Agenda for 3 February 2003 Sully District Land Use and Transportation Committee Meeting
by Jeff Parnes
  1. The Sully District Land Use and Transportation Committee will meet at 7:30 p.m. in the conference room adjacent to Supervisor Frey’s office, 5900 Centreville Road, Centreville, VA, in the Fort Hill Centre Building.

  2. Presentations:

    1. 7:30
      • Proponent: Melinda Phillips, owner of Busy Kids Child Care Center
      • Action: SE needed for expanded operations
      • Location: Sully Plaza

        Melinda Phillips is the owner of Busy Kids Child Care Center at Sully Plaza. She has leased the space adjacent to her in the center, and wants to expand her operation. It is operating under a SP, but needs an SE due to the changes in the Ordinance. Staff has waived the SE Plat and Michael has authorized expedited processing since there is no construction (just laying carpet and adding a door), and he has authorized Staff to waive the site plan, if they can.

    2. 8:00
      • Proponent: Park Authority and DCRS
      • Action: lighting an athletic field
      • Location: Rachel Carson Middle School

        The Department of Community and Recreation Services (DCRS) is technically the applicant. FCPA is managing the proposed lighting project for them as part of the $300k grant program for improvements to elementary and middle schools, countywide. Point of contact is Karen Avvisato at (703) 324-5526. FCPA Project Manager is Tim Scott (703) 324-8693. Proposal is to light the existing 60-foot diamond at the site. Community meeting hosted by the Supervisor's office this fall with the surrounding community. Please let either Karen or Tim know when you would like to hear this case. Would not anticipate much controversy given location and existing screening.

  3. Old Business (8:30):

    • On 15 January the PC held the public hearing on the Chesapeake Bay Act changes. Jim Hart had been authorized at our December 2002 meeting to speak for the committee. His presentation is available online. His report on the hearing follows:

      • There were about a dozen speakers, many good comments and questions, many of the same points raised by WFCCA and Sully District Council, and Maya Huber made many of the same points on behalf of CCLUT. Walter Alcorn deferred decision [for now] to next Thursday, 1-23-03 with the record remaining open for written comments.

      • There were a number of questions raised at the end that may require input from the County Attorney. Among them was what exactly is being mandated from above, and the issue of whether this package really needs to be adopted by March 1st or not, and where is that requirement coming from. Originally it seemed like a firm deadline but maybe that is not quite right. There were actually a number of requests from both citizens and development industry types to please allow more time to deal with this; it is so much material to digest. [I was kind of wondering if folks would get a chance to critique or comment on the 2nd draft, or whatever material staff comes up with in response to the issues raised at the public hearing. I don’t know how we can do that very easily under the 1-week time frame, especially with the holiday. Maybe that bears some follow-up, if we had a chance we could do something Tuesday night?]

      • Walter gave staff a number of issues to report back on, including much of what WFCCA and SDC had raised. For some reason the PC apparently didn’t get WFCCA's letter but I said I would follow up, and that you probably emailed it and we could send it again.

      • Mike Rolband, the wetlands consultant brought a map [not sure what it was exactly] which purported to depict the "new" areas of RPA in Fairfax Co [the county maps aren’t going to be finished until Dec. 03 or so]. Anyway there are several streams in WFCCA [and elsewhere] now going to be classified as "perennial" and therefore subjecting more landowners to some of these more severe regulations [either that or they are expansions of existing streams/RPAs previously mapped]. I couldn’t tell exactly where they were, too many in WFCCA to count actually, kind of every which way, but that map was like a human beehive. When Mike set it out on one of the desks after the public hearing, a crowd of people instantly started buzzing down around it to take a look, pressed together like bees in a beehive, will their backyards become an RPA under the new scheme? I tried but I couldn’t figure it out exactly.

      • There is some concern that if Fairfax County adopts all this before the new map is finished, how will ordinary folks know whether they are violating something in their backyard, with some little project, apparently with $5000 per day fines, if they don’t yet know whether they are in an RPA or not until the new map is done? An interesting point, staff's answer was a little vague. It kind of cuts both ways, we need to act quickly [or so it seemed earlier] but what does that mean if the map isn’t finished. Are there no violations until then or what?

