The Linton-Hall Project (Norfolk, Reston, Centreville: new home, neighborhood, buying)

[normie]

These posts were copied from another thread. It seems like there is more to say on the Linton-Hall project, so I started this thread to discuss it. ps. I only copied the parts of the posts that had to do with Linton-Hall. I hope that's ok

Originally Posted by RestonRunner86

Not at all unlike people buying new homes in Gainesville, knowing about the traffic concerns, and then complaining for VDOT to upgrade their infrastructure for them, right? In both cases we have people moving into areas with pre-existing quality-of-life issues. Why is it acceptable to have sympathy for those moving to Gainesville while being afflicted by pre-existing congestion and not have sympathy for those moving to Centreville and being afflicted by pre-existing noise? The gun range was there first. The traffic snarls were there first. Why should we automatically fix the traffic snarls to make the Gainesville people feel better while saying "no" to trying to work out a fix for those dealing with the noise in Centreville or Manassas?

I'm just not seeing why double-standards always come into play here. If you're going to tell people who are bothered by shooting range or racetrack noise to "deal with it", more or less, then why not tell the people of nearby Gainesville to "deal with it" with their traffic congestion, since they knew about it when they moved there, instead of spending $500,000,000 to fix it for them? Either fix both or NEITHER. Period. Fair is fair.

Originally Posted by bmwguydc

Actually, the traffic used to flow through Gainesville, save for the RR crossing. It's not the same thing since traffic is a regional issue.

Originally Posted by ngadude

No, we did not complain about the infrastructure - THAT upgrade was planned TEN YEARS AGO! We knew it was coming! For goodness sakes, let's get our facts straight! Tired of hearing someone think they know what people in Gainesville get concerned about. That decision to upgrade that intersection was made years before most people in Gainesville moved here!!!!

Traffic in Gainesville's a pleasure. Try Manassas on the other hand... AGAIN, for the 3rd or 4th time, locals in Gainesville know how to completely avoid that intersection no matter where they are going and while they are happy the construction's finally getting started (after being planned for a very very long time) - it is not something they are "complaining about" or concerned about. The newspapers maybe make it sound like more than it is so to make headlines and get ad dollars. Whatever, it's time to set the story straight from some postings on this forum about Gainesville. Five years ago in fact, Brookfield (one of the builders here) offered to start construction right away on that intersection by paying for it in exchange for a huge chunk of land. The county wisely decided against it, as that would have been a huge neighborhood of 2000 homes or so on the eastern side of Linton Hall Road just south of the VA Gateway shopping center. Again, that upgrade was first started being planned years ago - got delayed due to money issues obviously.

[normie]

The reason I started this thread is I also had a comment I wanted to make:

As ngadude points out, the Linton-Hall project and the road widening were planned more than a decade ago. It takes a long time for projects to go from the initial planning stage to construction. So it is not at all accurate to say people moved there and then demanded the road be widened.

The way I see it, both projects are being done preventitively and that shows GOOD planning. I-66 and Rt. 50 are major corridors, and it is inevitable that in time they will become built up. That does not mean the residential sections of Gainesville will see density, but (IMO) Rt. 50 and I-66 will.

Look at it this way, right now it's relatively inexpensive to widen roads out there and build the appropriate interchanges. If they waited until after the density arrived, they'd have to deal with a much more expensive and difficult situation. I find it ironic that a person who complains endlessly about "how come they didn't widen Rt 7 years before Tyson's Corner was built" is now complaining because a road is being widened before density arrives. Personally, I applaud this road construction.

[normie]

Additional info:

According to the link below, widening I-66 is a $103 million project. The Linton Hall project is a $267 million project (it includes a pair of overpasses: one carrying Route 29 over the Norfolk Southern Railroad, and one carrying Linton Hall and Gallerher roads over the railroad tracks and Route 29).

I-66 WIDENING NEARS COMPLETION, ROUTE 29 GAINESVILLE MAKEOVER BEGINS

[ngadude]

Originally Posted by normie

Additional info:

According to the link below, widening I-66 is a $103 million project. The Linton Hall project is a $267 million project (it includes a pair of overpasses: one carrying Route 29 over the Norfolk Southern Railroad, and one carrying Linton Hall and Gallerher roads over the railroad tracks and Route 29).

