Development Plans
There are plans to rehabilitate (and possibly expand) the Bradlick shopping center. Combined Properties, the owner of the shopping center, will be filing several land use applications with Fairfax County in the coming weeks as part of a plan to improve the appearance, circulation and retail shopping options at the center. The plans include a proposed drive-through restaurant. Combined Properties have a presentation in the Seminar Room of the Immanuel Bible Church, located at 6911 Braddock Road, on September 17, 2001, beginning at 7:00 p.m. Interested members of the community are invited to attend. On a somewhat related note, Immanuel Bible Church is also proposing a minor improvement to widen an enclosed breezeway between two of its buildings for enhanced accessibility. The breezeway will be widened to extend the breezeway roofline six feet into the courtyard formed between two of the church buildings. The courtyard walk will also be upgraded to conform to ADA standards. We received notice of this work directly from the Church, but this change to Immanuel will not be discussed at the September 17 meeting.
If you would like any more information, please contact Leona Taylor who can provide you with names, addresses and phone numbers of the parties involved.
President's Notes by Leona Taylor
Hearing notices will be going out to eight homeowners with regard to ARC violations. The Board approved the motion, so hearings are scheduled for the next board meeting on September 11, 2001. The hearings are scheduled for the beginning of the meeting, and the Board will go into executive session while discussing the violations and remedies with each homeowner that attends the hearing. So for those of you who normally attend the meeting, you will be asked to step outside for a portion of the meeting. Following the hearings on same Tuesday (yes, we have a full agenda), the Board will review a draft of the 2002 budget. The Board generally has to approve next year's budget at the October Board meeting so that a notice of assessment increase (if an increase is approved) can be sent to each homeowner as required by our documents. Therefore, the September meeting is important in terms of making sure we consider the revenue and expenditures for next year. If you have any ideas or suggestions for items to budget for next year, please contact Mohammed Umar, our Treasurer. We are planning to give you an update of the draft budget in the next newsletter so that there is some time for additional comments before the Board approves the final budget at the October meeting.
In other actions, the Board decided at the last meeting to terminate the architectural management contract with Koger Management Group. Please be aware that any correspondence or inquiries regarding ARC should be directed to Pam Stover who chairs the committee. Lastly, our parking/traffic and tot lot committees continue their efforts. Updates should be forthcoming in this or future newsletters.
Redistricting Opinion by Judy Currier
Last month Tony McSorley wrote about the redistricting of the supervisorial districts. Apparently once the plan is approved by the Justice Dept. we will be getting new voter registration cards.I must say in my years as president of Leewood Homeowners Association, and in the many zoning battles I have been involved in, I have been very happy that we were part of the Braddock District. The office has helped us in innumerable ways, giving us names of who to contact in many instances and in others researching questions on their own. The Braddock District Council has been a source of information and inspiration to us over the years. (For example, the idea for our popular Contractor's List came from a meeting of the BDC that I attended). As far as zoning, the best of all possible worlds would have been for the expansion properties to be in the Braddock District, not Mason. This is because Braddock is more conservative about pushing traffic congestion down their citizens' throats. In the absence of that, it should be known that Braddock did support us in our battles with Mason, and supported us to the envy of the Mason District residents that opposed the same projects. I would not want anyone to get the wrong impression from Tony's article. From one who has been there and fought the zoning wars from start to finish - we were well represented on both the Planning Commission and Supervisor's Boards. In addition, the Braddock District Council sent a representative to the hearing to testify to the points that were important to us; that broadened the base of opposition. The citizens of Mason District stood by themselves before a hostile Planning Commissioner from their own district.I was relieved that the remaining properties to be developed in our area were in the Braddock District. That gave us some hope. Now we will have to deal with an office that has never seen a car or developer they didn't like when the property behind Bradgen Court or at the corner of Larylyn and Backlick is developed. We will not have an ally in our corner; we will have an office that has stated that we have no right to comment on zoning issues as people complained about Leewood when it was built. We will have an office where a lead member of that "excellent staff" dismissively said "oh everyone thinks that the traffic in their area is bad", and "we would like your area to become another downtown Annandale". We will have an office that states that the increased traffic in our area has nothing at all to do with the eight new projects/expansion in our area - they seem to think people morph to the buildings they allow to be constructed. Rejoice if you will, I will not.
PS Anyone can use the parks of Fairfax whether they are in their district or not. For example, we will not be barred from going to Lake Accotink now that we are in the Mason District. Similarly Mason District Park is open to Braddock district residents. Also, the dog run was just approved by the Park Authority, and has not yet been built, although the woods there makes for a nice outing with your pet.
Community Website by Judy Currier
Remember that Leewood has a website that you can access by going to www.communitypath.com. As of August we have a full years of newsletters up there. Want to know whether the board is considering items of particular interest to you? Read the minutes, and then the agenda for the upcoming meeting to decide whether you would like to attend a meeting. Want to know where your money is going? Look at the financials. All of this and much more is in the library section of the website. Handy links to resources on the net, our contractors list, ARC forms, nearby parks, trash rules and holidays - all can be found on the site.
I had a brilliant idea recently. There is a section on the site for ridesharing. No one has signed up to use it in a year, so we might as well make good use of it for something else. It easily can be used to list our neighbors who are willing to babysit, shovel snow, or do other handy indoor or outdoor work. If you would like others to be able to know about your services go to Ridesharing, then fill out the form, but where it says "destination" put down what you will do for others (for pay of course). You can also do this in the message board area, but those messages get automatically deleted after a while (be sure and set the time on them so they last more than three days!) and I think this will work much better. People will be able to have a handy list that they won't lose of who does what in the neighborhood. Visit the site and sign up for something now!
Gutter Cleaning
A group rate for the cleaning of gutters will be available through the Association. The price will be from $30-$35, depending on the extent of the work. Colberts is the company responsible for this venture. The service will be available at the end of October or early November when most of the leaves have fallen off the trees. As you may remember, Colberts is the company that did the window cleaning in the early summer. Incidentally window cleaning will also be available again at a group rate. If you are interested, please contact Barbara Rolling. I have an answering service available for messages.
