WMATA Garage Decision Postponed to July 30
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WMATA Garage Decision Postponed to July 30

More parking is coming to relieve West Falls Church Metro commuters by November 2004, but first, just like a commuter train, there was a delay at the station.

Dranesville District planning commissioner Joan DuBois on July 17 asked the Fairfax County Planning Commission to defer for two weeks its decision on a proposal to expand the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) parking garage near Route 7 and Haycock Road in Falls Church, adding 734 spaces to the existing 1,064.

“There is enough merit to the application,” DuBois said. “The parking is needed. It might need a little tweaking” before it goes to the Board of Supervisors for a vote on Aug. 4. After a public hearing on July 17, DuBois deferred the Commission’s decision to July 30 and encouraged WMATA officials to continue looking for more temporary parking to serve commuters during construction.

Several speakers from McLean raised questions about replacement parking to serve commuters while the construction is in progress beginning Oct. 1 until completion 14 months later. During that time, 360 spaces that are now in use won’t be available.

After looking at 26 different possibilities for temporary replacement parking, WMATA officials said they were able to find only 225 to 250 spaced in two lots: one zoned C-8 on the south side of Route 7 at Chestnut Street opposite George Mason High School, and the other on Broad Street between Oak and Lee Streets near the Burger King restaurant.

The Broad Street site will require shuttle buses to the Metro station. The Chestnut Road lot is close enough that commuters can walk, but it is on the south side of Route 7. That could cause problems with commuters walking across Route 7, he said.

“The problem of spill-over parking already exists,” said John F. Donahue Jr., director of major capital projects for WMATA, emphasizing the importance of adhering to an Oct. 1 start date for construction. Another strong incentive is the cost of $15,000 in contractor fees for every day construction is delayed.

“THAT’S A HEALTHY hike to the Metro” from the Burger King lot, said Commissioner Suzanne F. Harsel (Braddock). “They’re going to lose business if people have to park at Burger King and pay [a 25-cent fee] to use ‘George’ [a shuttle bus].”

But WMATA officials said the normal $3 Metro parking fee will be waived at the temporary lots, so commuters will actually save $2.50 a day.

Donahue said officials spent more than a year searching out potential parking sites, looking as far south as three blocks from Dunn Loring Metro and the MultiPlex Theater parking lot on Route 50.

“We went as far as McLean to find something near Tysons Corner,” he said.

Potential sites included the former Mitre building owned by West*Group, which didn’t pan out because the property was up for sale, and the Safeway Center on Anderson Road, which was available only on a month-by-month basis because of impending construction.

McLean Citizens Association planning and zoning chairman Adrienne Whyte said the McLean Citizens Association (MCA) supports the expansion because Metro will “get people out of their cars.

“We are willing to live with some of the negative impacts” during construction, she said, but “replacement parking is an issue.” Whyte said losing 360 spaces for a 14-month period of time would force commuters to “park legally or illegally” on residential streets, “an unacceptable outcome.

“People are willing to walk an amazing distance” to get to the Metro station, she said.

She said “frequent and fast” shuttles as well as the full component of 235 spaces must be available before the existing spaces are closed to commuters. “We don’t want people trolling for parking,” she said.

Francesca Bravo, a member of the McLean Citizens Association and a resident of the West Hampton subdivision, said her 40-family neighborhood is concerned about the impacts of added traffic that will be brought on by the expanded parking. There are about 155 homes in the area bordered by I-66, the Dulles connector road, Haycock Road and Great Falls Street. They have Falls Church addresses but are part of Dranesville District, she said.

Bravo said West Falls Church Metro and Dulles Rail planners “pass the buck” on the environmental impacts of traffic on their neighborhood.

“We need this project, but we shouldn’t sacrifice communities for the greater good,” Bravo said. “We need to make sure people aren’t careening through the neighborhood streets.”

With turnover among the parking spaces, she said, more than 750 new drivers will be using the West Falls Church Metro station, many of them coming from McLean rather than Route 7.

When there are traffic delays at the intersection of Great Falls Street and Haycock Road, she said, they use the West Hamptons, as a cut-through. “I’m scared to death one of our kids is going to get mowed over.”

“In the context of a $3 billion rail project and a $13 million parking garage, it seems that minor investment in signs, sidewalks and speed bumps to mitigate traffic ... is a small price to pay for community safety, health and goodwill.”

DuBois mentioned that some citizens had fought vigorously to defeat a proposal to widen Haycock Road to add turn lanes at the Great Falls Street intersection.