The purpose will be to keep Barrington informed of issues outside our community that will affect our community both indirectly and directly. Current emphasis is being placed on the Lorton Hill development and specifically the South County School. The committee will keep the Board informed of any impending issues that will be discussed. Most communication will be done electronically and any community member who wants to be on the committee and/or the distribution list is gladly welcome. A secondary goal of this team is to continue to develop relationships with our surrounding communities on the issues that affect us equally.
Project Summary
The Hollington Place Stream Restoration is a combination of a slope stabilization and stream realignment/restoration project. Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, Stormwater Planning Division, is undertaking this project to protect private property from further bank erosion, to realign and restore the stream to prevent stream erosion, to improve safety, and to reestablish habitat and vegetation along the stream.
Where is the project located?
The project is located between Hollington Place and Bracksford Court, downstream (north) of Bressingham Drive. The stream restoration will extend for a length of approximately 650 feet.What's wrong with the existing channel? The existing channel has incised into the valley sediments, and created a very deep, unstable depression. Resulting erosion poses a safety hazard, threatens private property, compromises water quality, and diminishes aquatic and terrestrial habitat.
What is being done about the problem?
The County has hired a design team to develop a concept for restoration/stabilization of the reach. The concept is preliminary, and is likely to be revised with additional analyses and input from stakeholders. This public meeting is intended to introduce the concept design to stakeholders.
What will the new channel be like?
The design concept includes raising the elevation of the channel bed and realigning the channel in some areas to create a more stable channel form. Locally, bank protection measures (bioengineering/plantings, geotextile fabrics, or placed rocks) would be used to protect the banks from high shear stresses. Some rock steps would be integrated into the design to allow the necessary elevation drop through the reach and improve aquatic habitat (see links to example photographs below). Stream banks would be regraded and revegetated with native grasses, shrubs, and trees.
How will the project be constructed?
Construction would require the use of heavy equipment, such as a mini-excavator, to regrade the soils and place structures. The design will attempt to minimize disturbance to the stream corridor, including existing vegetation.
What impacts would the project have to adjacent properties?
The project would include some localized grading along properties to reduce bank slopes. Some trees would need to be removed to accommodate the new channel alignment. Areas disturbed during construction will be stabilized by native grasses, shrubs, and trees to allow regeneration of riparian areas.
Status as of 14 September 2006
Re: Project Z00018-Z132, Hollington Place
Mr. Faunce and Ms. Onks:
As promised to you in the field on August 15th, I am pleased to report that the county has contracted with a consultant to develop the design for the referenced stream stabilization project. Work by the consultant engineer is scheduled to commence Monday, September 18th. Additional minor survey is required to prepare the design and this survey will be preformed by the consultant in the next few weeks. A letter notifying homeowners about the scheduled survey work is being mailed out this week.
The current schedule provides for the preliminary to be completed by late October. This preliminary design will be used for a stakeholder meeting in early November to receive community input. Provided the comments by reviewing agencies are only minor in nature and the community is in support of the preliminary plan, final construction drawings could be completed by the end of January. Barring unforeseen delays, my best projection for construction is the spring of next year.
Please address all questions or concerns to my attention. Thank you.
The government website contains a great deal of information about the transfer of the Lorton Prison property to the Fairfax County Government. It also includes a history of the prison, the site, pictures, contact numbers and maps as well as details of future site plans.
Link to: Click Here
If anyone wants the full brief on Laurel Hill, e-mail or call Rob and he will supply it to you.
Hooes Road Improvements: VDOT has authorized a $200,000 project to rebuild the dangerous curve towards the bottom of the hill on Hooes Road between the Fairfax County Parkway and Silverbrook Road. There have been several fatalities on the curve, which is slippery when wet. Federal funding for the project has recently been appropriated and tentative plans are intended for quick improvements. A solid date has not been set for the project.
Rather than reproduce information from the VDOT website here, below are the links to those VDOT projects that impact Barrington Residents.
Below are notes from Elaine McConnell (Springfield District Supervisor) to the Springfield District Council (an advisory Board that reports to Elaine made up of three sub groups of which one is the SSA) on items of interest to the community.
"In the southern part of our District, land issues are currently being resolved that will allow for the placement of a new fire station at Hampton Rd. and Route 123 to better serve the Crosspointe and surrounding communities". (This has now been resolved so now our community will have quicker Fire and rescue Service once it is complete) " Route 123 - After 18 years of working to secure funding for this vital road, I am assured by VDOT that the last one and a quarter miles from Davis Road to the Bridge over the Occoquan River is underway and hopefully will be completed which should be next year.
"Fairfax County Parkway - The last leg of the Parkway, which goes through the Engineering Proving Grounds, will soon be underway. With the cooperation of three Supervisors, Gerry Hyland, Dana Kauffman and myself and particularly, Col. Williams of the Army, we have been able to get the cleanup of the proving grounds funded. The project to complete the Parkway will soon be underway and a significant portion of the project should be open to traffic by late 2007.
Click here to download the Ramp Documentation.
1. The first is the development of Lorton penitentiary. The RFP's will go out shortly, but the communities lost a battle when the Board of Supervisors in political maneuvering and against the wishes of the local communities decided to recommend recommending the whole place and 500+ acres (to include sewage tanks and chain link fences) be placed under the National Historic register. Those of us intimately involved with this site believe (as do two Barrington resident experts on historic development) that this will limit our options in the future. The residents of our community have been suggesting a town center idea and only preserve as much as financially feasible and are willing to tear down the rest (especially the penitentiary). The Laurel Hill Task Force was united with us on this issue of delaying the Nomination until after the RFP so we could know whether builders would consider this an asset or liability to the development.
2. Silverbrook Elementary School overcrowding is being addressed by the committee to find middle school solutions. It looks as though Laurel Hill Elementary School will come on the CIP this year, have bond funding in 2007, and be open in 2009. This would take the load from Silverbrook and Lorton Station, two of the county's most overcrowded elementary schools. We have looked at Halley's under capacity as a possible short-term solution, but it doesn't seem politically feasible. There has been talk of moving the Lorton Station GT center to Halley.
3. The South County School is at capacity now without a senior class. It is projected to be at 3200 (capacity of 2500) in three years. As many of you know we have a middle school group looking for solutions to include another private/public partnership. The FCPS staff, in response to a local political stunt to sell of FCPS land and have the money directed to the middle school, has suggested the school board look at redoing the boundaries of SCSS in 2007 to solve the problem of overcrowding, noting both capacity at Lake Braddock and Hayfield. As many of you know who fought the last boundary battle, this is considered the nuclear option and is adamantly opposed by the middle school group.
Finally, I am looking for some Barrington people to take over some of the Regional Affairs jobs so I can wind down my outside participation in some of these groups. In particular we need representatives to both the South County federation (SCF) and the South Springfield Alliance (SSA). In addition we need Barrington parents to join the school group to carry the fight to make sure that the needs of the Barrington students, the Silverbrook community, and those of all of South County are met and to carry on the fight that the people before us started. Please contact me at rob@robertory.com or 703-690-3964 if you would like to get involved.
In March 1984 the FCPA approved a park on Lake Mercer. This park would have an entrance on Silverbrook road which would start down by Haddington and end up with a park reaching Lake Mercer by Deveron Ct., affecting the whole east side of Barrington. It would back right up to the homeowners land on the streets of the east side of Braymore Circle. They have designated campsites and parking for over 200 cars as well as a boat ramp. This project is not currently active or funded, to our knowledge, but it is something we should keep an eye on.
Here is a schedule of what is coming up: