MANASSAS — Manassas has finished the initial stages for its Comprehensive Plan for 2040 and is now headed into technical studies by the Planning Commission’s Comprehensive Plan Committee over the next few months.

Eventually, the plan will go before the City Council for direction and ultimately adoption.

The Comprehensive Plan is “the City’s key policy document for land use, development, preservation, and related economic and social issues,” according to city officials.

Manassas Planning and Zoning administrator Matthew Arcieri said that the committee will “synthesize it over the summer” and that hopefully by the end of the year they can present the final plan to the public.

The results of an annual are weighed heavily in the planning process. The survey highlighted that traffic was a major issue with citizens. Residents also didn’t like the low number of parks and open space and the availability of bike and walking trails.

The survey also noted that affordable housing satisfaction was low.

During a series of meetings over the past year, residents said they wanted improvements to major gateways to the city such as Routes 28 and 234, and improving beautification at those areas. The Comprehensive Plan Committee is also looking closely at improving the Mathis Avenue corridor by considering land use and urban form improvements.

On a high note, a total of 81 percent of city residents who responded rated the city as excellent or a good place to live and only 8% percent gave a rating of below average or poor marks.

The city rated above the U.S. average in 51 of 64 areas and above the regional average in 49 of 64 areas that were compared. The overall appearance of the city is high compared to the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S.

During one of the recent public meetings about the comprehensive plan, Pat Thomas, a retired Prince William County Planning and Budget Officer, emphasized that while crafting a Comprehensive Plan, a balance needs to be taken into account. She stressed the balance between growth and charm, quality versus affordability, and reinvestment versus gentrification.

“How do we reinvest and not push people out?” Thomas asked, of redeveloping the Mathis Avenue corridor.

When it comes to the desire for more parks and open space, Manassas Planning Commissioner  Russell Harrison said that city schools control a lot of the open land that should be considered for park space.

Arcieri agreed, saying “we’re not going to build our way of out of the parks deficit without involving the schools.” Thomas also mentioned that the downtown “anchor” of Old Town Manassas is “so strong”- and how can the committee push that charm out to the rest of the city. She asked the Comprehensive Plan Committee to think about towns in the U.S. that do things well and see what the city can model after – and also to focus on the areas of the city that they have been doing right and “build more of that into the plan”.

“You don’t want Manassas to become Virginia Beach,” Thomas said.

The first stages of the Comprehensive Plan were the Citizen Survey and the series of community conversations.

Every two years since 2014, Manassas has conducted a citizen survey, with the most recent in 2018. The survey takes a scientific sample of the city and asks questions about things like housing and safety in the city. The survey, along with Community Conversations, helps guide the city in crafting the Comprehensive Plan.

The Comprehensive Plan Committee will continue to meet through June and take place at various conference rooms at City Hall, the Manassas Museum, and the Public Works Department.

QUANTICO MARINE CORPS BASE — Quantico’s CDC (Child Development Center) North has reopened for business after a sewage backup.

The center was closed for over a week, displacing 230 children, after sewage flooded several rooms in the facility, said Quantico Marine Corps Base spokesman Maj. Ken Kunze.

Sewage flooded the center Tuesday, January 29, prompting an early dismissal. The closure was prolonged due to the sewage backup reoccurring the next day after they had initially repaired it, and then a construction crew working on a high school next door ruptured a water line – “so they had no water to complete the sanitation cleanup,” Kunze explained.

The ruptured water line added about two days to the closure.

They hired an “outside plumbing company to come in and put the camera down and get everything out.”

Foreign objects that were found in the sewer system were dislodged. Kunze couldn’t describe them.

The base also hired a professional cleaning company to sanitize the building – everything down to the toys was cleaned. There was no structural damage to the center, said Kunze.

The Child Development Center is a daycare center for school-age children. Due to the center being more affordable than off-base child care, Kunze explained that the center operates at capacity, filled the brim with children.

Marine parents who use the center had to leave work and pick up their children when the sewage backed up. The CDC will credit the parents for the days that their children missed care and will be reimbursed financially.

CDC South, a second child care center on the base, is a newer facility in a separate location and was not affected.

MANASSAS — Manassas leaders Monday night passed a resolution in support of ratification by the Commonwealth of Virginia of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution.

A similar last fall in Prince William County failed despite heavy lobbying from Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly.

The ERA states: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” Opponents fear that the ERA may have unintended consequences, such as mixed gender prisons and bathrooms and increased abortions.

The resolution was put forward by Council Member Pamela J. Sebesky. It was seconded by Mark Wolfe.

Councilmember Ken Elston pointed out that Manassas has unisex bathrooms already and the U.S. already permits women to serve in the military.

