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As William mentioned, the Town, likely myself, is very willing to be a part of the ad hoc committee (of area residents) and also participate with George Mason University (GMU) and Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NVRPA) on the committee to work through the issues concerning the park.
I contacted GMU and spoke with the Director, Susan Johnson. She was very receptive and open to working with us to resolve the issues that have been presented. She told me several things that shed positive light on the situation:
- She is going to request a traffic counter from VDOT. They too are concerned about the road safety issues and in fact, provide warnings and consequences to their own employees who are caught speeding.
- The park capacity per day is 300 people and will remain unchanged at 300 people. They usually only have a maximum of 225 on most days. Therefore, she does not expect an increase in traffic.
- They will not be adding new programs, only enhancing existing ones (for example, adding a new course challenge.)
- Their goal is not to make money, but only to breakeven, make budget.
- The Visitors center was in the initial Hemlock Park Plans but there was never any money. Last year, NVRPA approved a Bond Referendum for $300,000 to build the center. The center will serve as a classroom as currently, they have no classroom facility and use the cafeteria as the classroom for groups.
- She will share with us the charter/mission of Hemlock as well as the 3 year plan.
- She will contact Todd (of NVRPA) tomorrow to set up the first committee meeting. I told her that we will likely have 3-5 people attending the committee meetings. That was fine with her.
We had a very good conversation and even talked about the possibility of funding a pedestrian and bike path along Yates Ford Road to the Park. She is anxious to work more closely with the residents and intends to focus on communicating frequently and openly with residents and making us more a part of the Park activities.
Also, in reading through your letters and notes, several things are clear to me:
- We need to address the traffic, road safety issues immediately, regardless of the expansion.
As a short-term solution, I contacted the Fair Oaks Police Station and requested a radar survey. This will alert and draw police officers, including motor squad to continuously radar the street. I will be following up to ensure this is done.
Long-term, we need to educate GMU and NVRPA about the traffic and safety problems and have them take action to discuss and notify park employees and visitors of the speed limits and road conditions. Warning signage should be posted all along the roadway to warn drivers of curves, speed, and being respectful of residents and children.
We may want to consider speed bumps and or building an alternative pedestrian path along the roadway from the Town to Hemlock or at least from the beginning of Yates Ford/Kinch Roads to the Park.
To address the tour bus traffic may require more creativity. The town has a flood plain area that is often used for extra parking and could be used by the buses, although, it can be mucky at times. Bull Run Parking was suggested and has more capacity as does Sandy Run Park and Fountainhead Park.
- Some of the initial items we need to understand are the following:
- Relationship/arrangement between GMU and NVRPA
- What is the charter of GMU and will that be changing
- What is the full utility of the visitors center
- What are the current programs in place and how might that change
- Current car traffic and number of visitors per day, per year
- Projected car traffic and number of visitors per day, per year
- Tour bus traffic currently and projected
- Other issues - I know other issues have surfaced, but if we get educated on the above, some of these issues may go away or at least we will be better educated when dealing with future challenges.
Setting up a committee is a step in the right direction in helping GMU and NVRPA understand and address resident concerns and in residents knowing about Hemlocks mission, and future goals and plans.
Susan will be letting us know the date of the first committee meeting. I don't have email addresses for Joe Bertoni or Harold Whalen, or others who may want to be in the loop. If someone close by could keep them apprised of the status, or send me their emails, that would be greatly appreciated.
Again, I look forward to working with and getting to know all of you better.
Laura Harrington
Councilman, Town of Clifton
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