Unless otherwise noted, commentary is by Arielle Masters (the BFHOA webmaster), speaking as a homeowner and not as an official representative of the BFHOA Board. Most recent meetings and summaries are at top.

8/10/00: Many homes are complete or under construction; Middleton Farm Drive has been paved. West Ox is being widened in the immediate vicinity of the new development to allow for turn lanes.

6/21/00: Several homes are complete; it looks as though a few may have residents. Work is in progress on Middleton Farm Drive. The Middleton Farm section on the Toll Brothers web site shows available models, including floor plans and pricing.

2/21/00: Parts of the main road for Middleton Farm have been flattened out; several homes' frames are approaching completion; a number of additional home sites have been staked out.

1/01/00: Happy New Year!

Middleton Farm now has its own section on the Toll Brothers web site.

Groundbreaking began a couple of months ago. The part of the site from Monterey Estates to Monroe Street is now being heavily worked on - terraced, at last visit. Sales trailers are onsite.

5/17/99: Middleton Farm still is not listed on Toll Brothers' local project list.

"Update" on the traffic light proffer (this info is from the 1999 Annual Bradley Farm Homeowners' Meeting): VDOT has not yet decided at which intersection (Monroe Street, New Parkland Drive, or McLearen Road) to put the light.

2/16/99: At last check (2/15/99) the Middleton Farm neighborhood was not on the list of Toll Brothers' local projects, but it should be soon - there's now a large billboard on the Middleton Farm land announcing the new neighborhood. The billboard calls the development "Middleton's Oakton Farm" and instructs interested parties to call (703)715-9800 for more information.

The following is a summary as submitted by Roy Hand, BFHOA Board Member, on 8/18/98

MIDDLETON FARM DEVELOPMENT APPROVED

As everyone has heard by now, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors last month approved the Middleton Farm Rezoning Proffer submitted by Toll Brothers developers. There was no public hearing before the vote as the public hearing was held the pervious month when the proffer was placed on indefinite hold due to a issue involving an old holly tree in the middle of the property. The actual proffer approved was amended as follows:

1. The development will contain 239 homes when completely finished. Mr. Middleton, who resides in one of the brick homes on the property boarding West Ox Road, has stated that he does not plan to move in the near future. Consequently, it appears that this portion of the Middleton Farm property will not be developed for several years.
2. There will be 12 ADUs located toward the middle of the development.
3. There will a 17-acre neighborhood park on the southwest corner of the property adjacent to Horse Pen Run. The park will be constructed under the guidance of the Fairfax County Park Service and both Toll Brothers and the Park Service will construct "access" walk-paths to the park from the surrounding neighborhoods.
4. The land in the designated EQC/wet land area (the wooded area along both sides of the stream from the Bradley Farm Drive stub street to Horse Pen Run) will be donated by Toll Brothers to the Board of Supervisors for park land use (approximately 2 acres).
5. A "pocket" park (approximately ½ acre) will be created around the old Middleton Farm holly tree to help preserve it. The pocket park represents the difference between the previous 240 homes sites and the approved 239 home sites.
6. Toll Brothers will donate a traffic signal to be placed on West Ox Road by VDOT to help control and manage vehicle traffic. The location of the traffic signal will be decided by VDOT prior to the start of home site construction this fall.
7. The main drive into Middleton Farm, which will only have one primary egress, will be Middleton Farm Drive. This street will exit onto West Ox Road at the current intersection of Monterey Estates Drive and West Ox Road. To accommodate the new intersection, West Ox Road will be widened between New Parkland Drive and Monroe Street. Both Monterey Estates Drive and Middleton Farm Drive will given a left and right hand turn into those streets from West Ox Road.
8. The Board of Supervisors petitioned VDOT to seriously review the county's Five Year Road Improvement Plan for the purpose of decreasing the time before West Ox Road is widened to a four-lane road from Fairfax County Parkway to Centerville Road.

7/07/98: The Washington Post has had a few articles so far this month (July) about a holly tree on the Middleton property. Summary: there's a 100-year-old holly tree on a hill over there. The Board of Supervisors says they will deny Toll Brothers' rezoning application unless Toll Brothers promises, in writing, not to cut down this holly tree.