He spoke favorably of the resolution, saying, “We have an opportunity as a community to make a statement regarding the glacial pace of progress in women’s rights.”

Sebesky added that the resolution has received “wide-reaching bipartisan support” across Virginia. She called for the vote with no further debate or discussion.

It passed, with two “no” votes from Republican Council Members Theresa Coates Ellis and Ian Lovejoy.

The vote passed to a room full of applause. Afterward, Mayor Hal Parrish, II hinted to the crowd that the vote was rushed.

“For me, I knew very little about the Equal Rights Amendment. This council has not taken it up previously until tonight. Normally that’s not the case for issues in the City of Manassas. We normally take things up and talk about them a great deal.” Parrish said.

In stark contrast to Prince William County’s heated debate over the ERA, only two residents spoke during citizen’s time about the ERA – both were in favor of it.

Lovejoy noted in a statement to Potomac Local that “It is very outside of that norm, to at the 11th hour, rush a resolution to the dais…” Lovejoy stated, “When elected officials start doing things outside of normal procedures and lack transparency and a real opportunity for citizen engagement, they invite allegations that those actions are politically motivated rather than good government.”

A recent poll showed that 80 percent of Virginians support the Equal Rights Amendment, though the chance of it passing this year in Virginia is slim due to it being killed in a Virginia House subcommittee last Tuesday.

First introduced in the 1970s, the ERA failed to be ratified by two-thirds of U.S. state legislatures by a federally mandated deadline of in 1982. But the battle for ratification has continued. Now, only one state is needed to ratify the amendment, and supporters hope that Virginia could be the key.

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY -- Jackie Gaston is throwing her hat in the ring for Coles District School Board.

She’s a special education teacher in Fairfax County as well as a mother of three boys whose experience with PTO’s, meetings in the schools, and school improvement planning teams for her own children in who attend Prince William County Public Schools led her to want to serve.

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PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — Paul O’Meara is running as a Republican for Coles District Supervisor.

He previously ran in 2015 for the same office and lost in the primary to Marty Nohe, who today is not seeking election to the Coles seat but rather the Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman, At-large seat.

O’Meara’s goals for running are to fix Route 28, to “find some practical solutions” to fix overcrowding in the schools, and “to correct a broken housing policy that has planted the seeds for the explosion in our budget and our current infrastructure deficit.”

“My number one priority is to fix [Route] 28.” O’Meara said. “I think that we need to build the Godwin Drive extension.”

Last month, Governor Ralph Northam left it up to Northern Virginia leaders to fund a fix for Route 28, dubbed the most-congested road in the region. The governor said he wouldn’t allocate state funding to fix the road.

With a price tag of $220 million, the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (of which Nohe is the Chairman) will fund a portion of the fix.

No matter who pays, O’Meara says it needs to be completed. “I think that it’s within Prince William County government’s authority to build this road and fix [Route] 28.”

When it comes to schools, O’Meara said that even if the county pays hundreds of millions of dollars to build more schools, the private industry could not build schools fast enough to keep up with the need. O’Meara instead believes that redrawing school boundaries may be a better use of taxpayer money.

The Board of Supervisors and School Board members are discussing a $143 million plan to upgrade school facilities that would nearly eliminate all portable trailer classrooms in the county.

Regarding the Board of County Supervisors’ relationship with the School Board, “I think we need to take a hard look at the revenue sharing agreement,” he said. That agreement has the Board of Supervisors automatically handing over 57 percent of the entire county budget to the school division to spend as it sees fit.

O’Meara is also focused on development in the county.

“I think that our housing policy is broken. I think that we have an unhealthy mix of commercial and residential development,” he said.

While working on the Strategic Plan team, O’Meara helped get the Board of Supervisors to approve a “moonshot” goal of increasing the county’s commercial tax base 35 percent, up from about 16 percent. While he thinks that’s an excellent first step, he says there’s a lot more work to do.

O’Meara says commercial development is good for the county “because it generates tax revenue, but it doesn’t create the same liabilities of student generation factors that residential development would do.”

At 35 percent, there would be fewer unmet needs in the county, he adds.

O’Meara is a third-generation Prince William resident. He has a degree in Government International Politics from George Mason University and has managed small businesses his entire career.

His family founded two small businesses in 1960 and 1971 and he assumed business operations from them in 2008 and took over complete control when his father died. He then started working in commercial property management in 2014.

He and his wife Melissa have two children, ages 5 and 2.

O’Meara served on the Prince William County School’s Infrastructure Task Force and helped draft the current Strategic Plan, and is currently a Director of the Industrial Development Authority of Prince William County.

“I’m looking to serve. I have a lot of knowledge of county government.” O’Meara said.

