Join

River lovers could soon be forced to pay to park their vehicles at two popular Stafford County parks.

Parking fees at Falmouth Beach on the Rappahannock River, and Aquia Landing on the Potomac River,  was discussed at Stafford County’s Infrastructure Committee meeting on July 7.

The proposed parking fees come as the Stafford Board of Supervisors aims to address =the issue of overcrowding at the popular river beaches.

In May, Potomac Local News reported complaints made by residents of Canterbury Road regarding beachgoers who blocked the street near Aquia Landing. Aquia Landing’s parking lot had been closed due to Governor Ralph Northam’s shutdown orders due to the coronavirus, which decreed all public beaches in the state be closed.

PLN also reported in February that the Parks and Recreation Department decided to let Falmouth Beach go back to nature. This hasn’t prevented people from going to swim and fish, and the county hasn’t committed any staff to the beach.

One option discussed is to institute parking fees which had originally been brought up at a June meeting of the County Board of Supervisors. The option would involve a $5 car parking fee in these areas on weekdays and holidays from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend.

The projected revenue from these fees would come to $47,000 which would only bring in an extra $2,000 when compared to the $45,000 in expenditures that the county has made in their cost projections for this option.

The county’s analysis of the situation found many issues that would have to be addressed, and the fees could address some of those concerns.

For example, it found that the fees charged on weekends and holidays could pay for the necessary staff that would manage the lots. The busiest time of the year would be between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

However, parking fees on the weekdays would not be enough to cover the costs of staff. The analysis found that such parking issues rarely arise during the weekdays. It also found that the potential for revenue would not be as strong the rest of the year as it would be during the aforementioned holiday time frame.

Another problem with trying to control parking would be the potential loss of revenue from the rentals of picnic pavilions at the parks. Those rentals would have to stop since parking would be on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Another option is to fence in the beach area and the parking areas at Aquia Landing. The County’s cost projections for this would be $55,000, to come from the County’s Capital Improvement Plan for Fiscal Year 2022.

The county is going to continue looking at the available options for this issue. The Board of Supervisors has not yet set a date to continue discussing the proposed parking fees.

0 Comments

Outdoor dining is gaining popularity in Manassas.

Philadelphia Tavern, at 9413 Main Street in downtown, is expanding its outdoor seating area on the sidewalk in front of its restaurant.

The city council approved the restaurant taking additional space on the public sidewalk to seat its customers. The restaurant will expand its existing outdoor seating area which is popular in the summer, and during the winter, as the restaurant in year’s past has placed outdoor firepits on the sidewalk.

The city requires the restaurant to keep the outdoor dining area looking neat and presentable in order to “promote pedestrian-friendly retail activity,” city documents state.

Since the coronavirus pandemic, the city has worked with multiple restaurant owners to allow for the expansion of outdoor dining options.

Philadelphia Tavern reopened its dining room for customers in mid-June.

0 Comments

Transportation officials in Prince William are looking at altering and adding new service to some of the county’s busiest local bus routes.

At its public meeting on Thursday, July 9, OmniRide will ask PRTC commissioners for permission to study, and to take public comments on a plan to increase the number of local bus routes it has in the Woodbridge, Lake Ridge, and Dumfries areas from four to seven. The transit agency, which already services the Route 1, Dale Boulevard, and Old Bridge Road corridors with regular local bus service, seeks to add more bus stops in more places.

Residents have long requested OmniRide Local Bus (formerly OmniLink) service in the area along Route 234, between a Target store at Fortuna Center Plaza and Route 1 in Dumfries. It’s one of the multiple activity centers OmniRide will review when considering adding new bus routes.

“Activity centers are defined as where people gather, and we want to make sure we’re servicing these areas,” said OmniRide Director of Strategic Planning Chuck Steigerwald.

Local bus ridership is heaviest on the eastern side of the county compared with the center of the county, where OmniRide operates local bus routes in Manassas, between the county courthouse and Northern Virginia Community College, and in Manassas Park.