Washington Post article #1 - Thursday, July 2, by Michael D. Shear and Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post article #2 - same day, by Michael D. Shear

There are also a number of area residents who continue to be concerned about the increase in traffic on West Ox Road that will result from the Middleton Farm development.

The results of the May 20 hearing were reported in local papers: preliminary approval of the revised Toll Brothers plan was granted. Final Board of Supervisors vote is in early-mid June.

The following is a summary of the May 20 hearing as submitted by Roy Hand, BFHOA Board Member

The Fairfax County Planning Board held an "Open Hearing" on May 20th at the Fairfax County Government Center concerning the Middleton Farm property rezoning petition submitted by Toll Brothers. Approval of the petition would allow Toll Brothers to complete purchase of the 96 acre farm and development of the land for upper income homes and a small number of "Affordable Dwelling Units" (ADUs). The following key items took place or were said during the hearing.

1. The Board did vote and approve the latest Proffer (dated May 15, 98) with one addition, the EQC (Flood Plane and Wet Land) area between the county Park Land in Horse Pen Run and the road stub at the end of Bradley Acres Road (the access that was to have connected Middleton Farms to Bradley Farm) will be donated by Toll Brothers to the Planning Commission for Park Land use. This new land to be donated to the county adjoins the existing sliver of County Park Land that runs behind four homes on Bradley Acres Court and its adjoining pipestem. This area of land is about 1.5 acres and it will be added to the 17 acres of flood plane land on the south end of the Middleton Farm property (next to Horse Pen Run) that Toll Brothers had already agreed to donate to the county for Park Lane use.

2. Roy Hand, BFHOA Board Member, and members of the Fairfax Park Authority prior to the Hearing discussed the above Proffer amendment on more than one occasion. The Park Authority indicated in those discussions that if the Planning Board approved the amendment, then the Park Authority would take out the stub, close off the area with a new "rounded curb", fill in the area with dirt and grass, and then put a walk path with steps and a wooden bridge over the wet land stream to connect Bradley Farm to Middleton Farm. This would allow residents of Bradley Farm to walk into the Middleton Farm housing area and down to the new Horse Pen Valley Park that Toll Brothers is going to build on the 17 acres of land at the southeast end of Middleton Farm. Without this new walk path and bridge, Bradley Farm residents would not have direct walking access to the new regional park.

3. There will only be one main road access to Middleton Farms and that will dump onto West Ox Road where originally proposed. The Spring Lakes stub off of Running Pump Lane will funnel into a cul-de-sac on the Middleton Farm property with an emergency gate for use by emergency vehicles and police only (a code box will be used). This means that two exit/entry points will exist for those people that need them, but the general public will not be able to use Running Pump Lane (this made the Spring Lakes residents happy). The emergency gate area will be surrounded by grass, shrubs, and trees to make it "look pretty."

4. The number of ADUs required for the development will be reduced from 33 units to 12 units. They will be located in the middle of the development (east-west wise) along the AT&T access line that runs across the Middleton Farm property (there is also a low area along much of this area so no other homes will be build there). No one at the hearing had problems with the location of the ADUs. However, many people still did not want the ADUs even though the current county law is clear on this issue - there must be ADUs for the size of the Toll Brothers development.

5. School crowding and an increase in traffic congestion on West Ox road were discussed by many of the speakers at the hearing. The Planning Board stated that road congestion will not improve for another four to five years when West Ox road from Centerville Road to the Fairfax Parkway will be four-laned with a medium! Schools should be able to handle the increase students the development will bring with the opening of a new middle school next year and another grade school, currently on the Bond Issue, in 2001.

6. Housing construction on Middleton Farm should start in approximately seven months, with first occupancy planned for 15 months from now. Toll Brothers believes that total development will take 3 to 3 and 1/2 years to complete, but it admits that this time could be shorter with a strong housing market.

The Middleton Farm hearing was Wednesday May 20, at the Fairfax County Government Center, in the Board Auditorium. The hearing started at 8:15pm and was televised on Channel 16. The County Board set the order of events for the evening.