O’Meara is one of many candidates announcing his bid for office this year. A Primary Election will be held June 11.

MANASSAS PARK — A growing number of drivers are parking their vehicles in Manassas Park neighborhoods. And, it’s becoming an issue city leaders must address.

“There’s only so much space,” said  Donald Shuemaker, a councilman on the Manassas Park Governing Body. “Our population is growing.”

The nation’s economy is hot, and development around the region is increasing. Because of that, officials say there are more construction and commercial vehicles parked in residential areas in Manassas Park.

Shuemaker said that there were complaints about parking raised at a recent meeting of the Bloom’s Crossing Home Owners Association, but there are also complaints about parking coming from the West side of Manassas Park as well.

“The parking problem is widespread,” Shuemaker said.

Manassas Park City Manager Laszlo Palko said he has received many complaints from residents about parking. He said that people were complaining about being unable to park near their homes or unable to find parking at all, non-residents were taking parking spots, and people were parking commercial vehicles in neighborhoods.

City officials recently a residential parking program, on which Shuemaker voted no. He was the only council member to oppose the plan.

“I’ve seen how Manassas implemented their [parking permit system in the Georgetown South and Point of Woods neighborhoods],” Shuemaker explained. “I look at how they’ve done it there, and I would not want to replicate their program in Manassas Park. You have to have a permit after 8 p.m.,” Shuemaker said.

He added that Manassas makes residents pay for visitor passes, and are only provided a minimal number for the year.

Shuemaker said mandatory parking permit programs unfairly targets lower income and higher minority neighborhoods with their parking program.

He also noted that Manassas Park pays the highest property tax rate in the state, so paying for parking passes would add unnecessary costs to residents who are already paying a lot in taxes.

Shuemaker is in favor of reinstituting the city’s annual decal program, instead. The city switched to a permanent decal program several years ago. Last year, the decal requirement was removed entirely.

Shuemaker opposed the move, saying it made it easier for people to avoid paying property taxes on their vehicles.

“I think that re-instituting the annual decal requirement, number one will bring revenue into the city, and I actually think that some vehicles will just magically disappear,” Shuemaker said.

Palko said due to the decal program being gone, he had no other procedure in place to address the parking issues, which led him to consider a residential parking program. Palko said other jurisdictions do this and he wanted to do an analysis about it, which is the point where Manassas Park is now.

“I’m going to do the evaluation. Evaluations take a long time.” Palko said. He does not have a current date for when he will present the evaluation to Manassas Park Governing Body.

Parking garage to bring relief to commuters 

Residential homeowners may have parking issues, but commuters may have it a little easier soon. Shuemaker said that the city is currently working with Virginia Railway Express to build a parking garage for commuters. The parking garage will be across the street from the city hall.

Palko said that the funding for the parking garage is already approved and they are now at the design phase, which is about 30% done. Palko said the intention of the parking garage is not to eliminate the city’s residential parking woes.

He said the city wouldn’t be able to afford a parking garage strictly for residential parking issues – this garage is being funded by regional money through VRE.

Shuemaker noted that the city owns all the land behind city hall. The parking garage will go on the land there and contain 540 spots and three levels. Shuemaker said the projection for the garage is that the garage will meet the capacity needs of the community through 2040.

The garage will be open Monday through Friday and is only for commuter use, but on the evenings and on the weekends it will be available for all.

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — Prince William County is well into its second phase of a pilot archery deer management program that began last year.

If it goes well, the program could become permanent. The pilot stage last year only operated at three sites for six weeks. This year the number of sites has increased to 10 locations and the time for the hunt has lengthened from October 6 to November 16 and then again from December 2 to February 28.

Purvis Dawson, who served as Prince William’s former Chief Park Ranger before he left the post in November, explained that 2017’s main goal was to prove that the county can safely facilitate hunting on county land – and they did.

Now in phase two, the program is more widespread throughout the county for a longer period of time. At the end of phase two, the Board of County Supervisors will decide whether or not they want to institutionalize the program and fund it.

Right now, the program has been administered by the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department.

Because of the widely differing amount of locations and time periods compared to last year’s program, it’s hard to compare the two years because it’s “apples and oranges,” Dawson explained.

So far this year, 49 deer have been harvested, up from 19 last year. Only groups vetted by the county that have certified, trained, and insured archers are allowed to hunt.

“Anytime they have a hunt they complete a form that tells us when they entered the property, when they exited the property, whether or not they harvested a deer, how many arrows they walked into the property with, how many arrows they left the property with, if they harvested a deer what was the tag number for the DPOP (Deer Population Reduction Program) tag for the deer, things of this nature…,” said Prince William County Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Department spokesman Brent Heavner.

