SUMMARY:  With 18,000 federal jobs moving to Fort Belvoir, local officials are raising Cain about the lack of accompanying road improvements. However, back in the late 1980s, the Board of Supervisors established a task force that planned for controlled development of the EPG and the necessary transportation improvements. Numerous pauses in the amount of development were mandated in order to assess whether the transportation plan was working. If it wasn't, either additional strategies would be incorporated to handle traffic or development would have to cease. In the late 1990s, the Board of Supervisors reversed itself and substantially downplanned the EPG. The new plan does not adequately address the traffic problem, the people mover is gone, and there is not enough money to build the necessary improvements. The Fairfax County Parkway link still is not in place.

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Now that it is all but a certainty that 18,000 (or more) federal jobs are moving to Fort Belvoir, local officials are raising Cain about the lack of accompanying road improvements to handle the influx. They have only themselves to blame.

It didn't have to be this way.

The Fort Belvoir Engineer Proving Grounds (EPG) is a 800-plus acre area of the post that lies in Springfield west of I-95 and is largely undeveloped. It once was used to test ordinance. Back in the late 1980s, Congress authorized the Army to trade development rights on the EPG. The idea was for a developer to build the Army 2 million plus square feet of office space in exchange for development rights on the rest of the property. Defense contractors doing business with the Army were expected to fill the bulk of the additional space. A small component of commercial retail was planned. All the private development would pay real estate and business taxes to the County.

The Army approached Fairfax County with a proposal to transfer control of the EPG to the County through a comprehensive plan amendment and the subsequent rezoning of the Engineer Proving Grounds to accomplish the terms of the plan. Federal land is not subject to local zoning rules.

Because the land is immediately adjacent to the Lee Magisterial District, Lee District Supervisor Joseph Alexander was the Board of Supervisors' point person on the proposal. The Planning Commission established a task force made up of commissioners, County staff and citizen leaders in Lee District appointed by Supervisor Alexander. As the Lee District Planning Commissioner I was named chairman of the group.

Since the EPG also borders the Springfield and Mount Vernon Districts, representatives from those districts were appointed by Supervisors Gerry Hyland and Elaine McConnell, respectively. Commissioner Pete Murphy of Springfield and Commissioner John Byers of Mount Vernon also served on the task force.

The idea was to put the federal land to be developed by private enterprise on the County tax rolls. At the same time, the task force would devise a way to handle the considerable amount of new traffic that was anticipated. The committee worked more than 18 months before it signed off on a plan that would produce more than eight million square feet of office development, plus a large housing component.

There was a HUGE condition.

The development was to be served by an above-ground "people mover" rail system that would link the EPG with the Franconia-Springfield Metro station with a loop to serve downtown Springfield. Numerous pauses in the amount of development were mandated in order to assess whether the transportation plan was working. If not, either additional strategies would be incorporated into the plan to handle traffic or development would cease.

In addition, the developer would be charged with building the section of the Fairfax County Parkway from Rolling Road to Newington. Now, 15 years after the plan was adopted, that crucial link remains unbuilt. The plan also called for connections both to the Parkway and I-95. No connections to surrounding neighborhoods were permitted.

The transportation study showed that the cost of the rail connection could not be accomplished without additional revenue, so the Army agreed to pay rent for its office space in order to make up the difference. The developer and the Army would participate in the maintenance costs of the system.

The entire Accotink Creek stream valley, which runs through the EPG, was to be ceded to the Fairfax County Park Authority – all 220 acres of it. Also, a 25-acre school site near Rolling Road, a 5-acre fire station site with access to the Parkway, and a 10-acre park to buffer the community of Springvale were part of the plan. The plan language allowed discussion of a stadium on the EPG as long as shared parking arrangement with the office buildings was in place.

The Planning Commission recommended approval, and the Board of Supervisors did approve the plan.

In the late 1990s, the Board reversed itself and substantially downplanned the EPG. The new plan does not adequately address the traffic problem, the people mover is gone, and there is not enough money to build the necessary improvements. The Fairfax County Parkway link still is not in place.

Too bad there wasn't enough vision to maintain the plan. If it were still in place, there would be room for the new development with a plan to handle the traffic it would generate.

Copyright Forward Fairfax and Carl Sell, 2005