July 18, 2002
Besides the battle between nearby residents and the soccer and softball contingents, the Fairfax County Park Authority's proposal for Quinn Farm Park in Centreville has raised road issues to be solved.
The Park Authority hopes to send its final plan to the county Planning Commission by fall for approval. If all goes well, nine rectangular fields, a family recreation area and a D.C. United training facility will go on a 169-acre site along Old Lee and Braddock Roads.
"We're excited about what we can do here," said Sully District Park Authority representative Hal Strickland. "It's the first step in obtaining additional athletic facilities, and we can get this done, in essence, with no cost to the taxpayers, by working with D.C. United. And these fields can come on-line, hopefully, within the next few years, instead of five to seven years, through the normal process."
However, not everyone shares his enthusiasm, and they voiced their opposition during a July 9 public hearing at Westfield High. The proposal includes realigning Old Lee and Braddock roads and creating a new entrance road from Braddock, just south of the site.
Terry Hall of Country Club Manor said the realigned road is near her parents' home, at the corner of the Braddock Road S-curve, southwest of Quinn, and "they'll have trouble getting in and out of their house."
Her father, Robert Hall, was furious to learn of the county's plans. "I'm adamantly opposed to this," he said. "No one from the Park Authority spoke to me and asked if I wanted all these cars dumped in my front yard."
Also angry was Mike Miller, who lives on Braddock Road, south of the parcel. "This landlocks my property, and you're not gonna do it," he said. "Put the road and traffic elsewhere."
Pleasant Valley resident Jay Garant said eliminating the S-curve at Braddock Road with the realignment is a good idea, but he warned that the Braddock/Pleasant Valley intersection is already congested. He told the Park Authority to deal with "traffic needs first, before you build a place where people will come."
Chris Terpak-Malm recommended flipping the site plan and "maybe have Old Lee Road Extended go to the back side of the property, instead." And Tim Lassister of nearby Sully Estates wanted to know the decibel level of nine soccer fields played on simultaneously. He also wondered how bright all the lights would be and whether an amplified, public-address system is planned.
Virginia Run's Jim Hart raised the issue of South Riding residents. "They don't participate in funding [our recreational facilities], and there may be more of them, than us, in that area," he said. "How do we restrict the use of this facility to Fairfax County residents?"
Returning to road problems, Gina Richard of Cox Farms said she's in favor of having parks and fields. "We need wide-open spaces for kids to play," she said. "We need to address the traffic issue, but it shouldn't be an either/or thing."
Lynn Tadlock, the Park Authority's director of Planning and Development, said lights are required "to meet this area's recreational needs. It's state-of-the-art lighting with minimal spilloff and glare shields."
She also said the Park Authority hired a firm to do a traffic study. "This road alignment is to take care of your existing and future traffic," Tadlock told the crowd. "It's to alleviate some of your problems."
Strickland said the Park Authority wants to be a good neighbor to the Sully Estates residents, but wonders, "How do we meet the demand [for fields] if we don't put them someplace?" Furthermore, he said, "We're moving the existing Braddock Road about 500 feet away from their property, so they'll have more of a buffer between them and the traffic."
"The new alignment will take the traffic into Westfields and away from their neighborhood," added Sully District Transportation Commissioner Dick Frank. "It does away with the S-curve and loops Braddock into Old Lee Road just before the bridge near the Old Lee/Braddock intersection."
Calling soccer a "non-rush-hour sport," he said it really won't have a big impact on Sully Estates. And the realignment "will lessen the amount of through traffic on Braddock Road because we're going to cut it off and cul-de-sac it at the foot of the S-curve."
In keeping with the county's Comprehensive Plan, said Frank, "The whole purpose [of the realignment] is to keep as much traffic off of Braddock Road, west of Route 28, as possible. Braddock Road is going to become the [conduit] for a lot of traffic from Loudoun County — we don't have any choice. This new alignment is truly intended to divert that traffic."
Regarding Robert Hall, Strickland acknowledged the major impact on him and said, "We'll do everything technically and engineering-feasible to reduce it." And Frank said he'd "fuss, too, if I owned that piece of property." But, he added, "You have to look at the benefits and overall value to the largest population — protecting our communities from major cut-through traffic and building more soccer fields for the area's youth."