Holmes Run Valley Community

Under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, 222 e-mail messages exchanged between the county staff supporting the task force and Co-Chairman John Thillman have been obtained and published on this blog. This post describes the results of a review of those e-mails undertaken to better understand task force discussions of the East County Center and  the influences that created the land use concept produced by the task force.

East County Center: The first reference to the ECC appears to be the 130819 E-Mail from JT to Joanne Fiebe requesting a meeting with her and Liz.  JT states that he had had a meeting with Penny, “the County Building is an issue,” and “we have a suggested fix.” The message date, 08/19/2013, is two months after the 27 Jun 2013 design charrette.

This e-mail is the first one of two among the staff e-mails that suggests that JT may have been taking direction from Supervisor Gross and passing it on to county staff. The second is the 140624_August_Meeting_(17) E-Mail in which JT asks for a meeting with six county staff members for the purpose of passing on his discussion with Penny “re land use etc.”

The second reference to the ECC in the staff e-mails is the 131009_Atlantic_Station E-Mail from JT to the task force that mentions a Government center building integrated into the commercial and residential “Main Boulevard.” That is the last reference to the ECC found in the staff e-mails.

The 10 Jun 2014 draft of the task force report (plan amendment) mentions a “government center” as a possible public facility among a number of redevelopment options for Seven Corners on page 11. The 23 Sep task force report states on page 10 that, in the Willston Village Center, “office use may be developed as a new East County Center that would provide human services to the local community.” Nothing was found in task force meeting minutes between Mar and Sep 2014 inclusive that recommended a particular site for a government center now identified as the ECC.  Apparently, there is no public record describing how the task force agreed on the nomenclature and location of the ECC between 10 Jun and 23 Sep.

Whose Land Use Concept Is It? The stated objective of the task force was to develop a community vision of the future of Seven Corners. The legitimate stakeholders in that vision include residents of the study area and surrounding neighborhoods, certainly, as well as owners of Seven Corners businesses and properties. Developers have financial interests in the outcome, but hopefully those interests do not determine the vision. Supervisor Gross has agreed to stand aside and let the community decide. Is county staff a stakeholder in the outcome, or is their legitimate interest limited to helping the community achieve its vision?

And what has been the community’s experience of the task force and its report? Have the legitimate stakeholders determined the vision or has the vision been pressed upon us?  Is the report’s vision of our future our vision?

An earlier post, provided two folders of e-mails that had been obtained with a Freedom of Information Act request.  One folder contained e-mails exchanged between Supervisor Gross and Mr. John Thillman; the second contained e-mails exchanged between county staff members and Mr. Thillman.  The e-mails in those folders were not in chronological order.  The two folders below contain e-mails ordered by date.  They have been ordered by adding a prefix to the file names in the format yymmdd.  Some of the documents provided in response to the FOIA request were not dated.  The prefix for all of these is 141031. The Supervisor Gross e-mails below include six messages exchanged between 1 Jan and 1 Jun 2013 that were not included in the earlier post.  Attachments to e-mail were not requested.

Supervisor Gross E-Mails In Order:  County response to request for all messages exchanged between Supervisor Gross and John Thillman between the dates 1 Jan 2013 and 21 Oct 2014 (157 messages).

Staff E-Mails in Order:  County response to request for all messages exchanged between JoAnne Fiebe, Task Force Revitalization Program Manager, and John Thillman between the dates 1 Jun 2013 and 21 Oct 2014 (222 messages).

A number of county c-mail messages have been obtained under the Freedom of Information Act in an effort to better understand the circumstances and influences under which (1) the Seven Corners Task Force did its work and (2) plans for the East County Center moved from Bailey’s Crossroads to the Willston School site.   The e-mails are in two files.  You can download the messages by clicking on the links below.

• Supervisor Gross E-Mails:  County response to request for all messages exchanged between Supervisor Gross and John Thillman between the dates 1 June 2013 and 21 Oct 2014 (152 messages).
• County Staff E-Mails:  County response to request for all messages exchanged between JoAnne Fiebe, Task Force Revitalization Program Manager, and John Thillman for the same dates (222 messages).

On 23 October, the Planning Commission published on their Web site a proposal 2014-I-B2 to amend the Comprehensive Plan to allow a second high-rise elementary school to be constructed in the Seven Corners/Bailey’s Crossroads area.  The first high-rise elementary school (constructed on black top) opened at 6245 Leesburg Pike opposite Seven Corners in Fall 2014. The proposed second high-rise elementary school would be constructed on Columbia Pike just west of Radley Acura opposite Trader Joe’s in Bailey’s Crossroads.

The hearing on the proposed amendment is scheduled for 5 November, only nine business days after it first appeared on the Planning Commission Web site.  No review of the proposal has been conducted with the community in a process that allowed the community to submit comments and the county to respond to those comments prior to publication.  The proposal was briefed as a finished product to the Bailey’s Crossroads Revitalization Corporation two days prior to publication on the Web site and to Supervisor Gross’s Land Use Committee three business days following publication.  The fast-track processing of the amendment has the appearance of a heavy-handed effort to throttle community engagement with an issue critical to its future, namely, its public schools.

On 31 October, a statement opposing the proposed amendment was submitted to the Planning Commission with copies to Supervisor Gross and Fairfax County Public Schools.  The reasons for opposition cited were:

• The proposed site is not suitable for a Fairfax County Public School
• The county has not vetted the proposal with the affected communities

The statement pointed out a number of alternatives whereby the school could be located on the Willston School site at Seven Corners, a site well suited for an elementary school.