High visibility signs are erected on trees throughout the parks to let people know about the hunt.

“The hunters follow strict guidelines of when they can hunt – they must arrive a half hour before sunrise and then leave a half hour after sunset,” Dawson explained.

The program also utilizes “buffer zones” between populated areas like residential neighborhoods and the parks so arrows do not fly into nearby homes. Hunters are required to shoot from tree stands so the arrow has a downward trajectory “so the ground becomes the backstop in that scenario,” adds Dawson.
Hunters must account for every arrow.

“They have to account for every arrow. If they walk in with eight arrows, and they walk out with seven arrows, there’s another form they have to fill out that explains the disposition of that missing arrow.” Heavner said.

Dawson said that if you’re walking through Dove’s Landing and hear an arrow whiz by you, that’s not a legitimate hunter. That’s a poacher. Dawson also said that because the vetted hunters only use archery, if you hear a firearm in a county park, call the police. That’s not one of their hunters.

“Our hunters have a rulebook,” Dawson said.

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY -- Willie Deutsch will seek re-election to the Prince William County School Board as its Coles District member. Though School Board races are non-partisan, the incumbent is the first Republican to announce their candidacy for the seat.

All the seats for the school board are up for reelection on November 5, 2019. Deutsch was elected to the school board in 2015, his first time elected to public office.

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If Montclair has a 100-year storm, the spillway will be able to accommodate it.

Lake Montclair was lowered to just 20 feet this past summer, leaving residents who are used to summer swimming and boating on high and dry.

The lake’s spillway, an area designed for lake water to spill over the top of a dam in the event of a heavy rainstorm- needed to be fixed. The spillway needed to be widened and deepened and a cutback protection wall was installed underground  – as Lake Montclair also underwent changes to meet the state standards for dam safety regulations.

The repairs come after the state recently changed the “maximum probable precipitation” standards, an estimate to how much rain could fall during a massive storm such as a hurricane.

The values from the 1970’s were 28, 33, and 37 inches of rainfall in 6, 12, and 24 hour time brackets. A study was done by the state and the numbers were updated in 2016 to 26.3 and 30.1 inches for 6, 12, and 24 hour periods based on historical data. Lake Montclair did not meet the new standards.

The updated standards help to ensure the dam doesn’t burst during periods of heavy rain.

The Montclair Property Owners Association also had to widen and deepen the lake and also installed a cutback protection wall – a big concrete wall designed to stop erosion so the lake doesn’t drain into the spillway, said Justin Field, with MPOA.

With the repairs complete, it took about three weeks for the water levels to return to normal.

Maintaining the spillway is a big deal for the surrounding area, Field explained. Lake Montclair is part of the Powell’s Creek watershed, which, according to the Prince William Conservation Alliance, “begins near Independent Hill and flows past the Prince William landfill on Route 234, then on to  Montclair, where it meets the dam that forms Lake Montclair.”

If the dam were to break, that would spell disaster for nearby neighborhoods.  

“There are almost 400 occupied structures that would be damaged, flooded – Route 1 would be affected, I-95 would be affected, all the way out into the Potomac River. So that’s the importance of good upkeep on our dam which we do, and then making sure our spillway met all the requirements that it needed to meet.”

Richard Arvin, Chairman of the Montclair Lake Management Committee, is one of a group of volunteers who manage the maintenance and ecology of the lake. Arvin has lived near the lake for about 15 years.

Many residents complained while the lake was dry. One of the fears from residents was that fish would be killed.

That didn’t happen.

“We did not have a fish kill. We didn’t kill anything off.” Arvin said. Arvin explained that they had discussed the impact to wildlife with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and they weren’t concerned.

With the low lake level, he also said it was an opportunity to get some projects done that they wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.  The association repaired swim platforms, added new fish, held a lake clean up, and a lot of residents repaired their docks. “So there [were] some advantages,” Arvin said.

They also found a sunken pontoon boat at the bottom of the lake.

Despite the inconvenience for those who wanted to enjoy the lake, Field said summer was the best time to close the lake. The warm weather was a benefit because of the backfill material that needed to dry out.

He also explained they didn’t want to risk running into delays during colder weather that would cause the project to go into the next summer. This way, they figured they could just affect one season of recreation rather than several.

“We bit the bullet, understanding it was going to be an inconvenience but the summertime was the best time for us to do it, get it done, so we that could enjoy [one] compliance with the new state regulations, and then just have our lake back next summer for a full recreation season.” Field said.

This should be the last time the lake will be lowered to this extent. Other than the annual lowering of around three feet that happens near Thanksgiving, Field said they don’t foresee the lake to be lowered to anything near the level it was lowered during this project.

The 108-acre lake sinks 54 feet at its deepest point.