Park Plans and Recreation
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Votes

Park Plans and Recreation

* Field House: A 148,000-square-foot field house will be constructed near Westfield High and next to the new Cub Run Rec Center in Chantilly. The Fairfax County Park Authority signed a 30-year lease agreement with a private entity, West County Field House LLC, to develop and run the facility.

It will include an arena — which will be an indoor, track-and-field area and event center, two multipurpose areas to accommodate a variety of sports activities, plus a core area containing offices, party and meeting rooms, a cafe, a team fitness and training area, pro shop, family entertainment center and, possibly, a sports-rehabilitation space.

The arena will include 1,250 permanent seats for track-and-field meets, but will be able to flex to more than 3,000 seats for basketball games. This area may also be used for competitive gymnastics and cheerleading, as well as concerts, graduations, conventions, large-scale speaking events and youth dances.

* Quinn Farm Park: To meet the tremendous demand for soccer fields in the Sully District, the Fairfax County Park Authority intends to build nine, lighted soccer fields in Quinn Farm Park at Old Lee and Braddock roads in Centreville.

There'll be 450 parking spaces — 50 per field — and two bleachers for each field. Also planned are a fishing pond, playground and picnic area, plus paved trails along Braddock, Pleasant Valley and Old Lee roads and a hiking trail encompassing the site.

In addition, the county transportation plan calls for the upgrading of Old Lee Road there, from two to four lanes, from Willard to Pleasant Valley Road. Old Lee will also be realigned with Braddock through the site, and a new entrance road will come off of Braddock.

* Lanes Mill Park: Designated by the Fairfax County Park Authority as a "cultural-resource archaeological park," Lanes Mill Park is off Route 29 in the Lee Overlook area of Centreville. It's on eight acres bounded to the south by I-66, to the north by Route 29, on the west by Gate Post Estates, and on the east by Paddington Lane.

It's also at the confluence of Cub Run and Big Rocky Run, making it an ideal site, in the 1760s, for both a grist mill and a saw mill. The Lane family owned a mill complex there from 1752 to the 1830s. What's left there now are the ruins of the saw mill on Big Rocky Run, the grist mill on Cub Run, the wheel pit, tail race and mill races.

The Park Authority plans a raised, walking-trail system to link all the site's features. It would also join an existing concrete trail running along Big Rocky Run. Also proposed are information kiosks and signs. The Park Authority wants to preserve and protect the historic, natural and cultural resources at Lanes Mill and provide a setting to educate the public about 18th- to 20th-century life and industry in the county.