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THE NORTHERN VIRGINIA DAILY Workshop gives residents a voice in redevelopment By Diane Hartson Hiking trails, vehicle access, boat launches and an ecological education center were among the features debated Monday during a design workshop for the recreation area that will be built at the former Avtex Fibers Superfund site. Several local people spent the day meeting with landscape architects from EDAW Inc., the landscape consulting firm hired by FMC Corp., to draw up concepts of what the park should include. Vastly different points of view were voiced about using the eastern half of the site, which is planned for park land when the site is redeveloped. Participants divided into four groups, and each group sat down with maps and worked on its park design. Most said that they wanted a more natural park. Scott Reid Jr., a local real estate agent, said that the park should be a place where local children and others can be exposed to culture, he said. Plans with no interior roadway didn’t provide enough access to the park’s features, he said. "This project should be exposed to the maximum number of people," he said. Susan Leopold, a member of the same group, opposed developing an interior roadway. "This isn’t just a blanket piece of land where we create a park," she said. "This is land that has been seriously abused, We have to help the land heal." Others saw the need for recreational features like a boat launch and bike and hiking trails. Most felt the best plan would incorporate the natural environment with those features. One group included a grassy, terraced amphitheater, saying it would be a wonderful asset for the community. Participants placed a frisbee meadow behind it, but included no boat launches other than the existing Luray Avenue facility just south to the site. It was the only group that included restrooms in its plan. Most groups limited vehicles in the park, but provided walking and biking trails for access. One group discussed transportation alternatives like a mini train or electric carts to get people from place to place in the park. Another group leaned more toward an ecological park, with no parking on the site and no access for cars except at the northern tip, with a bike loop carrying visitors around the park. Most liked a water feature, which would provide some filtering of surface water. Most groups included a center somewhere in the park to demonstrate environmental issues, the history of the area or the history of the Shenandoah River. The architects will take the residents designs and incorporate them into designs that will be brought back to the table in January. Richard Dorrier of EDAW said that the architects alternatives will be presented at a Jan. 11 meeting and, using remarks from that session, final plans will be drawn up by February. FMC, the company responsible for the remaining cleanup at the site, hired the landscape firm and has agreed to incorporate park design features in the grading it performs. A large area planned for park land includes lagoons and basins of toxic waters that are slated for removal or capping in the nest cleanup phase in 2000. Suggestions Architects from EDAW Inc. presented three starting-point designs for the parkland:
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