Planning Commission Regular Meeting/Work Session

Matthew RiceMr. Rice. so I'd like to ask a question to both of our guests in the audience um if we could start with parks that would be helpful we talked about a variety of issues my role as the liaison to PRAB means that I attempt to provide summaries of projects and the importance of the projects more helpful if they heard it again from a more qualified person to make the statements. So a few things. I'd like to hear about the connection between the Van Dyke master plan, which is something that we've supported strongly, and the Willard Sherwood, and how those two things are connected and any sequencing that would happen between the two projects and any dependencies between the two.

Stacy SummerfieldstaffYes. First of all, thank you for having me. I'm Stacy Summerfield. I'm the parks director. And, yes, so you'll notice in the CIP, we have the Van Dyke master plan has been pushed back a little. was because of the desire to complete the design and to kind of know the final look of the Willard Sherwood project. One of the things that I know you're all aware of, but the Willard Sherwood building includes the senior center moving to that location. And so we have quite a vibrant senior population, about 1,500 members. Right now we're gaining about 40 members a month. And so if we move to that location, they're moving away from Green Acres, outdated building but green acres also has pickleball on site bocce on site outdoors and so

was a master plan our master planning process was started in 2018 for Van Dyke and in that in that design it did move the parking lot out of the center of the park and slide it over towards Sherwood so now that we know what the parking and traffic movement through the site will look like with the Willard Sherwood building that'll help us consider the parking for for Van Dyke as well and then we have also been working hand-in-hand with the Blenheim Boulevard project currently looking at how we can make sure our signage matches up there's a complete signage plan that's developed for that pedestrian signage letting people know where amenities are along Blenheim and then matching that up with we also have a signage project rolling out in the parks that's updating park

Matthew Ricedecade that Green Acres is not is not able to be renovated to serve a useful as a city facility without hundreds a million I don't even know the right numbers they're atmospheric but in order to bring the building up to standards it's just not not conceivable and so I appreciate you discussing the connection we've already spent millions of dollars the county has outlaid huge amounts of money already on this project and I very very much want both of these things the Van Dyke master plan and the Willard Sherwood Center to continue I think it's difficult imagining the amount of time and effort invested by Ms. Sommerfeld and her predecessors and and then just doing a u-turn on the willard sherwood and by extension requiring a complete rethink of van

The dollar value that I saw most recently in the CIP was $53 or $55 million for this over a longer period of time. Mr. Nabte, is that at least in the ballpark? Yes. $57. Does that contain the same sort of cost escalations that are used in parks projects or Willard Sherwood?

James Featherme just make one maybe a couple comments you talked about making things better yes we're also talking about preserving capability that's deteriorating as well things with a big dollar things right now are in that category right the fire station the property yard arguably the Willard Sherwood Center we look at the deterioration and the green acres site and and then making things better yes we have community expectations we live in a different world now than when the city was founded and and the expectations are higher for what services and facilities should be made available. Certainly education facilities need to step up. It's not just preserving what we have. Those aren't good enough in today's education environment.

Matthew RiceI've had notes of my own. Think of three high priority things from the CIP and think of three things that should be lower priorities. And then think of anything that we're missing. That's what you know your question. I've had that kind of in my mind. And certainly I really do think the property yard, the Willard Sherwood Center and Station 3 are both necessary based on their connections to everything else happening, but also the potential problem of what if we ignore this or put this off. I don't think any of those three we can afford to push off into the future based on plans that are already underway and money spent. So those look to be three things for me at least that are high priority.

a foundation that will be able to generate gifts through bequests or donations. We didn't have that ability before. And so there are definitely things to think about in terms of being able to generate revenue from things like the Willard Sherwood Center that we do build.

James FeatherI certainly can't hurt to say that. I think our discussion this evening sort of elevated the Willard Sherwood beyond just we've spent some money on it already, we should keep going. We're looking at it as part of an integrated redevelopment upgrade. building that whole corridor, facilities for the citizens, the seniors, families.

NaptystaffOkay. So it sounds to me like instead of having a general statement as we had last year now, for having a more specific statement and identifying specific projects that are in that situation, recommended continuing investment in these projects that we've already invested in and we're specifically identifying property yard station three and willard sherwood

Matthew Ricereally as part of the why do I want to live in the city of Fairfax versus you know living in Oakton or Vienna or Falls Church it's you know we don't have our own community centers in the sense that we have a place to recreate a place for seniors a place to hold community meetings that's are a lot of reasons why it will enhance quality of life in the city that's always been part of the vision and so I think Willard Sherwood is about the need to continue making the city of Fairfax an attractive place to live it's you know it's part of our bragging about how the city is great it's um anyway there's it's certainly more than just we've already spent a lot of money but i don't think we can ignore the cost of a u-turn particularly given the county's recent