FABB Blog

FABB wants to remind local cyclists and others about an important meeting tomorrow, November 7, to save two key park trails in Huntley Meadows Park that Fairfax County is proposing to remove from the Countywide Trails Plan and Bicycle Master Plan.  

The public meeting on Wednesday will be held from 7:00 to 9:00 pm at Groveton Elementary School, 6900 Harrison Lane in Alexandria. 

A Planning Commission public hearing on the Plan Amendments to remove the trails that was originally scheduled for November 29 has been postponed until January 29, 2019. It is currently set for 7:30 to 10:00 pm at the Fairfax Government Center, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Suite 330, in Fairfax.  

You can speak up at the public hearing or send comments to the Commission at plancom@fairfaxcounty.gov.  Sending comments to Supervisor McKay at LeeDist@fairfaxcounty.gov is also encouraged.  

Also included in Chapter 7 are typical road sections, none of which includes bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, cycle tracks, etc. We assume these will also be addressed in Phase 2.

FABB encourages cyclists and pedestrians in southern and eastern Fairfax to attend the final community open house on the effort to update the land use plan--including bicycling and pedestrian facilities--for the Embark Richmond Highway project.

The open house will take place on Wednesday, January 10, 2018, from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. at Whitman Middle School, 2500 Parkers Lane, in Alexandria. At the meeting you can learn about the proposed comprehensive plan recommendations from county staff. More important, your questions and input will help the staff finalize recommendations that will prepare the corridor for pedestrian and bicycle enhancements. These recommendations for updating the Comprehensive Plan, in turn, will be given to the Planning Commission. 

Mark your calendars now for the final steps in the process. The Planning Commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the comprehensive plan amendment on January 25, 2018, at 7:30 p.m. The Board of Supervisors will then hold a public hearing on the amendment on March 20, 2018, at 4:00 p.m.

In 2007 when FABB sponsored the Tour of Tysons to show Fairfax officials and others what it was like to bike in Tysons, Commissioner Lawrence and Supervisor Smyth greeted us before the ride. When Fairfax County was developing the first Bicycle Route Map, Commissioner Lawrence attended one of the public meetings where cyclists marked up maps to help develop the first draft of the map. 

Commissioner Lawrence was a kind man with a good sense of humor who could be counted on to provide sage advice on how Fairfax should grow in the future. He'll be missed.

Since his profile on the Planning  Commission site will likely be replaced by his successor's, we've taken the liberty of copying it below:

Kenneth Lawrence was appointed by the Board of Supervisors (on a motion by Supervisor Linda Smyth) to serve as the Providence District Planning Commissioner in January 2004 to complete the term of his predecessor. In January 2013, Commissioner Lawrence was reappointed by the Board of Supervisors to his third consecutive term, which will expire in December 2016.

Commissioner Lawrence is an active member in various community organizations. He has chaired the Briarwood Citizen's Association Land Use Committee and served as the Briarwood representative on the 2001 Area Plan Review task force. He also chaired the work group on the Fairlee out-of-turn plan amendment in the Providence District. In addition, Commissioner Lawrence is a member of the Northern Virginia Family Services' Training Futures Advisory Council and an active volunteer with the American Lung Association of Virginia, serving as a member on the Government Relations Committee.

Commissioner Lawrence retired in 1998 from a 40-year career in private industry and the federal government. He began his career conducting training device design and human factors research, which ultimately led to a focus in instructional design. His work ranged from developing single units to entire courses in technical and procedural training, employee development and employee performance support, and the target populations for the training included members of the military, sales staff, procurement and tax specialists, and research managers.

Commissioner Lawrence lives with his wife in the Fairfax area of the Providence District

In 2016, Lawrence chaired the Tysons Committee. In addition, he was a member of the following committees: Environment, Land-use Process Review, and Transportation. He was an alternate member of the Telecommunications Committee. Lawrence has been a Virginia Certified Planning Commissioner since 2005. He was featured in the August 2007 Planning Communicator, which is available online at: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planning/august2007newsletter.pdf.