General Slugging Topics - Input Needed - New Springfield Parking Garage

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Input Needed - New Springfield Parking Garage

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Topic: Input Needed - New Springfield Parking Garage

Posted By: admin2
Subject: Input Needed - New Springfield Parking Garage
Date Posted: 28 Oct 2017 at 8:22am

Attention Slugs! Your Input is Needed!

There are plans to construct a new commuter garage at the current Old Keene Mill Park-and-Ride site (7039 Old Keene Mill Rd) next to Sunoco and Fairfax County DOT wants slug input!! This is great news for DOT to ask for our input prior to construction.

A meeting will be held at 7 pm on November 8, 2017 at the Key Middle School in the cafeteria, so Slugs, let your voice be heard!!

Basically DOT is trying to collect contact information for members of the slugging community who utilize this site or any of the adjacent park-and-ride lots in an attempt to gather their input and feedback. The adjacent park-and-ride lots include:
- Springfield United Methodist Church (6501 Spring Rd)
- American Legion (6520 Amherst Ave)
- Springfield Plaza (6400 Springfield Plaza) aka Bob's.

I would like to encourage as many slugs as possible to either attend the meeting and provide input from the "slugging" perspective, or post comments/input on this topic thread.

Key Middle School in Springfield is located at: 6402 Franconia Rd, Springfield, VA 22150

Here is the map for driving directions: https://goo.gl/maps/Te2gVfBMtCp" rel="nofollow - https://goo.gl/maps/Te2gVfBMtCp

Replies:

Posted By: ropoll
Date Posted: 03 Nov 2017 at 9:22am

I will be out of town or I would attend this meeting as I have for previous meetings. I hope slugs/drivers will attend so our voices can be heard. The county needs to take into account where and how much parking/space is needed for temporary slugging during construction of this project. I am less concerned with how the space will be used for weekend activities. Thanks in advance to those who attend, speak out and then report back here. :)

Posted By: scottt
Date Posted: 09 Nov 2017 at 8:10am

Ok, the largest takeaways from the presentation.

Current schedule (which means it's the gov't, so tack on a year or two):

Construction anticipated to begin in Fall 2019. Operation to begin in early 2022.

Yep, you're reading that right. 2.5 years to build a garage.

The main issue (in my opinion) is that they have space for 6 cars (per slug line) to queue up. Yep, that's not a typo, 6 each. I hopefully conveyed to them that there are QUITE often more than 6 cars waiting in line. Hopefully they will address this, as backups will prevent people, trying to park, from entering the garage.

If people want to submit comments, etc, the link is

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/fcdot/springfieldgarage.htm" rel="nofollow - https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/fcdot/springfieldgarage.htm

Posted By: carquin
Date Posted: 09 Nov 2017 at 10:39am

I also attended meeting. To supply a little more detail, look at page 7 of this https://www.slideshare.net/fairfaxcounty/springfield-multiuse-parking-garage-public-information-meeting-aug-17-2016%20%20" rel="nofollow - The space allocated to slugging car pool staging vs bus bays vs short/long term parking shows slugging as an afterthought. Currently the lot is entirely dedicated to slugging. The proposed configuration for the garage will ruin slugging in Springfield. Please email and call the following county/state government officials to share your concerns:
FFX County Board of Supervisor
FFX County Board of Supervisor Chairman Sharon Boluva
Commonwealth of Virginia Delegate
State Senator
To identify the government officials and contact info for your district, click http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/myneighborhood/" rel="nofollow - and type in your street address.

When you contact your representative, speak to the following concerns:
Plan shows 7 bus bays, which takes up most of the space. Eliminate bus bays. Let them continue to stop on Keene Mill.
If eliminating the bus bays is not an option, consider buying land on the other side of Springfield Bldg and locate buses there.
Another option is to relocate bus bays to Springfield Plaza.
Much area is devoted to either short term or long term parking at the expense of carpool staging areas. The lot doesn't have that now. Make the entire area carpool staging.
The event space on the garage roof is not useful. Convert to parking.
FFX County is trying to solve problems we don't have. The space is called a multi-use space: it's a transportation hub, it has buses, parking, slugging and event space. The citizens aren't advocating for event space or bus bays. We want parking so we can meet up with carpools and/or slug downtown. Please, spend my tax dollars trying to solve REAL problems.
Construction on the lot should not start until the county has a VERY clear plan for alternative parking. Construction will take over 2 years and means we have nowhere to pick up and drop off slugs and we lose 264 parking spaces. This is NO small problem!
County needs to do a better job with public meetings. Use technology to be more inclusive-host youtube or facebook live chats. Post more signs and put up flyers on cars to advertise public meetings.

Posted By: carquin
Date Posted: 09 Nov 2017 at 11:14am

I just called the Springfield District Office, which is my Supervisor on the FFX County Board, about the garage. The supervisor is Pat Herrity.

The person answering the phone said I am the first citizen to call to express concern over the plans for the garage. Please folks, call and write your District Supervisor. If you don't provide written and verbal feedback, you will not have a voice!

If you don't know who to call, start by calling Jeff McKay at 703-971-6262 or LeeDist@fairfaxcounty.gov. The garage is in his district.

Call today.

Posted By: admin2
Date Posted: 12 Nov 2017 at 8:16am

Carquin, Scott, and Ropoll,
Thank you so much for participating and providing a slugging perspective. Providing the link to the presentation was very helpful.

I am still a little confused on how slugs/cars will stage. The presentation said "20 Commuter (slug) spaces". Is this the staging area??

Also, thanks for posting the contact information on who/how to provide input.

I will try to put some of this information in the next newsletter.