I-66 Widening Could Bring Park & Ride Lot to the Rural Crescent
Update October 22 2015--
Thanks to the many people who wrote letters, made phone calls, and attended meetings, VDOTs proposal to build an I-66 Park and Ride lot on the Heflin's working farm in the Rural Crescent, Antioch Road and Route 55, is no longer part of the plan.
Chairman Corey Stewart, with the support of the Board of County Supervisors, sent a letter to VDOT making an official request to remove the Heflin property as a proposed site for a Park and Ride lot.
At the October 27 meeting of the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB), VDOT stated they had no intention of causing conflicts with local land use planning.
Gary Garczynski, our Northern Virginia Representative, said he received over 200 emails expressing concern about the location of the Park and Ride lot. He asked staff to get back with him about the process to find a new parking lot location.
For right now, the Heflin farm will remain a working farm. Discussion of a new location for the I-66 Park and Ride lot is deferred to another day. All the same, there is clearly a bulls-eye on the Rural Crescent, including the area between Haymarket and the Fauquier County line.
Why should you care?
 Prince William County’s rural area provides space for farms, farm markets, and other agribusiness. It also protects open space, expands housing choices, and creates a scenic countryside.
The low-density development in the Rural Crescent requires fewer infrastructure investments, freeing taxpayer funds for use in the Development Area where public investments can be maximized for greater benefit. A robust rural area benefits communities and reduces the tax burden countywide.
The landscape between Haymarket and the Fauquier County border is a beautiful area with farms and forests, significant historic resources, and winding country roads. Located at the base of Bull Run Mountain, this area is unique within the Prince William, which is perhaps the only locality within the Chesapeake Bay watershed with both a mountain and a tidal shoreline.
In fact, the scenic qualities of this area are so significant PWCA is in process of requesting Virginia’s Scenic Byway designation for a route beginning on Route 55 at the Fauquier border, traveling to Antioch Road and west on Waterfall Road to connect with Hopewell Road in Fauquier County, where that Board of Supervisors has already voted in support of the state designation.
If successful, these would be the first roads in Prince William County to receive Virginia’s Scenic Byway designation, although surrounding counties have long taken advantage of this opportunity to highlight unique local resources.
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