Commuter lots, transit dominate meeting

It’s no secret area commuter lots fill up fast on weekday mornings, and Gainesville residents say they need more of them if carpooling is going to be successful there.

Some drivers, like the 52-year-old Gainesville woman who spoke at a public hearing on Prince William County transportation improvements Wednesday, told county supervisor John T. Stirrup, R-Gainesville, neighborhood commuter lots fill up fast, so she takes Metro instead.

“I commute every morning to the Vienna Metro station and use the parking garage at that station,” said the woman, who declined to give her name. “We need parking garages like they have at the Metro station here in Gainesville, so more people can use the commuter lots.”

The public meeting was the fifth in a series of seminars designed to familiarize residents to proposed changes of the county’s comprehensive plan — a massive document that entails, in part, how county services will be delivered and how transportation networks will be built. The plan is being revised to reflect needed transportation improvements.

Her comments were prompted by a discussion about a commuter lot that will be built in front of Battlefield High School on Graduation Drive, where the public meeting was held. She said a single parking lot will not be enough to accommodate the number of commuters who will use the lot.

“If you want us to use transit and public transportation, it has to be built before they come. If you build it afterwards, they won’t use it,” she added.

Pedestrian friendly

The county Planning Commission, a specially appointed Mobility Committee, and staff members from the county’s Transportation Department marked areas within the county as Centers of Commerce ripe for commercial development. They also identified Centers of Community, billed as residential areas.

When the national economic situation improves and more development comes to the county, officials said future development needs to be centered on pedestrian-friendly streets that provide more access to mass transit.

Both the Wellington and Gainesville areas in the western part of the county were designated as Centers of Commerce. Seven areas, including Lake Manassas, Piedmont Station and University Village — at the Prince William campus of George Mason University — were designated Centers of Community.

Along with these new designations come a series of suggested county road and transit improvements. They include widening Interstate 66 to the Fauquier County line, new interchanges at several spots along Prince William Parkway, including Balls Ford Road, and an interchange at U.S. 29 at Linton Hall Road.

Recommendations were made to remove improvements to Waterfall and Artemus roads from the comprehensive plan, as officials said they are no longer necessary due to other construction in the area.

Some of the recommended transit improvements include three new Virginia Railway Express stations — near the Prince William campus of George Mason University, Gainesville and Haymarket.
However, the Prince William County Planning Commission is against adding a station at Haymarket.

New OmniRide bus services to Reston and Dulles were suggested, as well as a new OmniLink local bus from Gainesville to the Innovation at Prince William Business Park.

No money

Charles Grymes represented the Gainesville district on the Mobility Commission, being one of eight to serve on that board. He said paying for these recommended improvements remains the elephant in the room.

“What we have done with these recommendations is create 700 new lane miles, and it will cost about $3 billion to build them. The county doesn’t have the bonds to pay for this type of construction, and every time [Virginia Transportation Secretary Pierce R. Homer] appears in Northern Virginia, it is to tell us that [the Virginia Department of Transportation’s] piggy bank is broke,” said Grymes.

All of the three groups who set out to tackle which improvements should be made do not exactly see eye to eye. Prince William County Transportation Department staff members think I-66 should be widened to the Fauquier County line, while the mobility committee wants to stop the widening at U.S. 15, limiting future development to that point.

All told, Prince William Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart, R-at large, said the county for many years has been able to build roads faster than they could if they had to wait on state tax money.

“We have the largest local road-building program in the state. Many of the roads built here in western Prince William County were built with bonds paid for by your tax dollars, without VDOT,” said Stewart. “No other jurisdiction has a better road-building program.”

Money from road bonds went to pay for the construction of Wellington Road to the Virginia Gateway shopping center, phases one and two of Sudley Manor Drive, improvements to Prince William Parkway as well as other projects in eastern Prince William County.

Another public meeting on the proposed changes to the comprehensive plan will be held Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. at Marsteller Middle School in Bristow. Business owners have been invited to a meeting about the changes Oct. 21 at 6 p.m. at the Verizon Auditorium at the Prince William Campus of George Mason University.

For more information on updates to the county’s comprehensive plan, visit pwcgov.org/planupdate.

Staff writer Uriah A. Kiser can be reached at 703-878-8065.