This is a picture down Wedderburn Lane, at the corner of Cedar Lane in Vienna. The wooded area on the right is the edge of one of the most beautiful parcels of land in all of Providence District. Its twelve acres is home to a dozen or more "heritage" and "monarch" trees of great age, which host a nesting pair of owls and provide habitat for many animals. It boasts a stone "spring house" built about 200 years ago for cold food storage in the natural seeping springs that form the headwaters of a tributary to Bear Creek, which in turn feed into Accotink Creek. And it borders on the W&OD Trail, one of the most well-used and best-beloved parks in Virginia. It is truly a magic garden.But the trees are coming down now....
In September 2005, Supervisor Linda Smyth recommended approval of a mammoth development on the Wedderburn property that will plunk 4000+ sq/ft homes down on 8000+ sq/ft lots, which the Board, of course, approved. The final outcome was not in doubt at the time, as Linda Smyth had already spurned citizens efforts to save the grand old trees, to save the stream, and to provide a 75 foot tree-buffer to the Trail. She made her feelings about citizen efforts very clear at the time.
I took note of the precedents being set by Wedderburn, as did others, and together we formed a cross-county coalition of citizen groups intent on having a say about the future of our County. We became so adept at turning out people in droves at hearings that our County officials starting hiring contractors to fill in for them at meetings, and developers actually created fake citizen groups to pretend to oppose us. We started thinking about this election.
Meanwhile, Wedderurn was granted a short reprieve in 2006 when the housing market took a downturn and the development plans were temporarily tabled. For another turn of the seasons, life at Wedderburn continued as it had for centuries amid the groves of immense cedar trees and along the little stream.
But for several months now, the County has been in the final throes of approving the Wedderburn site plan. Actually, we were a bit curious about the timing, wondering if site construction would be conveniently pushed off until after the June 12th election.
Well, we have an answer.
Thursday June 7th a notice appeared in the Washington Post -- construction is due to begin as early as next week, right after the election of course. Here is a picture of one of several signs advertising the company that will do the sad work. I wonder if the workers will be sad when they see what it is they must destroy.
Linda Smyth is responsible for what is happening at Wedderburn. We sent a message to all our neighbors after the fight was over, telling them that when the new development went up, if they liked it they should thank Linda Smyth, but that if they believed it was yet one more miserable blight on the landscape, then they should hold her accountable.
Well, the trees are coming down now, and on Tuesday Linda Smyth will be held accountable.
Will the developers go after the Bunny Man Bridge in Clifton next? Ridiculous!
Without looking at details or involving themselves in the nitty gritty of a rezoning, Sierra Club is not informed - and worse yet, they tell you they don't want the details. The leadership at the time of Wedderburn said they (1) didn't have time and (2) couldn't get involved...retaliation [from Connolly] I think was their word.
Meanwhile, we will lose a treasure in Providence, thanks to Smyth's retaliation against the neighborhoods. It had all to do with her "preening power" and receiving soon to come campaign contributions.
As for the Sierra Club...again, they didn't ask the membership prior to the endorsement of Smyth in 2003 or 2007. Pity...they still don't want to get too much information and WE continue to get words from the BoS rather than real action on environmental protection.
But if you had looked at the ribbons that were put up to show the trivial amount of tree preservation that Smyth required, and saw the magnificent specimen trees that will be reduced to mulch, all to make room for more McMansions nowhere near a Metro station, you too would be angry with her.
And she even allowed the developer to get a resource protection area declassified so that it didn't interfere with their plans.
Since the trees are coming down soon anyway, it's unfortunate that it didn't happen before tomorrow's election so neighbors could see in real life the monstrosity of a development plan that Smyth approved and register their complaints at the ballot box.