Stafford-Spotsylvania Development to Create 'Massive Traffic' on HOT Lanes to DC

Hello,

We became concerned about reports in the Stafford and Sportsylvania news media that current and future development would put thousands more single-ocupant vehicles on I-95 and I-395 every weekday, to the point where HOT lanes in Arlington would be stop-go during morning rush hours. So we asked a neighbor to drive to VDOT's meeting last Thursday in Stafford, which was about extending HOT Lanes 2 miles farther South to 'relieve congestion and improve accessibility'.

It took our neighbor 2 1/2 hours to reach the meeting, via non-HOT lanes, just off Exit 140. Reason for the HOT Lanes extension is so that Stafford County residents who drive to work in DC, at the Pentagon, and elswwhere inside the DC Beltway won't be backed up in traffic for 2 miles exiting the HOT Lanes PM rush hour and backed up for 1/2 mile or more accessing the HOT lanes during AM rush hour. Cost to unhappy SOV drivers is about $15 one-way via EZ-Pass between Stafford and Alexandria, which is driving the 2-mile HOT lanes extension.

Massive development is occurring in Stafford County, mostly to build 'affordable' townhouses. A big selling point for the developers is ease of access to HOT lanes for single-occupant vehicle drivers who work at the Pentagon, in DC, and so on, typically an hour or less to the Pentagon.

Which answers the question - what happened to the middle class that was gentrified out of Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church, DC, because of 'Smart Growth'?

It's obvious that HOT lanes in Arlington would be jammed with single-occupant vehicles a short time after they're constructed. It's also obvious that members of the General Assembly know all about what they want to inflict on Arlington, since they often drive to and from Richmond.

But don't believe us. Take a relaxing trip on I-95 to Stafford County some weekday afternoon, after 3 PM, and see for yourselves.

Cindy

Fairfax County Approves Massive Sports Center for 395 Corridor

Hi Yupette,

As if the single-occupant vehicle traffic isn't going to be bad enough on I-395 from development in Stafford and Spotsylvania Counties, the Fairfax County Board of Zoning Appeals just approved a massive sports and wellness center on industrial property owned by Washington Gas, just off I-395, near Backlick Road and Edsall Road in Springfield.

According to a press release from Fairfax County:  "The 435,000-square-foot (approximately 10 acre) St. James Sport and Wellness Center will have a multipuropse turf field for full-length soccer, lacrosse, football, field hockey, and softball; two NHL-regulation-sized ice rinks for hockey, ice skating, curling, basketball/volleyboard courts; batting cages; indoor golf simulators; racquet courts; a gymnastics and dance center; laser tag; and rock climbing walls. It will alnso have a comprehensive health and wellness center.

The St. James Center will be membership-based, but non-members will be able to sign up for programs. It will accommodate 1,240 people plus 900 spectators. In addition to regular sports and fitness activities, the center plans to host special events, such as tournaments, meets, and athletic showcases on weekends.. As part of the approval, the St. James Group will install a bus shelter, 22 bicycle parking spaces, bike lanes on Industrial Drive, and other road improvements."

You can do a Web search on this project and obtain a wealth of details about this project. So the "future" if there is a "future" for those of us who live in the I-395 corridor will be to suffer from massive traffic and massive air pollution from tens of thousands more fossil-fuel powered vehicles.

Thanks for your blog.

Joan, 22206

Alexandria I-395 HOT Lanes Residents 'Very Unhappy'

Hey Yupette,

I have a friend who lives in a townhouse on Van Dorn Street, just south of Seminary Road. She and her neighbors are outraged at VDOT, and the Richmond pols who were paid off ten years ago, so HOT lanes could be constructed on I-395 and I-495. What was once a wooded buffer between the northbound lanes and Van Dorn Street has been bulldozed and an ugly sound wall has been constructed. Contruction for HOT Lanes in the area of her townhouse has been ongoing for 3 years, with no end in sight.

So this is what Arlington residents who live along 395 will have to look at in 3 years, because there's a done deal between the Arlington County Board and VDOT, brokered by Governor McAuliffe, so Arlington gets the transient tourist tax restored and more money for bicycle infrastructure in return for allowing VDOT and the foreign company who builds and operates HOT lanes to build and operate HOT lanes on I-395 in Arlington.

The usual group of Arlington Democratic Party and civic association 'community leaders' is being mobilized to 'facilitate' the deal. As usual, the 'facilitators' live nowhere near the I-395 corridor, with the exception of the Democratic ward heelers who live in the vicinity of I-395.

As you may remember, the Arlington County Board spent millions on legal fees a few years ago preventing VDOT from building HOT lanes through Arlington.

Thanks for your blog.

