Potomac Mills reducing commuter parking

I received this email from the Occoquan District Supervisor. Just for the record he is long time Slug himself and a great support of Slugging.

Thank you for your email regarding Potomac Mills' decision to reduce the number of commuter spaces. Unfortunately, I do not really have too much more information than what is provided in the article.

The long and short of the situation is that as part of the original rezoning for the Potomac Mills property, they proferred to provide 275 spaces for commuter parking purposes. Over the years, they have been generous in providing closer to 1,000. They have not been legally obligated to provide those additional spaces, but it has probably provided some ancillary benefit to the mall as commuters stop in to eat and/or make purchases following their commutes.

Recently, the mall decided to add some new tenants and feels the need to reclaim those 725 or so spaces for retail purposes. It is disappointing from a commuter perspective, but the mall is only legally obligated to provide 275 spaces as set out in their proffers and intends to honor this obligation. As such, there is nothing the county can do to prevent Potomac Mills from making this business decision.

This is not to say the county will not do anything at all. On the contrary, we have been aware that this might be possibility for a while and we have been planning to try to expand commuter capacity in other areas. The most notable example of this is our recent efforts to begin planning and design of the expanded Horner Road lot. We still need to identify additional funds to get to construction as quickly as possible, and we will be looking for opportunities to do so in the upcoming budget, as well as working with our state legislative delegation in Richmond to try to identify state funds. We are also aggressively pursuing grant opportunities where possible, and looking at any other funding opportunities that may be out there. (** He sent me a follow-up email that said they have some funding but not enough to complete the expansion **)

In the meantime, as you know there are some lots that are currently under capacity such as the 123 lot (the one on the east side of 95). It is our hope that perhaps some of those lots can get some additional use while we work on the longer terms solution of expanded Horner.

Again, thank you for your email. I hope the foregoing information is useful to you. Should you have any additional questions, please let me know.

-Mike
Occoquan District Supervisor

Just goes to show if you do something you don't have to people will eventually believe they're entitled to it. For 25 years Potomac Mills has been allowing 4x the amount of spaces it needed to for use as commuter spaces, now they want to put in some restaurants to make some money and help get the PWC economy moving and y'all want to boycott. If you want to protest- go to a PWC supervisors meeting and ask them why in the 25 years they had to create more commuter spaces they disregarded their duty.
I hope all of you that say you're going to boycott do so because then I will be able to shop there with out so many people in my way. But realistically since your mall options are in Stafford (I'm not even sure that counts as a mall), Manassas (good luck with the traffic) or Springfield (make sure you wear the proper gang colors), I doubt many of you will follow through on your threat.

CJ

I agree with you as well, Boycott!!! I am sure we folks who work up north bring the most business to that mall anyway! There are very few good paying jobs in the county, unless you head towards DC, except Quantico and other contractors that have moved into PW County.

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Originally posted by siggy14

I think someone needs to write a story how one of our biggest malls does not support being green. I can see this forcing a lot more people to start driving in if they cant get a spot which is bad for enviroment.

It is a shame that the mall puts money before the enviroment, I also think we should get a online petition going saying that if they go through with this plan that we plan on boycotting the mall.

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Originally posted by slugguru


The following lots in the Dale City area have significant space for more cars, PRTC officials said:
-I-95 at Va. 123
-Dale City Commuter Lot -Dale Boulevard & Gemini Way
-Lindendale Commuter Lot -Dale Boulevard & Quate Lane
-Kmart at Dale City -Dale Boulevard near Gideon
-Hillendale Commuter Lot -Hillendale Road near Dale Boulevard

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There's space for more cars in these lots because there are no transit options at these locations... You park your car there and then what? Teleport?

How do these tiny commuter lots help you get to D.C.?

Sell em back to the public and use the proceeds to turn Horner Road into a multi layer parking deck that spans the entire parking lot, then extend Metro to it... If Metro could ever get off their collective asses and build something properly for a change.

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Times to beat:
Horner Rd to/from Pentagon: 12 mins Without Slugs - 17 mins With slugs
Dale City exit to/from 3rd St Tunnel, D.C. 18 mins (No slugs - Holiday)

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Originally posted by slugguru

The following lots in the Dale City area have significant space for more cars, PRTC officials said:
-I-95 at Va. 123
-Dale City Commuter Lot -Dale Boulevard & Gemini Way
-Lindendale Commuter Lot -Dale Boulevard & Quate Lane
-Kmart at Dale City -Dale Boulevard near Gideon
-Hillendale Commuter Lot -Hillendale Road near Dale Boulevard

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Of course, 3 of the 5 are in the middle of Dale City.
the i-95/123 lot has been empty for years due to poor design
and Kmart - while I knew it had commuter spaces, I can't see them being willing to fork over a marked portion of their parking lot... though in reality, Hood-Mart should, as it's not like there is a lot of shopping traffic filling it now.