The procedure for the Middleton Farm hearing would have gone something like this, though not necessarily in this exact order:

• Toll Brothers presents its latest proposal for Middleton Farm
• the County Board presents its opinion (currently a denial for the revised - current - proposal because of the single access road, although they had approved the previous proposal because of the dual access roads)
• Toll Brothers will have a chance to give a rebuttal to any objections to their proposal
• Commissioner Palatiello will try to convince the Board to accept the revised proposal - he will explain that the surrounding neighborhoods support the revised proposal and would much prefer the single entrance (with an emergency-only access near Spring Lake Estates where the second "real" entrance used to be)
• The County Board will vote to accept or deny the revised - current - proposal. They will NOT vote on the original proposal, which was the one with the dual entrances.
• IF the County Board should reject the revised (single-entrance) proposal, Toll Brothers would have to decide what to do next - resubmit the original proposal, alter the revised proposal so it again has two entrances, completely revise the proposal in one or more ways, or possibly withdraw altogether from developing Middleton Farm (unlikely, but always possible, considering they've spent a few months already trying to revise their development plans to satisfy the surrounding neighborhoods' requests)

From the Thursday 5/14/98 6:30pm zoning meeting in the Floris Elementary library:

The meeting attendees consisted of representatives from Toll Brothers (the developer of the Middleton Farm property) and Fairfax County, and homeowners in the immediately affected neighborhoods of Bradley Farm, Spring Lake Estates, and Borneham Wood. Toll Brothers' representatives included a lawyer, Ms. Elizabeth Baker, as well as Paul (didn't get his last name), the engineer who had drawn up the site plan for the revised proposal. Commissioner John Palatiello and other public servants presented the County's views on the proposal. Ms. Baker, Paul (the engineer from Toll Brothers), and Commissioner Palatiello were present at the 3/17/98 zoning meeting as well, as were at least two homeowners from Bradley Farm, three from Spring Lake Estates, and several from other nearby developments.

Toll Brothers and our Fairfax County Zoning Commissioner presented the revised proposal that Toll Brothers had put together since the last zoning meeting. The site plan, as revised to reflect the new (now lower) ADU requirements and a second entry point to be accessed ONLY by emergency vehicles and ONLY on the occasion when the main access road is blocked or otherwise unusable, is shown in the revised diagram here.

Significant changes include a reduction in the number of ADUs (to 12) and in the number of single-family homes on the site; changing the second entrance (the one through Spring Lake Estates) to an emergency-only thruway; and an offer to pay completely for a traffic light along West Ox.

ADUs: the ADU reduction was made possible due to a recent change in the ADU rules. The proposed 12 ADUs were slightly relocated, to the north of their previous position as seen in the drawings from the previous zoning meeting.

Lot size: the average lot size for the latest proposal is around or over 10,000 square feet. The smallest lots - and there are only a handful of them on the site - are around 6,000 square feet. The Middleton Farm lots immediately adjacent or backing to Spring Lake Estates and the other neighborhoods are larger than the lots they adjoin. One Spring Lake Estates homeowner harped on the smaller lot sizes in Middleton Farm as compared with the average lot size in Spring Lake Estates, but this is not a fair comparison, as Spring Lake Estates' R1 and R2 areas (one home per acre and two homes per acre, respectively) are not immediately adjacent to the Middleton Farm tract. The houses proposed for Middleton Farm are on lots comparable in size to, or larger than, the lots in the immediately adjacent neighborhoods. The handful of 6,000 square foot lots - in the upper left corner as seen in the diagrams on this web page - are irrelevant in the big picture. They're not all that much smaller than nearby homes in Spring Lake Estates, Bradley Farm, *or* Borneham Wood. There are plenty of homes in the Middleton Farm plan which are on lots much larger than those in the three adjacent neighborhoods.

Traffic light: the placement of the new traffic light on West Ox will decided solely by VDOT. It would be put at either Monroe Street, Monterey Estates Drive/the new Middleton Farm road, or at New Parkland. At the moment, VDOT seems to feel that New Parkland is and/or would be the busiest of those three intersections; however, the light placement decision is still a ways off. As a totally separate study from the one involving Middleton Farm, VDOT has already been looking at improving the West Ox/Monroe Street intersection. Once West Ox is widened to four lanes (which is on the comprehensive plan, but has not been funded yet), we might end up with lights at all three intersections. By that time, one would hope, the West Ox/Fairfax County Parkway intersection (now a light with turn lanes) would be changed to a full or partial interchange or overpass system to ease traffic flow. This is not an insignificant proffer by Toll Brothers - installing such a traffic light apparently runs around $100,000 to $120,000.