  4. New Business (9:00):

    • The Springfield District Fairfax Center Land Use Committee met on Tuesday, January 14, 2003 at 7:00 pm., to discuss, among other matters, a Fairfax County Family Shelter to be located near the intersection of Lee Highway and Stringfellow Rd. (immediately west of Meadows Farms Nursery), Tax Map Parcel 55-3 ((1)) 27A1 and 27B

      Fairfax County is proposing to construct a family shelter for parents with infant and elementary school-age children. The shelter will be staffed on a 24/7 basis and numerous services including transportation will be provided to the clientele with the objective of getting them back into traditional housing. Tentative Planning Commission Hearing: Spring 2003

      Frank Ojeda attended the meeting and provided the committee a brief synopsis of the presentation by Fairfax County regarding the family homeless shelter.

      • Anthony Griffin, the Fairfax County Executive, presented the concept of the family homeless shelter. With him he had Peyton Whitley, co-chair of the County's Homeless Oversight Committee, John Payne, County architect, Kathy Froyd, from the county's Department of family Services, and David Marshall who will spearhead the 2232 process for the County.

      • Griffin noted that there is a waiting list for family homeless shelters in the County. At present, there are between 60 to 80 families on the waiting list. The average wait right now is 3 to 4 months. The average stay of a family in a homeless shelter is 90 days.

      • What is being proposed is a homeless shelter on a piece of property that the County purchased for building a regional storm water management pond. There is extra land at the top of the hill on which to build this facility. The facility will be a 20,000 square foot structure with two transitional homes facing Lee Highway. Additionally, the facility will have a parking lot for 30 vehicles and a fenced tot lot. A direct right turn road will manage the entrance to the facility as of now. The aim is to change the entrance to join into the road that will be constructed to support the 49 Equity homes that will be built in horseshoe fashion around the Meadow Farms complex. The facility will be directly across the street for the Hampton Forest subdivision entrance on Lee Highway.

      • The facility will house up to 20 families with a 60 bed maximum capability. Each of the transitional homes will accommodate three families. The transitional homes are for placing families that on the verge of leaving the facility into self-sufficiency. About one-third to one-half of the residents of the shelter usually own vehicles. About 50% of the residents have jobs but do not earn enough to pay for housing. The majority of the families in these shelters are single women with children. The average family size is 3.5 people. Eighty percent of the children at these facilities are elementary school age or lower. About 10% are middle school age and the other 10% are in high school.

      • There were many arguments about the proper use of the land as far as the Comprehensive Plan was concerned. There were also many arguments made by those caring for the homeless. Most were from outside the community directly affected by the proposed facility. However, after all was said and done, the Springfield land Use Committee voted unanimously to support the concept of the family homeless shelter for now. The funding for the facility comes from $1.2M already pigeonholed for this project and an additional $1M proffer by West Group for the current construction approved at Tyson's Corner.

      • The next step is for the County to prepare the 2232 and go through the process of getting it approved. The goal, as stated by Griffin, was to have this open and working by January 2004.

      • I hope that this touches on the highlights and facts of the meeting. Feel free to send me any questions you may have. Jim Katcham of the WFCCA was also present at the hearing. There were many more people present; unfortunately I did not know them to be able to identify them for this report.

  5. Other scheduled meetings:
    • None

  6. Planned for 3 March Meeting:

    • PCA/FDPA case filed in Sully, Exxon/Mobil Corporation, for the Exxon on Rt. 50 on the north side, not too far west of West Ox Rd. Keith Martin is the attorney. They want to replace the service bays with a quick service food store.

    • Mystery presentation by John J. Bellaschi, McGuireWoods LLP

Respectfully submitted,

Jeffrey M. Parnes
Chair, Sully District Council
Land Use and Transportation Committee


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modified by Jeffrey M. Parnes