Late on a Thuroasday evening, three residents of Mountain View Drive are bent over a site plan, pointing out details and asking questions. A few hours later, they are gathered in front of a laptop searching through county tax records for property ownership.
Several homeowners along Mountain View Drive came together on Aug. 3, to discuss their concerns about a proposed development which will abut many of their properties.
Gatherings like Thursday's are nothing new to these residents who have been gathering information and setting up meetings for several months. They have gathered before at the home of Tom Michaud and Deborah Jaudon to talk about the issues and ensure everyone in the community is well informed.
THE 24 HOUSES along Mountain View Drive in Chantilly are not obvious from Poland Road. There is no sign at the entrance of the neighborhood known as Meadow Lane and it would be easy to forget they are even there. Mountain View Drive is little more than a lane, with no center line and barely enough room for two cars to pass each other. Most of the homes are set back from the road and shielded from view by large trees. The neighborhood is home to DeBaggio's Herb Farm and many of the residents have lived there for more than 30 years. The residents themselves will say they are friends, not just neighbors, and can often be found at each others houses for get-togethers.
While Thursday's gathering had an informal atmosphere with plenty of laughter and peripheral conversations, the residents were serious about their issues with the proposed Reserve at South Riding II development.
If approved in its current form, the developer and property owner, Oak Ridge Communities, would add 12 single family homes and 35 townhouses along the southern side of the Meadow Lane subdivision on 17.95 acres. Oak Ridge Communities would also extend and widen Tall Cedars Parkway.
While the residents were aware of the plans for Tall Cedars Parkway, they say they were not prepared for the residential development being proposed.
"We are not opposed to development," Jaudon said. "I think some new development would be a good thing, but not the way they are proposing."
AMONG THE RESIDENTS' concerns are the density and layout of the proposed development, which they say is far from what they were told would be there.
"It is just way too many people for our little road to handle," said Teressa Billington, who lives with her husband and daughter on the southern corner lot of the subdivision.
The most recent site plan shows access for the 35 townhouses along Mountain View Drive, but shows no widening or improvements for the narrow road.
"They are planning on adding a concrete curb to [the southern] side, but are leaving its ditches on our side," Bruce Brownlee said. "They're going to add all those people, but do nothing to help us."
Residents are also not convinced that there is enough parking around the townhouses to prevent people from parking along Mountain View Drive, something Brownlee said would make the road almost impassable.
"Instead of dumping 50 additional families on our road, they should build another road off of Poland," Brownlee said.
Three of the 12 single family houses planned for in the development are shown on the site plan on a 2.3 acre triangle directly across from the Billington and Michaud properties.
"I was told that 2.3 acres would never be developed because of its size and location," Brett Billington said. "That meant I would never be looking at neighbors in our front yard."
The site plan shows a 50-foot buffer between the road and residents' property. However, a corner of the Brownlee property is shown sitting right up against the parkway, a corner which holds a 100-year old oak tree.
The site plan also shows a bike path along the 50 foot buffer, stopping at the Brownlee property and picking up again on the other side until it reaches the Billington property, where it stops once again.
"I guess it is easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission," Brownlee said. "I don't understand why we have to sacrifice for them to make money."
OVER THE PAST few months, the residents have spoken with the Reserve at South Riding II's project manager from the Department of Planning and have been trying to set up meetings in their neighborhood with Oak Ridge Communities.
"We have invited them out here to meet with us and to see our neighborhood," Michaud said. So far, though, they have not been successful.
Residents have communicated with people from the county with Michaud exchanging e-mails with former project manager Jason Rodgers. Rodgers recently left the Department of Planning and the project has been taken over by Van Armstrong.
"It took awhile to get them to respond," Michaud said, "but since they did they have been great."
Overall, though, Mountain View Drive residents are very disappointed with their dealings with Oak Ridge, stating the notices for the first public hearing July 17 were posted 22 days before the hearing. County regulations require that notices be posted 21 days prior to the hearing, but residents say they deserved more notice. Residents also say their certified mailed notifications arrived just before the hearing took place.
Eleven residents did show up for the July 17 hearing and expressed their concerns before the Planning Commission, but the issues they raised were very different from what the developer heard at their July 5 community meeting, said Michael Gorman from Oak Ridge Communities.
"The feedback was substantially different from what we heard on July 5," he said. "Then we showed [residents] the plans and thought we answered a lot of their questions."
Only Brownlee, who said he has been attending meetings about development for six years, attended the July 5 meeting. He said a lot of the people there were either representing the developer or were from the South Riding Homeowners Association.
"South Riding is not their neighbor," Teressa Billington said. "We are."
Jaudon said she was "shocked" at the public hearing when she heard the developer say they had met with and worked out issues with all of their neighbors.
"They've never met with us specifically," she said. "I was really offended when they said that. They lied."
Following the hearing, the Planning Commission voted to send the application to committee for further review.
TO RESPOND TO the issues raised at the July 17 public hearing, Oak Ridge Communities has set up another community meeting for Aug. 21 which Gorman hopes the Mountain View residents will attend.
"I think it is really important to talk to all the neighborhoods because not everyone has the same concerns," Annie Goode, Oak Ridge's lawyer at Reed Smith, said. "It is really good that they are talking to each other; now we just need to make sure we make a connection with them too."
Gorman said Oak Ridge has taken Meadow Lane's concerns and is trying to rework their site plan accordingly.
"That's what the feedback is for," he said. "If someone doesn't want any development, I am not sure we can do that, but we are really trying to mitigate our impact on our neighbors."
One of the big changes Gorman said they are trying to make with the site plan is the layout of the 35 townhouses.
"We are going to see if we can pull them over and redesign the layout to see if we can cluster them so they are further back from [Mountain View]," he said.
In addition, Oak Ridge is looking into creating access to the townhouses from Tall Cedars Parkway, removing the entrances from Mountain View completely and they would like to move the three single family homes from the 2.3-acre triangle and cluster them with the other nine homes on the south side of Tall Cedars Parkway.
As for the 50 foot buffer and the bike path, Gorman said he believes Brownlee has "very legitimate concerns" and the bike path would meander around the Brownlee property instead of passing through it.
Gorman is planning to present the new site plan to Mountain View residents at the Aug. 21 community meeting and hopes it solves many of their issues with the development.
"We will take it to the neighbors first and then it will go to the county," he said. "where hopefully they will approve it."
While there is no word as to whether the Mountain View residents will be attending the Aug. 21 meeting, at Thursday's gathering it was clear all they are really looking for is a voice.
"We just want someone to talk to us," Jaudon said.