Residents say improving Follin Lane will worsen speeding, destroy the tree canopy and endanger people’s lives. Photo by Bonnie Hobbs.
For a couple years now, the Town of Vienna has planned to improve Follin Lane between Maple Avenue and Echols Street. But when project consultants held a June 26 meeting to share the details with nearby residents, it ended up alarming them, instead.
And last Monday, July 7, two of them came to the Town Council meeting and made their feelings known. Speaking were neighbors Loretta Roby and Sean McClorey and, citing serious concerns, both asked the Council members to think twice before proceeding with this project.
“I live on the corner of Hine [Street] and Follin, and it’s one of the most dangerous intersections in Vienna,” said McClorey. “There have been many accidents there, and the most recent one destroyed part of my fence – and the auto’s trajectory was heading right toward my house.”
As part of the Follin Lane Project, he said, “The Town plans to level the grade of the road there and remove the brush. And that will mean a clear and present danger, not only to my property, but to my four children.”
THE $2 MILLION ROAD PROJECT consists of reconstructing Follin, widening it and installing sidewalks, storm drains, curbs and gutters. In November 2011, Vienna applied for $1 million in VDOT FY ’13 Revenue Sharing Funds and was awarded the money on June 26, 2012.
Exactly two years later to the day, the residents living near the project area attended a “Citizen Design and Detour-Review” meeting – and that’s when the warning bells went off. Roby said it was the first time many of them realized how far the plans for this work had advanced without Town officials discussing it with them.
“The decision to do the project had already been made,” she said at last week’s Council meeting. “There was no resident input; the Town just said, ‘We’re doing it.’”
A mother of two, Roby lives on Mashey Drive and her property backs up to Follin, so this project is upsetting to her, as well as her neighbors. “We have safety concerns, and we’re worried about the traffic flow,” she said. “We’re also upset that the tree canopy along Follin – including a beautiful, healthy, 60-year-old tree – will be taken down and not replaced.”
Also noting the many car crashes that have happened at Hine and Follin, Roby said the widened road “will go almost to, if not beyond, my property line. And we put our fence line even further back from the road because of all the traffic there.”
She said widening Follin from two to three lanes and making it flat will result in drivers going even faster than they do now through the Follin/Hine intersection to reach the Town’s throughway, Maple Avenue.
“And with a sidewalk added, pedestrians who don’t walk there now will walk there and get hit by a speeding car,” said Roby. “So we implore the Town Council to reconsider this plan.”
MAYOR Laurie DiRocco said there’ll be a July 30 meeting with the residents, and “We’ll bring in [Town] staff and see what we can do.” She then asked if there have been “a lot of accidents” there.
“You hear a crash and call 911 because the severity of the accidents requires ambulances,” replied Roby. “And with the changes planned, cars will be flying even faster [down Follin] to get to Maple. This was initially supposed to be a beautification project. How is it beautification if a 60-year-old tree is taken out and a child gets hit by a car?”