Taking Whacks at BRAC

By: Lowell
Published On: 7/16/2007 7:53:07 AM

The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decision to move 22,000 workers to Fort Belvoir by September 2011 is looking less and less likely.  Back in May, Rep. Moran (D-8th), issued a press release announcing that he had "successfully added an amendment to the FY?08 Defense Authorization bill (H.R. 1585) requiring that hundreds of millions in transportation improvements to Ft. Belvoir be made before any of the 9,000 BRAC-designated Arlington employees in leased space are transferred to the base."  Now Rep. Tom Davis (R-11th) is weighing in, telling the DC Examiner that the BRAC move to Ft. Belvoir is "undoable under the current timeline, the current framework and the current density."

How about simply scrapping this misguided decision, which has no justifiable purpose, which violates just about every principle of "smart growth," and which will overwhelm transportation infrastructure in southern Fairfax County?  According to the Coalition for Smarter Growth, "BRAC PROPOSAL WOULD GRIDLOCK THE FORT BELVOIR AREA: DRAFT Study Shows Massive Delays."  Why on earth would we do THAT?!?

Comments



A Mixed Blessing (Afton Dem - 7/16/2007 8:37:34 AM)
There are a lot of ways to look at this.

South Fairfax is already in gridlock, with suburban development already destroying some of the last farmland and undeveloped space in the Washington area.  No legitimate infrastructure to support this has been built, or is planned.  Those who live in the area now view this BRAC move as a disaster, and with some justification.

On the other hand, thousands of communities across America would KILL for this opportunity.  The economic engine that would be brought to South Fairfax by the move is breathtaking.  It would not only be the 22,000 jobs being moved into Belvoir, but the attendant high-paying high-tech support jobs and construction that would be brought in through fed contractors.  The Route One corridor is pretty awful in many respects, and this may bring new life to an area which has seen the Washington-area renaissance pass it by in some ways.  Crystal City and Arlington could re-develop with retail and residential space -- maybe some new parks and green development?  And the growth in South Fairfax could be done smartly this time, with real investment in transportation and the environment. 

What is lacking here is any political leadership to push the move in the right direction, and make a real investment in our area's future.  If there are wealthy landowners and corporations who stand to make fortunes, somehow the politicians seem to find a couple of billion dollars to invest (see Dulles Rail debacle).  How come they can't seem to get it done here?



Why should they move at all? (Catzmaw - 7/16/2007 11:22:59 PM)
It's not like Arlington suddenly declared it had no room.  There's no good reason to disrupt these workers, uproot them, and reestablish them somewhere else.  Keep them where they are.


BRAC Stupidity (humanfont - 7/16/2007 11:03:32 PM)
We already have hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space in Crystal City, proximty to the pentagon, masss transit and road infrastructure.  Moving this crap to Ft. Belvior always struck me as pennywise pound foolishness.  Sure office space is more expensive in Crystal City, that's because it has all these extras.  Once you factor in building the extras somewhere else the office space isn't cheaper.  Imagine if we actually factored in the cost of things like all the carbon comming out of the cememt for these new roads; the shift from mass transit to cars.