Day: March 23, 2011

The 7  Magistrerial District Plan is unacceptable as written.  That plan guts the Westgate/Sudley Communities like a catfish.  The divide line runs right down Sudley Manor Drive on the Splash Down side of rt 234.  One side of Sudley Manor Drive, closest to 66 and all streets running off it will remain with the Gainesville District and vote at Stonewall Middle School.  Even those houses 100 feet from Sudley School will not vote there. 

See Map

Equally disturbed are those that live on the Manassas City/Lomond Drive side of Sudley Manor Drive, which includes a whole chunk of Westgate.  Those homes in Westgate will be in the Sudley precinct.  (makes perfect sense–Westgate is the new Sudley?)  Those homes are cordoned off by Strasburg and Sudley Manor. 

It makes no sense for neighbors on one side of a street to vote in one district and for those right across the street to vote in another district.  United we stand, divided we fall takes on an entirely new meaning when we hear rattlings every so often about  opening up Sudley Manor Drive, a neighborhood street, to through traffic.  One grows especially suspicious when listening to idle chatter about the Dulles Corridor Tri-County road that some in this county want to get through.  It would be mighty convenient to have that neighborhood divided, now wouldn’t it?  A nice ramp off of that puppy could run up Sudley Manor Drive and the neighborhood would be too divided to fight it.  That plan of course, is pure conjecture.  However, a divided neighborhood is never a good thing. 

The 8 District Plan makes much more sense.  Those communities surrounding the city have a great deal more  in common with each other than they do Gainesville, rural crescent, and mid county issues.  I see no reason why a chairman is even necessary.  That is a position that could easily be rotated.  Each of the 8 could take a half year and save the county a bundle of money.  Of course, that would strip a little power away from at least one position. 

I am curious what having a chair really does for us anyway?  All I have seen is it gives more press time to the person sitting in that position.  The people of PWC shouldn’t be footing the bill for that also.

Meanwhile, the people of Westgate and Sudley will probably howl over this proposal of gutting their community.  It’s one thing to divide a main road.  Its another thing to split up a community–especially a community that has had the problems that Westgate and Sudley have had.  Those issues  of make them communities of interest.  A strong case can be made to DOJ regarding splitting up these communities and I know a few people who are getting ready to do just that.  Let’s just say politics makes for strange bedfellows.

 

How much parkland are citizens willing to spend their tax dollars on for private interest  groups.  Whatever happened to the idea of passive recreation, a park that ALL citizens can enjoy, as opposed to parks that EXCLUDE citizens and only INCLUDE a small minority of people.  Hellwig is a blatant example of clear duplicity.  The Park Authority, under  the guise of fixing the entrance, is really simply allowing Parkland to be “given” away ( an annual lease fee of ONE dollar) to another private interest group. 

Read more of the background information here, the Prince William Conservation Alliance blog.

UPDATE: March 23 2011 — Despite the Board of Supervisors direction that the Park Authority work with the County Transportation Dept. to prioritize improvements to the front entrance to Hellwig Park (see below), the Park Authority Board is scheduled to vote tonight on a resolution approving a lease agreement with the Northern Virginia Soccer Club for their use of the property purchased to improve the front entrance to Hellwig Park.

According to the staff report, the lease agreement covers a five year period at $1/year and would renew by mutual consent. Click here to read the staff report and proposed lease agreement.

Update: Park Authority votes to allow five year lease to Virginia Soccer Association. PA demonstrates the worst of government decision making. The “premise” of the PA for supposedly needing the use of tax payer dollars to buy land to build a second entrance was based on safety? HUH? So now, instead of dealing with this critical “safety issue” by fixing the original entrance, as they were directed to do by the BOCS when denied the money to purchase the land, the PA will instead do nothing. You see, in order to fix the entrance, the newly leased house would have to be demolished.  How pathetic.