Sterling is a patchwork quilt of communities within a community. The squares represent the colorful fabric of Broad Run Farms, Cascades, Countryside, Lowes Island, Richland Acres, Richland Forest, Sterling Park, Sugarland Run, and other neighborhoods. Each has a set of characteristics that make it distinctive from the rest while maintaining a common thread of unity.
BROAD RUN FARMS is Sterling’s oldest planned community, established in 1952. Overhanging trees line the narrow streets, giving way to a rural sense of community particularly compared to the newer parts of Sterling.
The community cozies up to the Potomac River and the Broad Run tributary. “Because of the river access, there is a sizable amount of fishermen who fish from Brunswick to Riverbend Park. We launch our boats from our neighborhood,” said Kevin Fannon, past president of the civic organization.
Instead of a homeowner’s association (HOA), the residents prefer a civic organization, which provides scholarships for graduating high-school students. “We have community cleanups. We have a big picnic every year. We maintain the community lots on the river and Young’s Cliff Road,” he said, adding that the lots are for Broad Run Farms residential use only.
“There is a very close knit community in here,” Fannon said. “There is every type of house known, the old and the new. We’re the Heinz 57 community. We have 57 different varieties.”
Fannon said the neighbors help one another when hurricanes or snow storms strike. They plow the driveways of senior citizens and remove limbs out of neighbors’ yards. “You’ll see everyone pull together,” he said.
Despite the residential appearance, the community has many home businesses, such as landscaping, construction, signage, automotive repair and a horse farm. Fannon joked about the abundance of trees, which hide many of the businesses. “If you want to hear cicadas, this is where you move to.”
Tom Cooke lives in Cascades, where an extensive walking path weaves through the neighborhood. “It’s an attractive place to live. People take care of their homes,” he said. “There is a sense of community. My neighbors, we have block parties and things like that.”
The HOA holds movie nights, community yard sales and an Easter egg hunt in the spring. “The pools are well taken care,” he said. “It’s really nice to live here.”
Cascades is home to the regional library and the senior citizens center. It features brand-name stores such as Home Depot, Marshall’s, Staples, Sports Authority and Giant. “For me, shopping is convenient,” Cook said. “And it’s a safe community.”
Countryside has one of the most popular destinations for area teens — The Regal Cinema. It also features a variety of stores, restaurants and fast food eateries.
COUNTRYSIDE, CASCADES and Broad Run Farms have always been communities within Sterling, but there was a move a few years ago to group them together into one town called Potomac Falls. There is now a Potomac Falls Post Office, but residents can use either Potomac Falls or Sterling as their return address.
Bruce Tulloch, vice chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said Countryside and Cascades were established after Broad Run Farms, Richland and Sterling Park. A former HOA president, he said the homeowner’s associations were established to give the neighborhoods a solid sense of community. It doesn’t matter where a person lives in Sterling, it’s a wonderful place to call home, he said.
“Basically, it’s the greatest place to live in Virginia,” he said. “I’m proud to say I live here.”
Tulloch said Sterling has the best communities, neighborhoods, schools, retail and commercial centers, and growing business centers. “It’s a great place to raise your children,” he said.
School Board Chairman John Andrews said he chose to live in Countryside in 1988 because he thought it would be a good home for his children. “It was a planned community that had the swimming pools, the trails. It was a quiet, nice neighborhood.”
Andrews said he has lived in three different houses there. “I couldn’t be more pleased,” he said.
He said he admires the stability of the neighborhood. “And we are less than five minutes from all types of services, shopping and restaurant choices.”
The proximity to the Dulles Town Center is a plus. “It further improves the quality of life in Sterling,” he said.
“The most important thing is a father’s feeling that his children are safe in a community and it is providing the best educational opportunities for them,” he said. “I think Countryside does both of those things. Those are the two most important factors: safety and education.”
THE STREETS Of Richland Forest are lined with trees, similar to Broad Run Farms. Lyn Montgomery Wanagel, president of the citizens association, said Richland Forest is the second oldest community in Sterling.
Instead of an HOA, the residents prefer to have a citizens association, she said. It organizes an annual picnic, a community Christmas party and monthly association meetings.
Many of the houses are set back from the road and sit on one or two acres. In the newer parts of Sterling, the houses are closer, side-by-side. “Some of our homes back up to the Sugarland Run creek,” she said. “It’s all wooded back there. It has created a wonderful environment for natural habitat, owls and beautiful birds.
“Of course, we have the deer. We have fox, raccoons. One year, we had a bear come through from West Virginia, following the creek.”
Wanagel said she and her neighbors have access to Route 7 and all of the major highways. “But we don’t have street lights. We don’t have sidewalks either. … Everyone has their own well.”
She welcomes a change in the neighborhood, that of more families with children moving in.
Joseph Guzman, a member of the School Board, describes Sugarland Run as a seamless community so connected to all Sterling neighborhoods that there appears to be no boundaries. “It’s a great place for the kids to grow up in, every facet of it,” he said. “Great friends, great neighbors and great schools. It’s has sort of a close knit feel.”
All the services a family would need are at hand. Sugarland has a farmer’s market, a supermarket, after-school facilities, a community pool and much more, he said. “You don’t have to go very far.”
U.S. Steel built Sterling Park, a planned community, in the early 60s. It was built one area at a time and for many years, people referred to which section they lived in. Nowadays, only long-time residents use that terminology. The rest refer to the road they live on.
Maureen Hein, vice president of the Sterling Foundation, said she chose to live in Sterling Park, because it was a short commute to work. “I found a little piece of property off the boulevard and we fell in love with it,” he said. “You are two minutes from everything you need. All of my shopping, restaurants and entertainment and the golf course are right here.”
The foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to improving the community with a focus on maintaining Sterling Boulevard. All proceeds from the newspapers inserted in the red recycling bins at Park View High School go directly toward keeping the median cleaned and mowed.
Hein said she likes many of Sterling Park’s traits, especially its ethnicity. “I moved from another area where you couldn’t find a Thai or India restaurant in 20 miles,” she said.
Warren Guerin, a member of the School Board, said Sterling Park has experienced substantial demographic changes in recent years. Housing is more affordable than in Cascades, Lowe’s Island and Ashburn, he said. “It has a strong sense of place, because families have lived here for so long. We have students, for example, at Park View High School today whose parents went to Park View High or Broad Run High prior to Park View being built.”
Park View is in Sterling Park and Broad Run is in Ashburn.
Many of the residents have long-standing roots, while others have just moved in. “The values and the beliefs that our early settlers, if you will, brought with them are probably no different that those of our newer residents,” he said. “We want safe streets, stable homes … good schools and adequate public facilities.”
Guerin said the characteristics that make Sterling Park special are not much different than those of the other Sterling communities. “A neighborhood has an identity after it grows,” he said. “I’ve lived in the county since the spring of 1976. We’ve seen phenomenal changes and most of them were good.”