Second entrance revisited: the fire department has okayed having an emergency-only access in place of a full second entrance. The emergency access extends Running Pump Lane (in Spring Lake Estates) across to the Middleton Farm tract, where the road gets a cul-de-sac. Off of this cul-de-sac there will be a rough path called a "grass creek" - square concrete plugs with grass overgrown - which fire engines and ambulances and the like will be permitted to use ONLY if the main Middleton Farm road is obstructed or otherwise impassable. The "grass creek" is designed to be nearly or completely impassable to personal vehicles, and could cause damage to cars that try to drive over it. This access would be recorded as an easement.

Why a cul-de-sac? Another VDOT requirement. They need a place for snowplows, etc., to turn around. Without a cul-de-sac, they were going to try to abandon the stub portion of Running Pump Lane. A resident at the meeting asked whether the other two stubs would likewise be abandoned. The answer was "probably not." Why again? Because Running Pump Lane is the street currently under discussion and proposed for a change, not the other two.

Unfortunately for Spring Lake Estates residents, the the Board of Supervisors feels it's bad residential planning to have only one entrance to a large neighborhood. As a result, they plan to deny this revised proposal at the 5/20/98 public hearing. Our commissioner will argue for the revised plan, but the Board can vote it down over him. Should this happen, Toll Brothers would have to revise the plan once again - or they could resubmit their original plan (the one with the full second entrance). As the Board indicated approval for the original plan, a resubmittal of the original plan would probably be passed.

Even if Spring Lake Estates ends up with a connection rather than a cul-de-sac/emergency access, they're in a better situation than what happened in Hunter Mill Estates. Apparently that development also had a stub street. When the next development came in, Hunter Mill Estates had to *give up* land for the connection. A connection here at Middleton Farm - or a cul-de-sac - would be built on Middleton Farm property.

In response to one resident, the Commissioner made it very clear: the end of the Running Pump Lane stub is NOT classified as a wetland.

There are other arguments, still, against Middleton Farm as a single-entrance development. First of all, it seems that the Middleton tract straddles to Fire Department jurisdictions. The western half comes under Floris (the Floris F.D. is right next to Floris Elementary); the eastern half comes under Herndon. With the only access on West Ox, the Herndon F.D. would be required to cover all of the new subdivision. Secondly, and of more importance in non-emergency situations for the rest of us: with a single entrance, all of the Middleton Farm development will now be using West Ox Road and *only* West Ox Road. A little under three hundred households will add a noticeable amount of traffic to the Centreville Road-Fairfax County Parkway stretch of West Ox. Some of the Middleton Farm drivers will be using Monterey Estates Road and New Parkland Drive as cut-throughs to Herndon and Reston, which will increase traffic through the Monterey Estates and Bradley Farm neighborhoods. Everyone at the meetings could understand Spring Lake Estates residents not wanting to cross what would have become a busy through street in order to get to their recreational facilities, but they aren't the only ones who would be affected by increased traffic.

One homeowner - who likely was not present at the previous zoning meeting - was alarmed by the prospect of having the main Middleton Farm street connect directly to Monterey Estates Road, on which he lives. He cited the additional traffic as well as the lighting that would lessen his view. Unfortunately for him and for the other residents of that end of Monterey Estates, VDOT *is* requiring that the new street connect to theirs. This is a nonnegotiable point in the proposal.

My personal feelings are that - should the Board deny the current, "revised" proposal on the grounds of it having only one "real" point of access, the best response would be for Toll Brothers to add the second access back in to the "revised" proposal and resubmit it. The rest of the revised proposal - as agreed by most of the homeowners present - was a big improvement over the original.

For those who might have been holding out in the hopes of getting a second access via McLearen, that won't be happening. Crossing that part of the parkland would require a wetlands permit. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has stated definitively that they would NOT grand a permit for such a crossing.

