Military planners navigating a massive job shift to Fort Belvoir are expected to get an earful from the public tonight.
The hearing at Mount Vernon High School could be one of the largest in the long and contentious planning process. Fort Belvoir is expected to double in size from the influx of about 22,000 workers by 2011 under federal Base Realignment and Closure mandates.
The move is expected to clog local roads and highways, and regional traffic concerns have remained at the forefront of discussions since Congress ordered the shift in 2005.
Those concerns will likely take center stage tonight. Even the most conservative cost estimates of needed transportation improvements run in the hundreds of millions. The majority of those improvements remain unfunded.
The hearing is part of a public review and comment process for the Army’s draft environmental impact statement on the job shift, which was released last month. BRAC planners will use input from the meeting to prepare the final version of the study.
The event will be held in the high school’s Little Theater at 8515 Old Mount Vernon Road at 6 p.m.