On Thursday, OmniRide will ask for permission from its governing body, the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission, to conduct a study to determine which changes would be made.

Steigerwald said there would be multiple opportunities for the public to comment on the matter. Stakeholders like Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center and the Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge Campus would need to be consulted, as each of these activity centers would be affected by any changes.

If bus routes in eastern Prince William County are changed, it will represent the first significant change in the bus routes in the past 25 years. In December, the transit agency instituted what it called “revolutionary” changes to its system by replacing the names of bus routes, like “cross-county connector” and “Metro Express” with numbers. It also changed the main transfer point for its local buses in the Manassas area from Manassas Mall to the Prince William County courthouse in Downtown Manassas.

A similar change could come to Woodbridge, as OmniRide explores the possibility to relocating the main transfer point on the eastern side of the county from its transit center at 14700 Potomac Mills Road in Woodbridge to a new 5001,400-space commuter parking garage to be built at the nearby Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center, behind a Wegman’s grocery store. The new parking garage is expected to be a hub of activity for those who take commuter buses, but also rideshare and vanpool.

“The whole idea is to reduce travel times,” said Steigerwald.

Any changes would be phased in over the next 10 years. Thursday’s meeting will be held virtually and will begin at 7 p.m.

The transit agency is also looking into adding paratransit services on the eastern side of Prince William County. The service would be similar to something offered by Metro to riders in Washington, D.C. region, including in neighboring Fairfax County. It would pick-up passengers who have been certified disabled and provide them rides to their destinations or connect them with regular transit services.

OmniRide launched a paratransit pilot program in December to serve residents who live in Manassas and Manassas Park. Ridership has been low due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the pilot program will be extended beyond its original end date from September to December, Steigerwald said.

The paratransit service differs from the old “deviation” policy that used to be in place on OmniLink buses, where riders could call ahead and request the bus travel up to three-quarters of a mile from the regular bus route to pick up a passenger.

The paratransit service is also different from a pilot program OmniRide is still trying to get off the ground in Gainesville: An Uber rideshare-like service that would pick up passengers at their homes and drop them off at commuter lots to catch the next commuter bus to Washington, D.C.

“We have the funding in place for the program, but we’re still working to get it off the ground,” said Steigerwald.

If OmniRide decides to keep paratransit services in the Manassas area, it could wind up costing $500,000 per year to operate. Steigerwald could not provide an estimate on the cost to run such a service on the more populated eastern side of Prince William County, but he did concede expenses would most likely be higher.

2 Comments

A consideration to limit the height of flag poles and monuments in Stafford County is making its way to the Board of Supervisors’ agenda. 

At the July 7 Community and Economic Development Committee, committee members Garrisonville District Supervisor Mark Dudenhefer and Rock Hill District Supervisor Crystal Vanuch voted to send the item to the general Board. Chairman of the committee, Gary Snellings of Hartwood, was not present at the meeting. 

Right now, flag poles and monuments are exempted from count height restrictions. To limit the height of flag poles, this wording would have to be removed from the code. 

Should the Board pass this resolution, the maximum flag pole height in residential/agricultural zones would be 35 feet, and the maximum height in commercial areas would be 65 feet. Each individual zoning district has a max height restriction for structures. 

Requests for taller flag poles would require a Conditional Use Permit that can be obtained after public hearings with the Board of Supervisors and the Planning Commission.

Existing flag poles that exceed the height regulations, if passed, would still be allowed to exist as they were up before the policy was put in place. 

A confederate flag that is visible from Interstate 95 near Falmouth is on an 80 foot-tall pole. While the flag has drawn the ire of residents over the years, the pole is protected by a grandfather clause and would not have to be removed should the height restrictions be passed.

Regulations on flag pole heights vary across different localities. 

In Prince William, the maximum height is 40 feet in all zones. In Spotsylvania, there are no restrictions in residential areas and a 25-foot max in commercial zones. 

2 Comment

A storage shed in Manassas Park caught on fire after a lightning strike hit the private property, totaling over $25,000 in damage.

