Two Fairfax County supervisors doubt recent assertions from Fort Belvoir that the regional exodus of military jobs under base realignment and closure will lessen the blow of thousands of workers arriving at Fort Belvoir.
Belvoir’s spokesman said the net 14,478 jobs leaving the national capital region by 2011 under BRAC could mitigate the damage done to Fairfax County services from the about 22,000 job holders headed to the south-county base. The arrival at Belvoir is expected to swamp roads and schools.
“The regional level of analysis is fine, but I have yet to meet anyone who lives at the regional level,” said Fairfax County Supervisor Dana Kauffman, who represents the Lee District. “The bottom line is there will be real impacts on adjoining neighborhoods and we have to make accommodations.”
Fort Belvoir spokesman Don Carr said the base’s BRAC planners until now hadn’t examined the broader regional picture of the federally-mandated shift of military facilities. Simply studying the move to Belvoir, he said, doesn’t take into account the whole picture because it fails to give a concurrent look at the jobs leaving Fairfax.
“I’d say there is a bit of soft peddling there,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald Connolly said. “You could take all of BRAC [nationwide] and look at all the impacts and say they negate one another. That’s all fascinating, but it doesn’t help us locally.”
Carr could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
