Contractors planning for a massive influx of personnel at Fort Belvoir have recommended that agencies being moved to the area be spread out over the sprawling base, the U.S. Army announced Thursday.
About 22,000 military jobs are slated to relocate to the southern Fairfax County facility as part of the directives from the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
Under the recommendations, three of the larger agencies being relocated, and a new museum, would be dispersed over the main site and the nearby Engineer Proving Ground.
The proving ground, a parcel near Springfield, would be home to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Museum of the United States Army and parts of the Washington Headquarters Service. DeWitt Army Community Hospital and various other agencies would settle in at the South Post.
The move, which drops a small town’s worth of workers into the area, is expected to swamp surrounding communities with new traffic and development. Millions have been poured into planning efforts to optimize the placement of the incoming organizations.
For many, transportation issues are paramount.
“My No. 1 concern has always been off-site traffic,” said Virginia Del. Vivian Watts, who represents a district affected by the Belvoir shift. Any other employer that added as much traffic would be required to contribute significant proffers, she said.
County officials, who were presented three options for agency placement at a meeting in late June, had warmed to the idea of spreading out the growth as a way to disperse new traffic through the installation.
“At this early stage of the process, the Army has benefited enormously from the input we have received from local elected officials, particularly on the transportation question,” Fort Belvoir Commander Col. Brian Lauritzen said in a statement Thursday.
The recommended plan, as well as alternatives, are to be analyzed in an environmental-impact statement.
