The Virginia Department of Transportation has offered seven alternatives for direct access from I-395 to the Mark Center site in Alexandria, but citizens, concerned that several of the options would encroach on the adjacent Winkler nature preserve, are pressing for other choices.
The site is set to house 6,400 Defense Department employees transferring there under the federal government’s Base Realignment And Closure plan. BRAC has mandated the relocation of thousands of military employees nationwide by September 2011.
The options being considered would involve access to a proposed parking garage and/or the entire Mark Center site.
Residents, though, are wary about potential impacts to the preserve. In a draft letter to the city council distributed at a recent BRAC advisory group meeting, Geoffrey Goodale, president of the Brookville-Seminary Valley Civic Association, picked apart all seven of the direct access options. Three of the options would involve encroaching upon the Winkler preserve, he wrote.
“We request that council urge VDOT to consider other direct access alternatives that would not involve encroachments upon the Winkler preserve,” he wrote.
Laura Medhurst of the Environmental Policy Commission had a simple request.
“We would like to see Winkler Preserve preserved,” she said at a public hearing on Saturday.
Alice Cave chimed in as well.
“Once it’s gone, it’s gone,” she said.
Councilwoman Redella “Del” Pepper said that none of the alternatives were really acceptable, adding that the Victory Center building on Eisenhower Avenue, which sits between two metro stops, would have been a better choice for the Army.
The seven direct access ramp options are being considered by VDOT as part of their interchange justification report (IJR) analysis. The Federal Highway Administration must approve the construction of any new access points to the interstate highway system, and the first step in the approval process is to complete an IJR.
Two alternatives will be evaluated in the report, and VDOT has asked the city for its two preferences.
The transportation commission is set to hold a second public hearing on the matter on Dec. 2, and the council is scheduled to hold another public hearing on it next month.
