Virginia officials may sue to prevent the Pentagon from sending thousands of defense workers to Alexandria in September after a damning report by the Defense Department’s inspector general showed the Army misled local officials about potential traffic problems around the new offices. The Army claimed in 2008 that moving 6,400 defense workers to the Mark Center office complex near the intersection of Interstate 395 and Seminary Road would have no significant effect on already heavily traveled roads around a site that has no access to public transportation.
But the inspector general found that the Army was wrong, just as local officials had been claiming for years. Traffic in the area worsened after the Army completed a 2008 study and the Army refused to take those higher traffic counts into consideration, the report said.
“It now confirms what we have been saying: that the justification needed to move to this site was deficient. It has to be redone,” said Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va.
| November 2005 – President Bush signs military base closing recommendations into law. |
| August 2008 – Alexandria City Council says it supports the Army’s move to Mark Center. |
| September 2008 – Pentagon chooses the Mark Center as the new home of 6,400 defense workers. |
| December 2008 – Alexandria City Council reverses course, saying it’s worried about Mark Center traffic. |
| April 2009 – A Virginia Department of Transportation study disputes the Army’s claim that traffic won’t be a problem. |
| November 2009 – Alexandria does another traffic study to determine what road improvements are needed |
| April 2011 – Pentagon gives $20 million for Mark Center road improvements. |
| Sept. 15, 2011 – Deadline for move to Mark Center. |
Moran, who requested the inspector general’s report last fall, urged elected officials in Alexandria, Fairfax and Prince William counties, as well as Gov. Bob McDonnell, to join together and sue the federal government to halt the move. Moran said he’s done all he can at the federal level to stop the project, which is a part of the Army’s Base Realignment and Closure Plan. A lawsuit may be the best chance at delaying the Army’s move long enough to make the road improvements needed around the facility to ease congestion.
Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille and Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova each said they are considering their legal options, and will review the inspector general’s report with other top officials on Tuesday.
“This was an error that the Department of Defense made that we shouldn’t have to pay for,” Bulova said.
If the move to the new offices was delayed, defense workers would likely be able to stay at their current offices in Arlington, according to Andrea Morris, BRAC coordinator for Arlington County. The federal government already extended a number of leases at those offices, and developers would be amenable to keeping DoD employees in the offices longer.
But Prince William County Chairman Corey Stewart said he has no interest in joining a lawsuit to fix a problem that he says was created by Moran and Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va.
“There’s nothing we can do at this point. It’s too late,” Stewart said. “That building never should have been constructed, and that’s not the fault of Prince William County. That’s the fault of congressmen Moran and Connolly, who failed to prevent construction in the first place.”
Bulova said a lengthy and expensive lawsuit against the federal government wouldn’t be Fairfax County’s first choice. But the county does hope to use the report as leverage to persuade the Pentagon to pay for the major road improvements needed around the site. The Army has so far promised just $20 million for traffic improvements, far less than local officials said they would need.
“The building is there. Eventually, the building will be populated with employees,” Bulova said. “But I would hope that we can buy ourselves a period of time that will help those folks get in and out of the building.”