For those who wonder what will happen as traffic increases, when the future Middleton Farm residents realize it would be much easier for them to get in and out of their development if it had a second entrance, a specific procedure would have to be followed. The new HOA's board would have to do what is called a "Proffered Condition Amendment," which would involve:

• File an application
• Pay a fee
• Undergo a staff evaluation
• Proceed through a Planning Commission hearing
• Finally, get approval for the change of access at a Board hearing

Reasons for such an increase in traffic include the building of a park-and-ride on Monroe Street at the Toll Road, the new middle school at McLearen and Centreville Roads which opens in September 1998, the new post office at McLearen near Centreville Road which is slated to open in spring 1999, the near-future elementary school up the road at McNair Farms, the future widening of West Ox Road, the future connection of McLearen across West Ox to Lawyers Road, the 2001-2003 opening of the Dulles Airport annex of the Air and Space Museum near Routes 50 and 28 (3 million visitors are expected each year, and at least some local visitors will avoid most of the major roads by using local streets), and - should it happen someday - extension of the Metro along the Toll Road to Dulles (there's supposed to be a stop at Monroe Street). A new West County high school is also expected in a few years, but is not yet in the works. All of these would increase traffic on West Ox Road at least a little bit. See "About Bradley Farm/Coming our way..." for more info on these proposed and in-progress developments in our area.

Should Toll Brothers decide to pull out altogether from the Middleton Farm tract, I believe the land was originally slated for a new high school. As much as it would be convenient for neighborhood high school students to be able to walk to school, I think most homeowners in the immediate area would be more concerned about the traffic, noise, and light from a high school (remember - night and weekend events; illuminated ball fields; morning/afternoon buses) than from a new neighborhood.

One Spring Lake Estates resident, whose property backs to Middleton Farm, noted that water from the creek already backs up about halfway up his back yard after bad rainstorms. He suggested an oversized culvert to divert the creek under the cul-de-sac. The suggestion was noted and appreciated.

Additional details: Middleton is expected to have street lights at the West Ox entrance and possibly at a few of the intersections of its residential streets. Toll Brothers plans to put a hedge at the end of the cul-de-sac, to prevent headlights from shining into the back windows of the nearest Middleton Farm homes. Spring Lake Estates requested a street light in the cul-de-sac, as they were concerned about people hanging out there at night. They were told that specifics at that level would be part of the site plan, which wouldn't be developed until later; however, any lighting would be in keeping with neighboring lighting, so such a light would likely happen.

On another note - not discussed at the meeting, but brought up as an aside at the 4/14/98 Frying Pan Civic Association meeting - is that the church on West Ox, the one adjacent to Frying Pan Park, is for sale. The County would like to add this building and its grounds to Frying Pan Park. That would add meeting and/or classroom areas to the Park's property (or the building could be renovated for other use). From what I understand, the County and Park Authority are considering possible uses for the property, should they be able to acquire it. I don't know what the funding situation is - whether they can afford to acquire it outright, or whether they might need assistance.

Back around 4/16/98, I spoke with people from the Office of Comprehensive Planning/Zoning Commission (324-1314) and the Housing Authority (246-5100) by phone about the ADUs.

Items gleaned from those conversations (emphasized are my comments on their information):

• The minimum number of ADUs depends on the number of dwelling units (DU) per acre. The number will probably end up being between 6% and 12-1/2% of the total dwelling units on the property. 12-1/2% is the maximum required by the ADU ordinance.
  The ADU ordinance was "recently" revised. I don't know if the above numbers are for the old or for the "revised" version of the ordinance.
• The builder has the option of building duplexes or quad-plexes that *look* like their single-family homes, or can even choose to build smaller or less expensive single-family homes, to fulfill their ADU requirements. The OCP/ZC/HA encourage the builders to do so rather than building townhouses.
  But in our market, townhouses tend to be more desirable as neighboring properties than are either duplexes or quad-plexes.
• The Housing Authority has the *exclusive* right to buy a third (1/3) of the ADUs that get built. If the HA does choose to buy those ADUs, the source of the money used to purchase the ADUs determines who gets to live in the ADUs.
  i.e. different colors of money.
• Out of the 600+ ADUs built in the County thus far, the Housing Authority has only bought 15.
• There are 12 families living in The Greens in Herndon whose units the Housing Authority wants to renovate. However, given the time scale of the Middleton Farm plan, that renovation will likely be long over well before the Middleton Farm ADUs are even built.
  At previous meetings, some residents had wondered if low-income Herndon residents would be relocated to the Middleton Farm ADUs, so I asked about that.
• The developer is allowed to build 75% of the market-rate units before the ADUs have to be built. It would take at least a year to build the entire Middleton Farm development, if not two to three years. So even if that work started September 1, 1998, no ADUs would *have* to be started before June 1, 1999 *if* development were slated for a single year.
• The Housing Authority is "very strict" about the people who live in HA-owned units taking care of that property. Current area residents' worries about the ADUs not being kept up nicely are probably not an issue, at least not for HA-owned ADUs.

