Residents of historic freedman settlement demand county drop long-range plans to widen streets

HAYMARKET — Prince William County officials tried to convince Haymarket-area residents they didn’t want to widen a series of country roads where many have their homes.

Residents who live along Old Carolina, Thoroughfare, and Carver roads packed Haymarket Elementary School on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2019, to make it clear they didn’t want wider streets, or low and medium -density development as called for by the current county comprehensive plan approved back in the early 2000s.

The plan, as it sits, calls for the development of homes in the suburban residential low and medium districts, and offices in the community employment center districts, respectively.

“Whats on this board is Supervisor Ed Wilbourn’s vision for this area. He’s long gone. I’m complete opposite of this plan,” said Brentsville District Supervisor Jeanine Lawson.

Wilbourn lost his 2003 election bid and, according to Lawson, had a vision for rapid development and growth for western Prince William County which is much different than her own, she says. Lawson is calling to downsize the plan for growth, which would mean removing plans for widening the streets.

“I want to downplay and fend off development in this area,” she added.

Coles District Supervisor Marty Nohe, who is also the Chairman of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, a regional board that provides capital funding for transportation projects, backed her up.

“The Board of Supervisors in the [1990s], they saw themselves as visionaries. They put some things the map that just wasn’t realistic,” said Nohe, of the planned growth in western Prince William. “In their minds, Prince William County was going to compete with New York City.”

After the Civil War, the area around Carver Road was home to some of the nation’s first freed slaves. Dominion Energy in 2017 took criticism when it planned to build an electric transmission line through the area to power a new Amazon data center.

Attendees at the February 28 meeting said they were stirred to action by a letter from the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, the same group that fought the power line, which won’t be routed through the Carver Road neighborhood but will, instead, be buried underground along an alternate route.

“How much money does our County government want to squander on widening these roads, taking land and homes through eminent domain – which only helps developers?  We have real and critical infrastructure needs – such as schools,” reads a statement on the coalition’s website.

“Are you with us, or are you against us,” a resident shouted at Lawson. “We’ve protested Dominion, and we can do it again [in this case]”

“…there are some folks outside of this room that want more development… the people I know want a small town, rural environment. I don’t want what I left in Arlington,” another resident said.

The Prince William County Board of Supervisors authorized an overall update to the county’s Comprehensive Plan two years ago. Since they, members of the county’s planning office staff have held several meetings with residents — to include at a daylong session in January 2018 with those who live near Haymarket — to ask them what type of development they want to see in the future.

After developing the Route 29 Small Area Plan, the planning staff will present its final draft plan in April. The following month’s its expected to head to the Board of Supervisors for approval.