Upcoming Hearing on Proposed 40,000 SF Addition to South Lakes High School

The first item on the Fairfax County Planning Commission's agenda for its October 15, 2015, meeting at 8:15PM at the Fairfax County Government Center auditorium is a proposed 40,000SF addition to South Lakes High School.

The construction of the addition would result in a total gross floor area of 373,750 square feet.  The purpose of the addition is to provide additional classroom to increase the capacity of the existing school from 2,126 students to 2,500 students.  Along with the building addition, the School Board proposes the addition of 128 parking spaces raising the total number of spaces to 758.  In addition, the Board proposes to modify stormwater management by installing open joint pavement blocks and five filterras.  The School Board also proposes waiving transitional screening requirements on the west, north, and east sides of the school. 

The high school clearly needs additional capacity to handle the number of students as the large number of modular schoolrooms there highlights.  At the same time, there may be concerns about:

• Additional traffic, especially during the morning rush hour, as students and faculty attempt to enter the school's parking areas.
• Stormwater issues, which have been a decades-long problem for neighbors east and south of the school, just partially corrected north of South Lakes Drive this year.
• Waiving of screening requirements will create an additional noise issue for residential areas east and west of the school.

If you wish to speak at the hearing, the instructions for registering and speaking are available here under "Meeting Information."

Here a perspective drawing and an annotated overview plan of the proposal. 

The full 54-page proposal is available here for review.

Metro acknowledges breakdowns might be adding to a ridership decline, Washington Post, October 6, 2015

There is very little we can add to this report by Paul Duggan at the Washington Post.  Somehow Metrorail has disintegrated into an unsafe and unreliable rail transit system with declining ridership while, according to the financial briefing, simultaneously charging the second-highest peak fares in the land (second only to BART).  Here is how this article begins:

Metro, in an unusual acknowledgment, says breakdowns and other service failures appear to be contributing to a steady, years-long decline in ridership that is causing financial stress for the transit agency and could lead to fare increases.

The persistent drop in annual rail ridership since 2010 results not only from economic and lifestyle changes in the Washington region, according to a Metro budget report made public this week. The report cites “preliminary evidence” that “concern by customers over service quality and reliability” also is taking a toll on ridership.

The document — prepared as a revenue briefing to be presented to members of Metro’s governing board Thursday — includes an uncommonly candid recognition by the agency that subway performance woes have become so chronic that more and more commuters are abandoning the system, which has worsened Metro’s money problems. . . .

Here's the link.

The Silver Line isn't even completed through Reston and commuters are dropping Metro. Martin Di Caro, WAMU, October 2, 2015

Why D.C.-Area Commuters Say They Are Dropping Metro

By: Martin Di Caro
October 2, 2015 

Some Orange Line riders have decided to avoid the crush — permanently. 

Call them the Metro quitters.

After months of consistently unreliable rush hour service emblematic of this rough year for the D.C. region’s transit system, an unknown but seemingly growing number of commuters are dumping Metro, giving up their seats — if seats are even available aboard packed railcars — for cars, bikes or walking.

WAMU 88.5 has received scores of emails and tweets from Metrorail riders who are quitting the system after the lousy summer that ended on a regrettably fitting note: on Sept. 21 a transformer fire at Metro’s power substation near Stadium-Armory will cause service disruptions for at least six months on the Blue, Orange, and Silver Lines. . . .

Click here for the rest of this extensive article, including a number of comments from former Metro riders.