Fairfax County’s Department of Transportation this weekend left its home in the county’s Herrity Building — a structure that was built two decades ago partly to move county departments out of leased office buildings — and moved into leased space nearby.
Officials say the relocation, made necessary by cramped conditions at Herrity, will open up space for a strike team that targets boarding houses and neighborhood blight.
The Department of Transportation, as well as part of the county’s Public Works Department, will move to the Centerpointe I building on Legato Road.
Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay noted the irony of the move, but called it “a good solution in a bad economy.”
He said it contrasted sharply to the aims of the Fairfax County School Board, which wants to buy a nearly $100 million office building in Falls Church to consolidate administrative space. That proposal will need the approval of supervisors.
“It really is the exact opposite of what the school system is trying to do,” McKay said. “That’s one of the reasons I haven’t had a lot of heartburn with DOT’s position. …. Because they’re leasing the space, we’re not tying ourselves down to decades of capital commitments like they’re trying to do” with the school building.
Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova said the Transportation Department’s move was a sound one.
Since the construction of the Herrity Building, “we’ve established some additional programs — such as the strike force — which is in need of space,” she said.
The Herrity Building, named after former Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Herrity, is one of two major county structures near the sprawling government center, which contains the bulk of the county’s administrative functions.
