Draft - March Meeting Minutes
- hcalogin
- Apr 8
- 6 min read
Draft - HCA Meeting Minutes March 6, 2025
Zoom meeting attendees: 17
Officers:
Tamara Srader, President
Dorothy Edwards, Vice President
Michelle Arsenault, Secretary
Mark Rogers, Treasurer
Meeting called to order @ 7:33pm
Announcement & overview of published agenda
Review of Minutes from February 2025 - minutes can be found on the HCA website
https://www.huntingtononline.org/meeting-minutes-1. Minutes were approved
Treasurer’s Report (MR).
HCA member dues are due in January. $12:00/year. https://www.huntingtononline.org/join-hca. Please consider supporting our small volunteer organization.
Huntington Road diet (Jason Zaragoza). We plan to have a proposed resolution to send to VDOT so please plan on attending if you can.
Bike lanes? Floated a couple of different concepts but don’t have a design just yet. Several people were opposed to the road diet idea.
Lisa K. Feels it will be a hindrance to emergency vehicles and buses. Worried about taking away medians and access/service roads along Huntington. This is not part of the plan.
Travis - lives on Huntington. Advocate of bike lanes for safety. Feels the road diet will help with speed on Huntington.
HCA resolution: Ray asked for a couple of modifications. Not opposed to the road diet, but feels that it needs more study. Especially for roads like Mt Vernon and Fifer that have no light onto Huntington. Seems like a big issue, because if there is only one lane on Huntington the wait to make a turn from these streets could be very long.
Would less lanes on Huntington actually reduce the amount of traffic that would use it as a cut-through?
If we don’t voice our opinions, probably nothing will change. Repaving Huntington in summer so if they don’t do the road diet then they likely won’t.
Lisa K noted speeding and lack of ticketing, and maybe that would be a deterrent.
Jamie noted that safety is paramount - for pedestrians and bicyclists, and this is a good opportunity to try changes that could be beneficial. She also noted that the focus should not be only on rush hour, since that is just a small portion of the day.
Jason shared the slides from Fairfax County: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/transportation/sites/transportation/files/Assets/Documents/PDF/Huntington Ave Road Diet 24-10-9 Final.pdf
Deadline for resolution? This month (March)would be beneficial.
Move to accept the resolution with amendments Motion by: Jamie ScholzenSeconded by: Mark Rogers
Additional Discussion: None
Passed by a majority of members.
Committee and Other Reports
MVCCA (Mount Vernon Council of Citizens’ Associations, Inc.) If you are interested in volunteering, please go to the MVCCA website www.mvcca.org for more information. You can also contact Tamara, and she can connect people who would like to volunteer. Committees are always looking for volunteers!
Environment and Recreation (E & R) - Alan Ruof. Budget cuts to Fairfax County Parks. 15% cut to trail maintenance that would make them less safe. Some trails may have to close altogether. There was discussion about closing parking lots or nature centers. Also some uncertainty about OneFairfax, which is a way of getting kids to a park who otherwise might not have a way to get there. There will be a resolution supporting continued funding for a couple of items, but it sounds like cuts will be widespread.
Planning and Zoning (P & Z) - Ray Novitske. Spoke about two projects that are in the pipeline or underway now: Gristmill Park and Alexandria Crossing. Gristmill Park is not actually a project yet, but there is a team of two brothers that are proposing that the county let them renovate the barn and maybe build something there, such as a small coffee shop, a restaurant that will serve the community and families that use the soccer fields. Additionally, may build a new stage for the Mount Vernon Gristmill Park summer performances on Friday nights. The county has accepted the brothers' idea and has put out a call for proposals. This is something new that Fairfax County has not really allowed or investigated, which is to have a private entity performing or running a restaurant on county property. The second project is the Alexandria Crossing, which is a huge new project planned for the lot just North of Walmart on Richmond Highway where the home consignment shop was. The project is on hold as the county reviews permits. Also, the current sewer line on that part of Richmond Highway is under capacity for the projects that are already existing, so new sewer lines must be installed before this project gets finished. Tamara asked if the Planning and Zoning Committee discussed the proposed project for a Lidl grocery store at the site of the Office Depot, at the convergence on Richmond Highway and North Kings Highway, across from the Aldi. Not sure that is the correct location that was discussed in a recent article. The story mentioned a multistory apartment above the store. Traffic and parking seem like issues in that area.
Transportation Committee (TC) - Jason Zaragoza. The last meeting of the transportation committee was in February, and Jason handed over duties to John Lenowski, who will now be the joint public safety/transportation chair. John will be running (hopefully) to serve as the Huntington rep to the committee. Jason spoke with Peyton at supervisor Stork's office about the road diet for Huntington Avenue, which proposes converting it from four lanes to two (one lane in each direction with a median and a left turn lane. That would create room for bike lanes, pedestrian safety, room for more crosswalks, and also a flashing beacon that we've been talking alot about. The current configuration of Huntington Ave does not support those, but if they do the road diet, then it would be eligible for the flashing beacons. The Transportation Committee has been talking about this since last fall, the community was in favor, the Mount Vernon Council Transportation Committee was also in favor, and the only hurdle is VDOT. VDOT is skeptical of the impacts to traffic. Peyton asked if the Huntington Community Association would be able and willing to either send a letter or a resolution of support because we didn't really put anything on paper, so there wasn’t anything he could point to as proof. Jason prepared a resolution and read it for the participants, and the group had a lengthy discussion about safety, bicyclists, buses, Metro, emergency vehicles, driveways that are on Huntington Ave, and more. After some friendly amendments, the HCA voted and approved the resolution. Jason shared the document in the chat so everyone could read it again.
Education Committee - Mark Rogers. Cuts to Holmes Run Middle School after school program. This cut was recommended by the county, and hasn’t been voted on by the supervisors yet. Since it’s not part of the school budget, it would be better to write a letter to Supervisor Storck and other supervisors. The group discussed a letter of support from the HCA, and also advertising it on both the Huntington Facebook page and NextDoor.
Budget and Finance - No update
Stormwater - Open
Public Safety - Mark Rogers. No update?
HCA President’s Report - Tamara Srader.
Tamara spoke to Peyton in Supervisor Storck’s office about parking issues in the neighborhood. Fairfax Police issue tickets until 5:00, but there is no enforcement between 5:00 and 8:00.
HCA Member Time (if you would like to discuss a specific topic, please email Tamara Srader, HCA president prior to the meeting at president@huntingtononline.org)
Mark Rogers. The County plans to cut the CERT( Community Emergency Response Team) program, which costs 30K a year. https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/fire-ems/community-emergency-response-team-cert. It also helps with things like smoke alarms, and flood mitigation. Mark encouraged the HCA to support the continuation of CERT by writing a resolution in support. It’s a good use of money, promotes volunteerism, and it’s helpful to have folks trained by CERT embedded in the neighborhood.
Resolution: We resolve that Fairfax County should continue funding the CERT program.
Motioned by Jamie, Seconded by Jason. Additional discussion: CERT training was recently provided at a local Unitarian church. Mark offered to provide the schedule to the community. Vote: The Resolution was passed.
Why is the budget being cut in Fairfax County? Drop in commercial real estate. In order to balance the budget they had to cut other places and increase personal property tax. The State transfer back to the County is low – which is a problem. This wealthy county supports a lot of the rest of the state.
Blaine orchard - Pruning is almost done, and soon we will spray the trees with an organic spray that helps with fungus.
Seed exchange. Folks were interested in this, and we just needed to find someone to organize it.
Question about planned bike stations. Was supposed to be in late 2024 and didn’t happen.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:36pm.
Comments