A Fairfax County task force is under fire after issuing a report calling for the county to “ignore the whimpers” of residents along a historic stretch of road as it crafts plans to fix an interchange it calls a death trap.
The passage is part of recent subcommittee report from the Reston Metrorail Access Group, a citizens task force formulating transportation improvements around two planned Metrorail stops in Reston.
Mulling how to upgrade the crossing of Hunter Mill Road and the Dulles Toll Road, the authors reasoned that “we must consider the inevitable extreme pressure placed by Reston employees and transit riders this time, and ignore the whimpers of some Hunter Mill Road residents who insist this should really be kept as a bucolic scenic byway for the use of horses.”
The inflammatory language represented an unusual departure from the sleek, calm veneer that marks Fairfax County’s network of task forces and committees. The recommendations of those groups often form the backbone of development and transportation policy.
“For [the author] to come out and categorize 500 or 600 articulate citizens who have a different view than him the way he did is irresponsible and somewhat ignorant,” said Steve Hull, who lives about a half-mile from the interchange on Sunset Hill Road.
Critics say the language is symptomatic of a larger problem in which county shuts out dissenting local voices while laying the groundwork for a rash of high-density development along the path of a new rail line to Dulles Airport.
“I think it tells the whole community that we’re being excised out of the process,” said Bruce Bennett, chair of a prior study of traffic calming on the road and a member of the Hunter Mill Defense League.
Reston Metrorail Access Group Chairman Patty Nicoson Wednesday apologized for the passage, saying it doesn’t reflect the views of the group.
Dave Edwards, whose committee authored the report, called it “an opinion piece, not an official document.” The piece was, however, posted at the task force’s site on fairfaxcounty.gov.
“I don’t think anyone needs to worry about anything except the interchange area,” he said. “The area around the Hunter Mill interchange is a concern because it’s such a badly designed interchange. … The rest of Hunter Mill Road is not relevant to this discussion.”
Hunter Mill Road is designated a Virginia byway and is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
