Archive for August 2008
Going to the park…how long should it take?
A 90 minute drive to travel from Lake Ridge down to a local park, all within eastern PW County? That’s what happened to Mr. Charles Gallion, per his letter to the Lane Ranger (Potomac News, August 17, 2008). Mr. Gallion described his trip to Locust Shade Park on a recent Saturday afternoon: “A simple 15-mile trip took 90 minutes southbound using a combination of I-95 and U.S.1. The return 15-mile trip took 60 minutes northbound only because I exited I-95 at Va. 234 and took back roads and residential streets. What a joke. All told, that was 150 minutes combined for a total of 30 miles.”
The Lane Ranger responded that he shared Mr. Gallion’s pain, and so do many of the readers who chose to submit comments on the letter. Obviously there is a transportation issue, but this may point out a park level of service issue as well. Read the rest of this entry »
Trees vs. History
It’s trees vs. history at Manassas Battlefield, and “Trees Lose” as described today by the Washington Post.
About 140 acres of forest in the national park has been cut down in the last year. The land where the trees were removed was acquired by the National Park Service to protect the setting of the Second Battle of Manassas in 1862, just west of the site of the Battle of First Manassas.
As described by the National Park Service, “These important battlegrounds and associated monuments are nestled in over 5000 acres of meadows, woodlands and streams.” Now – well, there’s more grassy hayfield and less woodland… Read the rest of this entry »
How old is the concept of the Rural Crescent?
The draft 2012 Strategic Plan claims the 1998 Comprehensive Plan made a major change to previous plans by creating the Rural and Development land use areas. You might assume that until 1998, all of the county was planned to be developed into urban or suburban density, and parcels in the Rural Crescent were just “unzoned land” waiting to be developed into subdivisions.
However, as far back as 1964 when the initial land use plan for PW County was drafted, it was clear that development should be concentrated where services (especially sewer) could be provided – and some areas in the county should remain “rural in character.”
You can see the concept of a rural area defined as the Large Estate and Agriculture district on the proposed (but never adopted) 1964 Generalized Land Use Plan. Read the rest of this entry »
NVTA – a clone of the NVTA?
There’s a tunnel proposed for Tysons, but there’s already tunnel vision at the Northern Virgina Transportation Authority.
They proposed eight principles for the General Assembly’s special session in 2008 to develop a transportation funding package. Reading those principles, it’s hard to distinguish between the government officials organized as the Northern Virgina Transportation Authority (NVTA) and the developer group organized as the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance (NVTA). Read the rest of this entry »
How big is a “town center”?
The draft Land Use Plan for PW County proposes over 20 places where PW County could develop “centers of commerce” or “centers of community.”
The proposal, not yet adopted by the Planning Commission, is to designate 1-mile wide circles, roughly 500 acres, at each of the 20+ “center” spots. The plan is to allow developers to propose creative projects, and great increases in residential/retail/office density will be authorized.
Government officials in Virginia Beach took a different approach. Virginia Beach focused on developing one (count ‘em, 1) Town Center to become the new downtown, the dynamic and walkable mixed-use district the city lacked.
And they got it. It has been planned, financed, and built in the last 10 years. Read the rest of this entry »
Walk-ability
The new Walk Score website measures whether a neighborhood is pedestrian-friendly.
I grew up in a neighborhood where we walked to school, to the movies, to the swimming pool, to the park, etc. The Walk Score there: 83 out of 100. That’s “very walkable,” according to the website.
Where I live now is far from shopping, jobs. We have green parkland nearby, but that’s it. Verizon won’t even extend DSL services to us. Read the rest of this entry »
We can do better than “would you like fries with that?”
The Planning/Land Use chapter in the draft 2012 Strategic Plan notes (see p. 16) that over 40% of the county’s population over the age of 25 have some college education… but the majority of jobs in PW County are retail and construction.
The Census statistics note that 31.5% of our residents actually have bachelor’s degrees or higher.
If our educated workforce is commuting to office jobs in other jurisdictions, then PW County would be a good place for some government contractors to open offices in the future…
Will gas costs push people to move from suburbs to DC?
A recent analysis of the 2006 American Community Survey, Long Island Express: The Surprisingly Short Commutes Of Suburban New Yorkers, challenges the assumption that as gas prices increase, “people will begin moving from farther out in the suburbs to locations closer to the cores.”
Turns out the people who live and work in the outer suburbs of New York City (NYC) have shorter commutes to work. If you live in Bergen County, NJ, your commute to work is shorter than if you live in Manhattan.
If you live in an outer suburb and commute to Manhattan, you would have a long commute… so most people living in the region don’t commute to the central business district. The image of the harried stockbroker enduring long commuter train rides may be powerful, but it’s not the typical worker in the region. Read the rest of this entry »
Citizen participation benefits planning process
Guest Post by Martin Jeter
The county has been busy for the past year or so with the process of setting the new direction for growth in Prince William through the revision of the Comprehensive Plan, but have ordinary residents really been heard from and made a key part of the process?
Two “citizen” committees – the Land Use Advisory (LUAC) and the Mobility Committee – were formed to make recommendations to the Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) on the Comprehensive Plan. Although the idea of allowing normal citizens of the county to make recommendations on the future of the county is always a good idea, but as usual, the devil is in the details.Often, committee membership tends to be biased towards the development community by over representation with those employed by or related to the development industry, and the LUAC was a perfect example of this. Read the rest of this entry »
Citizens make a difference at Merrimac Farm
Wow! Volunteers are making a huge difference at the Stone House. We had a good showing for the Merrimac Farm work day last Saturday… we’ve about finished with sheetrock work, bathrooms are in working order and things are lookin’ good. Next we need to replace baseboards in some of the rooms and make sure we’re ready to start painting.
We’re pushing forward to get the job done and open the Stone House ASAP. We’ll be working again this coming Saturday, August 9, starting at 9:00 a.m. Check our online calendar here for directions and more information. Questions? Give us a call at 703.499.4954, email alliance@pwconserve.org… or stop by on Saturday to say hi and see what’s happening before you head off to hike the trail to Cedar Run!