Residents are encouraged to express their support or opposition to the school proposal by sending e-mails to the Planning Commission, with copies to Supervisor Penny Gross, prior to close of business Tuesday, 4 November.  The hearing is scheduled for the evening of 5 November in the Board Auditorium at 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax.  If you plan to address the Planning Commission during the hearing, sign up on the speakers’ list on the Planning Commission Web Site.

E-Mail Addresses:
Planning Commission (Dear Planning Commission): plancom@fairfaxcounty.gov.
Board of Supervisors (Dear Chairman Bulova): Chairman@fairfaxcounty.gov
Penny Gross (Dear Supervisor Gross): Mason@fairfaxcounty.gov
Include your name and address on all e-mails so recipients know you live in the county.

Both Seven Corners and Bailey’s Crossroads have been selected by the Board of Supervisors for urbanization as two of eight commercial revitalization areas in the county. The objective of the revitalization/redevelopment of the two areas is to provide “activity centers” where future growth can be concentrated. With this unsolicited urbanization have come “urban vertical schools,” first at Seven Corners (Bailey’s Upper Elementary), now a second one at Bailey’s Crossroads in the proposed plan amendment for the SE Quadrant. The community has a choice; we can accept the Board’s urbanization with its urban vertical schools, or we can say NO and change the development scenario to one more in keeping with the community’s character.

This paper describes the Board of Supervisor’s policy regarding urbanization of Seven Corners and Bailey’s Crossroads, including the 2010 amendment of the Comprehensive Plan for Bailey’s Crossroads and the advent of “urban vertical schools” for our neighborhoods.  County officials have said that the urban school is the best that can be done. But that’s not true. There is no requirement for the community to accept urbanization and no requirement to accept the urban vertical school. There are alternatives for the further development of our community and alternatives available for our schools. But changing the conversation from the county’s current intent upon urbanization to a scenario more in keeping with our character will require a concerted community effort.

The task force membership was comprised mainly of people unknown to residents, and several efforts to obtain from Supervisor Gross a minimum of background information on the individuals were unsuccessful.  Furthermore, Co-Chair John Thillman had a glaring conflict of interest in his responsibility to produce a community vision of the future of Seven Corners.  A  27 September letter addressed to Supervisor Gross with copies to the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors addressed these flaws in the composition of the task force and concluded that the flaws preclude any claim that the task force plan represents a community vision of its future.  The letter recommended improvements in the process that the county has used for establishing task forces.  County officials thus far have not acknowledged that the task force was poorly constituted.  The effort to achieve acknowledgment is ongoing.

On 7 Oct, Mason District Council hosted a community forum on the Seven Corners redevelopment plan created by Supervisor Gross’s Seven Corners Visioning Task Force.  A report of the meeting is available on the Annandale Blog.  The author of this Web site made a statement pointing out some of the implications of the plan and distributed a handout with illustrations and references to support the statement.

The objective was to encourage residents to register their support or opposition to the plan in e-mails to the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors.  The community will enjoy or suffer the effects  of the Seven Corners redevelopment for years to come.  It is important that community members engage in the decisionmaking process.

E-Mail Addresses:
Planning Commission (Dear Planning Commission): plancom@fairfaxcounty.gov.
Board of Supervisors (Dear Chairman Bulova): Chairman@fairfaxcounty.gov
Penny Gross (Dear Supervisor Gross): Mason@fairfaxcounty.gov
Include your name and address on all e-mails so recipients know that you live in the county.

The task force redevelopment plan for Seven Corners would demolish 600-800 dwelling units of affordable housing.  The task force has been reluctant to discuss the means by which the housing would be replaced.  The attitude of the task force appears to be that their job is limited to recommending that the housing be demolished; thinking through how it could be replaced is someone else’s job.  The author’s 26 August letter addressed to task force Co-Chair John Thillman asked for a task force meeting agenda item describing successful county redevelopments of affordable housing on the scale that would be required at Seven Corners.      The description requested was not provided.

Letter to the Editor: 7 Corners Doesn’t Need Revitalization

AUGUST 28, 2014

7 Corners Doesn’t Need Revitalization

 Editor,

Let’s not revitalize Seven Corners. In the front-page article of last week’s Falls Church News-Press, Fairfax County’s Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross assured readers that the bulldozers are not yet on the way. Hopefully, the bulldozers will be able to find other work because the plan that has been developed by the Seven Corners Revitalization Task Force should not be implemented.

Seven Corners today is a community-serving retail center. The plan would turn the area into a high-rise residential complex of buildings akin to those in Ballston and Clarendon. The plan calls for leveling the existing Seven Corners Center, Willston I Center, Willston School, and virtually all of the apartment buildings behind Willston I Center between Peyton Randolph Dr. and Patrick Henry Dr. up to Wilson Blvd. The new construction would create a dense urban environment consisting primarily of 28 residential buildings each six-to-ten stories high. Residential floor area would be increased by a factor of nine from today’s 0.6 million square feet to 5.9 million square feet, enough for 6,000 apartments. A sprawling road network would be constructed to serve the complex.

Much planning has gone into warping Seven Corners into an urban compound. What’s missing is the discussion about who wants it. Who wants to turn Seven Corners into a citified Ballston or a Clarendon? Who wants the sprawling road network that would be required, or the overflow traffic cutting through our neighborhoods, or the crowding in our Fairfax County schools, or the loss of convenient community-serving retail stores? What’s the problem with Seven Corners in its long-time role as a retail center that well serves a diverse community?

The question of who wants to “revitalize” the area needs to be answered before more effort goes into planning. We are likely to discover that we can save ourselves the additional planning effort.

Clyde Miller

Falls Church