

1. Send it to: clerktothebos@fairfaxcounty.gov
2. Identify the hearing and plan amendment in the Subject line as follows:  “Hearing Dec 2, 5:00 PM, Opposition to PA 2014-I-B2”
3. In the body of the e-mail, state the reason for your opposition. It can be as brief as stating opposition because the plan amendment was not discussed with the community.
4. Include your name and address so they know you live in Fairfax County
5. Send the e-mail before Thanksgiving to assure that the Board sees it before the hearing.

To Speak at the Hearing:

1. Register to speak at the Board hearing Web site. The link to register is on the first line at the top of the page.
2. You will be allowed 5 minutes if you speak for a neighborhood association, 3 minutes otherwise.

The 6 Nov meeting of the Area C Working Group included a Q&A regarding the affordable housing provisions in the 23 Sep task force report.  It seemed clear that some confusion remained at the end of the discussion, in particular, regarding the rent levels of the units replacing the 589 existing units that would be demolished.  TF Affordable Housing Proposal summarizes the affordable housing proposal in the TF report and describes the likely rent levels of the 589 replacement units.

Under current conditions and the TF proposal, it seems certain that a large percentage of the households residing in the 589 affordable units today would be displaced by the proposed redevelopment.