County aims to beautify Woodbridge
Published: November 9, 2008
Prince William County Supervisor Frank J. Principi wants to give North Woodbridge a makeover.
Judging by the number of those who have signed up for next week's charrette on the redevelopment of the U.S. 1-Gordon Boulevard corridor, so do many others in the community.
Principi said 150 people have signed up for the three-day meeting starting Thursday and estimates a crowd of around 200 at Botts Firehall in Woodbridge.
The charrette, which is open to the public, will host a collection of transportation officials, public servants and community leaders interested in revitalizing an area that is considered the gateway into Prince William County from the north.
"This gateway into Prince William County should be a signature area, a lifestyle center that provides Woodbridge with a sense of community that we are lacking today," Principi said.
The Northern Virginia Regional Commission and the Woodbridge Civic Association are hosting the event along with Principi. A highlight on the agenda will be a talk by Virginia Department of Transportation officials Thursday evening on the status of the Gordon Boulevard extension across U.S. 1.
Currently, Gordon Boulevard starts after the Va. 123 bridge and then dead-ends at U.S. 1. Bringing Gordon across U.S. 1 could provide better accessibility to the Virginia Railway Express station and the nearby Belmont Bay mixed-use development, said Principi.
Right now, Belmont Bay and the train station can only be accessed by going down another block on U.S. 1 to Dawson Beach Road.
VDOT spokesperson Mike Salmon said that federal funding will likely be necessary in order to move ahead with this project.
Planning for the redevelopment of North Woodbridge has been in the works for several years. An urban mixed use conceptual plan finished in 2005 showed Horner Road as a "retail Main Street" that would be redeveloped and extended across Gordon Boulevard to Marina Drive near the Occoquan River.
Currently, Horner Road has a hodge podge of residential and commercial buildings and dead ends into a shopping center off Gordon Boulevard.
Before the VDOT presentation, there will be a bus tour of area businesses followed by presentations on transportation, land use, existing master plans and developments in the area. Small groups will then discuss transportation, community appearance, housing, land use, economic development, public open space and pedestrian and bicycle access.
On Friday, the groups will discuss transportation, public and civic space and land use and then finish up Saturday with alternate land-use scenarios and the selection of the preferred concepts coming out of the three-day event.
For those interested in attending, please RSVP by calling 703-792-4662. Botts Firehall is located at 1306 F Street in Woodbridge.
Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-878-8062.
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Reader Reactions
Commmunity residents are willing to join together to help clean up the area. One great thing to come out of charrette
VDOT spokesperson Mike Salmon said that federal funding will likely be necessary in order to move ahead with this project.
Well we just got Obama elected President and as many times as he came to visit Prince William then he should be very active and supportive in helping us get the funds we need from the Federal Goverment.
While I applaud Principi’s initiative, I would really love to see a much larger effort to recalim and redevelop larger parts of Woodbridge and Prince William County. While reclaiming the barrios of northern Woodbridge seem to be as good a place as any to start, we can only imagine what might happen if city and county officials were more inclined to work together and less inclined to allow developers to keep permitting the wanton destruction of acres and acres of green space to make way for all of these new McMansion and condo communities that seem to be proliferating in parts of the county. I would much rather incentivize the smaller firms and builders who might be just willing to go in, reclaim and revitalize the run down streets of existing neighborhoods and communities.
Yeah, driving that extra 3/10 of a mile is why I don’t go to Belmont Bay. If there was a big new expensive bridge a block down from the existing one, I would totally go there 10x as much.
As long as it uses federal money, who cares about how wasteful the project is?
you must not live in this area ... I am a lifetime woodbridge resident and over the last 5 years that part of woodbridge has gone downhill. If we want to bring more future residents to our beautiful woodbridge this is needed.
And the money is coming from where?
Couldn’t be worse timing, do you think? Prince William is not a show case it is suffering from the problems all other Counties. The Board is asking the Police where to cut money, we can cut protection but spend money to look pretty.
I am sure they can come up with people to support this, everyone who lives there will of course support spending money making their neighborhood more valuable for resale.
I just hope that the Board realizes this will in fact increase property values and therefore MUST increase taxes on all these properties, remind the supporters that increased values mean more taxes to pay.
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