I-66 WIDENING NEARS COMPLETION, ROUTE 29 GAINESVILLE MAKEOVER BEGINS

Thanks Normie for starting this thread and helping to set the facts straight! I saw once again the cost was misquoted as being $500 million in another thread - and I forgot to address that in my comments.

All construction projects of this size are planned years before a shovel hits the ground, so it is farcical to say that Gainesville residents moving in the past few years complained about the roads to get this project started. It almost got started 5 years ago by Brookfield in exchange for them getting land for a huge development, as I pointed out before. The engineering work planning the project had really been done by that time, but the project was delayed for lack of money. The I-66 widening was also delayed and done in stages rather than all at once, as people who live out this way know. It just got finished a couple of months ago and brought long awaited relief to I-66 starting from before Rt. 234 Business in Manassas all the way to Gainesville.

I would say it's far more accurate to say most people who moved to Gainesville in the past 5 years moved there knowing this project was going to get built. They did NOT complain upon moving here to their local and state representatives in an effort to get this project approved - it already was approved back around 2000 when engineering studies started to be performed.

[Middlin]

If anything, I think the people of Gainesville do not want growth. As ngadude points out the Brookfield project was turned down although it would have brought more immediate relief. There is another Brookfield proposal on Vint Hill Rd, and I really hope that the citizens of the Brentsville district really make it known that this proposal is NOT smart growth for our area.

[HEATHER72]

I expect to see growth. I never moved to Gainesville thinking that things weren't going to change. The Brookfield neighborhood near Vint Hill was approved.

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[Alicia Bradley]

normie, I'm in total agreement about NoVA needing more road capacity, and pre-emptive construction (in growing places like Loudoun and PW counties) is vastly preferable IMO to the messy (both literally and legally!) eminent domain appropriation, large-scale property demolition, etc. that Fairfax Co., etc. will, yes, simply be forced to deal with one of these days. I'm *certainly* not opposed to expanding public transit, either - heck, I'm a non-driver and would do the world's most exuberant happy dance ever if NoVA were to add light rail, street cars, whatever to its existing transit options (in addition to expanding Metro and VRE). Even in a US city with the absolute best mass transit options (and other incentives, like gas taxes, for instance), though, there would still be millions of people who'd choose to use their automobiles - exclusively - to get around. In other words, I don't subscribe to the 'traffic will expand to fill an area's road capacity, so if you don't build roads, the traffic will be reduced/better' school of thought.

[Bigfoot424]

If anyone did move to Gainesville within the last 10 years I certainly hope they didn't think things were going to slow down or stop when it comes to homes and business construction. There is no doubt Gainesville will continue to grow for many years to come. (Now hopefully RR will stay out unless he has something to say about this topic)

[ngadude]

Originally Posted by Bigfoot424

If anyone did move to Gainesville within the last 10 years I certainly hope they didn't think things were going to slow down or stop when it comes to homes and business construction. There is no doubt Gainesville will continue to grow for many years to come. (Now hopefully RR will stay out unless he has something to say about this topic)

Agreed. It was obvious 10 years ago that Gainesville was going to see huge growth in the next decade and beyond - anyone moving there who thought it was going to magically stop growing would have to be nuts.

Alicia is right - preemptive construction is needed, and the "stop growth folks" who think if you don't build roads growth won't occur are just fooling themselves. That intersection really isn't too bad right now (don't believe what you read in the press) but as Gainesville continues to grow that intersection would become gridlock by the year 2020 or 2025. Better to spend the money now and build the overpass, as the builders are going to keep on building anyway - can't stop that - especially with our county BOCS approving every project that comes along.

I'll bet the same people who object to the Gainesville overpass objected to the Centreville Rt. 28/Rt. 29 overpass before it was completed. I remember well that intersection before the overpass, and Centreville being nothing but a traffic intersection back in the early 80's. By the time the overpass got built it was needed worse than in Gainesville, with traffic backing up badly on Rt. 28 and Rt. 29 during commuter hours.

Same with Fairfax County Parkway - I bet folks objected to that before it was built fearing growth along there - which would have happened anyway.

[Middlin]

I do not want to see the continued growth of more and more housing development without any regard to schools. Fall of 2011 will see the opening of three new desperately needed schools. If more housing is approved, than the proffers better be there for more schools.