One of the major military agencies set to relocate to Fort Belvoir could reduce the number of personnel it plans to send to the base, according to Fairfax County officials who are carefully watching a decision that could greatly impact the base realignment.
The Washington Headquarters Services is set to bring 9,263 personnel to Belvoir’s Engineer Proving Ground under the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Act, the largest single chunk of the 22,000 jobs headed to the base by 2011.
Some speculation suggests that as many as 5,000 personnel could be deflected.
But two local supervisors whose districts would be greatly affected by BRAC say they’ve been told the headquarters service may be examining moving a portion of those jobs to the Pentagon instead of Belvoir.
Supervisors Dana Kauffman, who represents the Lee District, and Gerry Hyland, who represents the Mount Vernon District, both tell The Examiner the agency is examining the possible shift.
But the issue is shrouded in uncertainty, and the military would not respond to questions.
“I don’t know what the status is,” Hyland said. “But apparently there are ongoing discussions about making [the shift] happen, which would have not an insignificant impact on the number of people who are moving to Fort Belvoir.”
Such a change, were it to become reality, would help relieve transportation nightmare that BRAC is expected to cause. As it now stands, the massive job influx will likely necessitate hundreds of millions of dollars worth of transportation improvements in Southern Fairfax County, only a small portion of which are funded. Estimates for preparing the area’s road network run as low as $458 million, the Army’s calculation, up to Hyland’s estimate of more than $1 billion.