On Monday, July 6 at 11:32 p.m., firefighters arrived to take care of a structure fire call that occurred at the location of 131 Holden Drive, in Manassas Park.

Keith Nguyen, the assistant to the city manager, told PLN that a lightning strike had hit a shed that contained storage for the residents living in the private property and set the structure ablaze.

When discussing damages and whether or not the city will have to be involved, Nguyen stated the following:

“As this was a naturally occurring event on a private property, the typical homeowner insurance claim process between the residents and their insurance company is expected to occur. The city is not involved in that process,” Nguyen said.

According to Nguyen, the damages were determined to be between $25,000 to $30,000 in worth.

No one was inside the structure at the time of the fire, and no one was hurt, according to Nguyen.

2 Comment

The Prince William County School Board is making plans to reopen schools, a process teachers at a recent rally have claimed is lacking transparency.

With the coronavirus pandemic still ongoing, and the new school year starting August 25, the Prince William County School Board has been holding meetings to discuss how to safely reopen schools.

So far, they assembled a 90-person panel and a task force to discuss plans for reopening schools. The task force consists of principals, assistant principals, and lead teachers.

However, some teachers say they were given very little information about the panel, regarding who is on it or what its plans are.

“My concerns are how was this put together? Why can’t we know the members of this panel and email them with ideas or concerns? And does this panel have diverse representation on it?” said Oveta Scott, a sixth-grade math teacher at Fred M. Lynn Middle School in Woodbridge. “When [Superintendent Dr. Steven L.] Walts presents his plan to the school board, will the discussion from this panel be included?”

The school board has sent surveys to teachers asking if they are comfortable with virtual or traditional schooling. However, music and physical education teachers did not receive a survey, Scott claims.

In addition, the budget has been greatly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Since the beginning of the pandemic, money has been going into the community in the form of small business loans, a housing assistance program, and food campaigns. 

“The challenge now is that we were doing well in this first wave of COVID-19, but now we see that there’s a resurgence, and we don’t know how that’s gonna affect us,” said Board of County Supervisor Victor Angry, Neabsco District. 

The Prince William County School Board has asked the Board of County Supervisors for $42.5 million to safely reopen schools this fall. Prince William County School Board Chair Babur Lateef presented these cost estimates on June 16.

Discussions about the budget are ongoing as the Prince William County School Board monitors the situation.

In response to the alleged lack of transparency, teachers, parents, and representatives rallied outside the Edward L. Kelly Leadership Center near Manassas to voice their concerns and desires on Friday, July 3, 2020.  

At the rally, multiple teachers and representatives spoke up about their grievances, and their desire to be more involved in the reopening plans.

“When certain decisions are made and teachers are left out of the process, it doesn’t seem like there’s much accountability on the part of the superintendent and his staff. So, they have asked for more accountability, so that when something is not done in the correct way, people are called out for it and reprimanded for it, and they have a plan on how to change that,” said Occoquan District Supervisor Kenny Boddye.

Teachers asked elected officials to serve as intermediaries between them and the school board.

“Every time I get a comment or concern from a parent or staff member, I have a list that I’m synthesizing of their concerns so that I can bring it up if their questions don’t get addressed,” said Lisa Zargapur, who represents the Coles District on the Prince William County School Board.

Some plans that teachers and these officials discussed include having a teacher representative on the school board and having more support staff and funding for if schools reopen this fall. They have also asked for an open-door policy, where teachers can go directly to the school board and tell them their concerns. 

“Today’s rally was more about hearing from the teachers and staff of Prince William County. Just providing them with an opportunity to share their vision of returning to school safely. I think that there could have been better transparency and inclusion in the process, and I think that today begins a new day to hopefully ensure that that happens,” said the Prince William Education Association President-elect, Maggie Hansford.

At a meeting on Wednesday, July 8, the school board will announce its plans for the upcoming school year. 

12 Comments
Ă—

Subscribe to our mailing list