Mary Ellen - 22206

County Board Threw Food Star Under the Millenial Bus

Hey Yupette,

Thanks for your blog. I agree with many others that the County Board threw Food Star under the Millenial bus at the last County Board meeting. Part of their strategy to 'Clarendon' everything  And the next neighborhood to go Millennial will be family-friendly Westover. Thanks again for your blog.

Pam....22205

County Board Democrats Approve Secret Mega Deals

Hello,

As A.Y. recently reported, we obtained copies of the desk calendars of County Board Members, and the County Manager, Economic Development Director, and Planning Division Director for October, November, and December 2015 via a FOIA request last month. After perusing 120 pages of appointments, we determined that County Board Democrats spent about 90% of their time inside and outside the County Board Offices on activities related to local politics, personal agendas, and Smart Growth deal making. We exclude Independent John Vishstadt, who works full-time and whose County Board activities can't be determined from his appointment calendar.

A substantial amount of County Board Democrats' time was spent in meetings with various Democratic facilitators appointed to the various advisory commissions, civic associations, and redevelopment committees. County Board Democrats also routinely meet with developers, and special interests with development-related agendas (e.g., housing non-profits). County Planning, Housing, Transportation, and other Staff are expected facilitate deals no matter what their objections (e.g., to million-dollar bus shelters). So are 'community leaders' ranging from advisory commission members to civic association presidents.

So-called 'Smart Growth' has become a pervasive ideology, to the extent that anyone who doen't at least condone New Urbanism is a 'nuisance', or worse. It's not suprising that County Governement is suprised by snow storms, because anything County Government might do that actually benefits everyone isn't on the decision makers' radar. Arlington's bloated Economic Development, Planning, Housing, Transportation, Zoning, etc., bureaucracies are only too happy to engage in neighborhood-by-neighborhood redevelopment.

Here are a few of the deals County Board Democrats approved last Fall:

HOT Lanes on I-395, in return for restoration of the tourism tax by the General Assembly,

A Convention Center in Potomac Yards,

Alternately, a Wegmans supermarket in Potomac Yards,

Smart Growth redevelopment of remaining large parcels that are mostly open space, (e.g., Knights of Columbus estate on Little Falls Road),

Begin mixed-use 'Clarendonization' of Lee Highway, to East Falls Church,

Fast-track mixed-use redevelopment of Westover,

Fast-track mixed-use redevelopment of Bluemont,

Fast-track luxury redevelopment of Rosslyn-Georgetown.

Stay tuned for a synopsis of the County Manager's, Economic Development Director's, and Planning Division Director's day-to-day activities.

Cindy

County Board's Agenda for Lee Highway Corridor: Total Clarendonization

Hello,

Last month A.Y. obtained copies of the County Board's, County Manager's, Economic Development Director's, and Planning Division Director's daily appointment calendars for the past several months. What today's Lee Highway Corridor Redevelopment "Community Meeting" at Yorktown High School proved is that Arlington's Smart Growth decision makers decided several months ago to make-over the Lee Highway corridor into a 5-mile long Clarendon.

If you didn't need more proof, you could hear and see the County Board's out-of-state Smart Growth "Planners" Dover-Kohl, replicating and reprising the New Urbanist mess they made of Columbia Pike, five years ago.

Oh, County "Planning Staff" is already talking with the likes of Clarendon Ballroom, A-Town, and other bars and restaurants that cater to Millennials for satellite operations beneath future mixed-used redevelopment in the Lee Highway corridor.

Cindy

County Board - County Manager Held No Winter Emergency Planning Meetings During the Fall of 2015

Hello,

One of the contributors to AY was able to obtain copies of the County Board's and County Manager's appointment calendars for the months of October, November, and December. Although the County Board (with the exception of John Vihstadt, who works full-time) and County Manager held plenty of personal, political, and social meetings, as well as many deal-making meetings with pet developers, the County Board and County Manager had no appointments related to winter emergency preparedness whatsoever. So whatever winter emergency plans were made for the County were made in the week leading up to the first (and most likely not the last) major snowstorm of 2016.

It's decidedly NOT true that the "the County Board doesn't listen". The County Board DOES listen, repeatedly, but only to the same 100 Arlington residents and to the same 100 non-residents. Rather than focusing on the basics, like snow removal, the County Board, County Manager, and Economic Development Director are making Arlington into a number of neighborhood-by-neighborhood 'redevelopment opportunities' without bothering to tell the neighborhoods. Whatever deals are made with developers are passed down to the Democratic Party-controlled advisory commissions and Democratic Party 'facilitators' who control almost all Arlington's civic associations.

Too bad the local media are also facilitators for the status quo. We deserve to be informed about important decisions that directly affect us and the livability of our County, not continually deluged with second-hand feel-good propaganda and warmed over press releases.

Cindy