Tangled Roadways
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Tangled Roadways

>Planned development in Great Falls may have access road on Georgetown Pike.

In the Falls Pointe housing development in Great Falls, there is a tiny road, a stub street, that goes nowhere.

If the Gulick Group, which intends to build 13 homes on three grassy lots behind the street, has anything to say about it, the street will remain what it is: an empty lot.

However, a plan to vacate the street and remove the pavement, which had been required by the county's Department of Transportation before the site plan could be approved, has been rejected, meaning the street must stay where it is.

In a June 8 letter addressed to Michael Capretti, vice president of land resources with the Gulick Group, the Fairfax County Department of Transportation reported that it would not allow the vacation of the stub street "because of a conflict with the Comprehensive Plan."

The letter from Michael A. Davis, an analyst with the Department of Transportation, cites language in the plan that restricts the interference with Georgetown Pike "unless no other alternative exists. Falls Pointe Court was created in conformance with this directive. It provides a connection to your property and its use as access is in conformance with the plan language."

If the street were included as part of that development, it would add the traffic from a portion of those homes into the tiny community of Falls Pointe and out onto Springvale Road to the intersection of Georgetown Pike, an intersection that already deals with traffic during morning and afternoon rush hours.

However, if the road is not used, the only way out will be an outlet onto Georgetown Pike, the first road declared a Scenic Byway in Virginia.

"When Falls Pointe was developed, a stub street was put in so that people could come out on Springvale Road at the light. That road has always been looked at as the access road to Georgetown Pike," said Cathy Mayes, a member of the Great Falls Citizens Association, which supports the use of Falls Pointe Court as an access road.

The street has been a part of the county's transportation plan for decades, under the premise of being used as an outlet should the land behind it ever become developed, she said.

Preservation of Georgetown Pike has been a top concern for the Great Falls Citizens Association, said its president, David Olin.

PRELIMINARY PLANS for the 27 acres, originally mapped as three separate parcels of land measuring 12 acres, 13 acres and two acres, were brought to a meeting by the Gulick Group and the residents of Falls Pointe about a year ago for discussion.

"The residents asked us for two things," Capretti said. "They asked us not to go through their community and to vacate the street and take out the asphalt to return it to grass."

After meeting with the residents, the initial plans for the site included two access roads, both ending on Georgetown Pike, Capretti said, adding that their plans never intended to use the stub street.

"The Virginia Department of Transportation and the Great Falls Citizens Association came out opposed to not using the stub street because the thought was, that's what the street was there for," he said. "The GFCA wants to eliminate as many access points on Georgetown Pike as possible and we understand that."

Trying to compromise their plans to make everyone happy, the Gulick Group then eliminated one of the outlets onto Georgetown Pike, leaving only one road into the Grovemont development, he said.

Residents of Falls Pointe also approached Dranesville District Supervisor Joan DuBois, asking for her support to prevent the stub street from being used as an access road, said Rosemary Ryan, one of DuBois' legislative assistants.

"They begged the supervisor not to have the extra traffic through their neighborhood," Ryan said. "But Springvale Road is already very unsafe as it is. She weighed the options and concerns from both sides and decided she would recommend the outlet on Georgetown Pike if the use of the stub street was vacated."

DUBOIS' SUPPORT of the access to Georgetown Pike surprised the board of the Great Falls Citizens Association.

"We were taken aback by that because she's always been a big fan of protecting the Pike," Olin said. "We understand the concerns of the Falls Pointe group," he said, but maintained the concerns about any possible cuts into Georgetown Pike.

A preliminary plan for the development of the 27 acres was submitted and approved, Capretti said, but VDOT "said we needed to vacate the stub street if we wanted to have Georgetown Pike as our access road. We submitted a plan for the vacation of the stub street and finished the engineering plan."

The development is by-right, meaning the plans will not have to go before the Fairfax County Planning Commission, said Dranesville District commissioner Nancy Hopkins.

The preliminary plan was adopted with the "condition that the Gulick Group apply to have Falls Pointe Court vacated," Mayes said.

When the staff report on the development came out, it had been approved without requiring the stub street to be vacated, she said.

"The Office of Transportation came out against abandoning the stub street," Capretti said. "They said we don't need to abandon the street to gain access to Georgetown Pike."

THAT DECISION caused some confusion at the Great Falls Citizens Association's Planning and Zoning Committee.

"We understood that the site plan requested them to vacate the access road from Falls Pointe and not use it at all," Olin said. "If that was not approved, they could not use Georgetown Pike. But now it comes out that they have access to the Pike without vacating the access road."

Use of the stub street and use of Georgetown Pike "are not tied together," Capretti said. "If we can't abandon and vacate Falls Pointe Court, it'll stay the way it is and nothing will ever happen to it," he said.

By retaining the access to Georgetown Pike as the only major way into the Grovemont development, it will allow for 13 houses to be built on the 27 acres, linking two six-home streets, Capretti said.

"The spirit of the Comprehensive Plan is to unite parcels of land, which is what we're trying to do," he said. Concerns over the use of Georgetown Pike violating the Comprehensive Plan "don't apply. We don't need to rezone ... It's a non-issue."

A LETTER was sent by John Ulfelder, a member of the Great Falls Citizens Association's Planning and Zoning Committee to Michelle Brickner, director of the office of site development services in Fairfax County, Ryan said. The letter asked for the decision to allow the development to have access to Georgetown Pike without the vacation of the stub street to be overturned, she said.

"The site plan could be approved this month" if there are no further problems or concerns, Ryan said. "It's still under review."

Gulick is "just trying to do the right thing" by applying to vacate the road, Capretti said. "We understand the concerns with protecting Georgetown Pike ... we're just following the rules now."

The finalized plans for the Grovemont development do not include using the Falls Pointe Court stub street at all, he said.