From the Monday 4/14/98 7pm meeting of the Frying Pan Civic Association, at the Frying Pan School House:

Attendees were myself and a handful of other homeowners from nearby developments.

Questions were raised as to how many ADUs would actually be required on the Middleton site, under Fairfax County's recently revised guidelines, as opposed to the number of ADUs that Toll Brothers has proposed.

Questions were also raised in regards to a rumor that one attendee (not myself) had heard - that some or all of these ADUs would in reality be used as low-income rentals rather than as moderate-income purchase units. I have put in a call to the Fairfax County Housing Authority (703-246-5010) and Zoning Commission (703-324-1314) to see if I can get a straight answer on this. When I hear back, I will post their info here.

From the Tuesday 3/17/98 7pm meeting at Floris Elementary:

My husband and I attended the 7pm meeting on Tuesday, 3/17/98 at Floris. The meeting attendees consisted of representatives from Toll Brothers (the developer of the Middleton Farm property) and Fairfax County, and homeowners in the immediately affected neighborhoods of Bradley Farm, Spring Lake Estates, and Borneham Wood.

Here is about what the area looks like now. This is a freehand sketch I did from memory (the day after the meeting). Borneham Wood and Bradley Farm Drive are a little different in reality. The Middleton Farm tract is approximately 90 acres.

As you can see on the map, each of Spring Lake Estates, Bradley Farm, and Borneham Wood has what VDOT calls a "stub street." This is a paved area which runs up to that neighborhood's property line and was put in place by that neighborhood's developer to accommodate road extensions, should they be needed when the adjacent property (in this case, Middleton Farm) was developed.

The grey area marked "AT&T property" is just that - a long, narrow strip of land that Mr. Middleton sold to AT&T a number of years ago (in the late 1970s, I believe). Buried along (under) this property is a major fiber-optic cable which carries a huge amount of data up and down the East Coast. The grey area marked "AT&T easement" is land which AT&T is allowed to use in order to maintain their property. When walking the terrain, you'll know this as the long gravel road along the side of the Middleton property.

Here is Toll Brothers' proposal (approximately - I couldn't remember exactly where all of their residential streets were, but they had this sort of branching layout) from the 3/17 meeting. This is also a freehand sketch, done from memory the day after the meeting.

The homes in the Middleton Farm neighborhood will range from $400,000 single-family homes to slightly more modest single-family homes. In addition, there will be 33 ADUs (see explanation and description below, along with Fairfax County's recent changes to the ADU rules). From the photos shown at the meeting - of similar Toll Brothers homes - many of the proposed homes look to be comparable in size and style to those in Monroe Manor. Several lots are larger than 10,000 square feet.

The bluish-green area is land Toll Brothers proposes to donate to the Park Authority. Some of this would become protected, as it is an "EQC" (environmental quality corridor) and/or wetlands. Most of it is wetlands. Some, just south of the drainage pond marked on the map, would become a "neighborhood park". In Fairfax County Park Authority terms, this means there would be trails and some facilities, but no parking (except for a spot or two for a maintenance vehicle to use to collect trash, etc.). The park would attract people from the surrounding neighborhoods. As I understand it, Toll Brothers is donating the land (about 17 acres) and will pay for the trail work and the facilities. Why? Well, developers are required to provide some sort of recreational facilities in or near new developments. I don't know the exact regulations, but they have an option of creating private facilities (such as The Barns/pool in Bradley Farm and the tennis courts in Spring Lake Estates - the rectangle on the top left of the map, by Running Pump Lane) or public facilities. Public facilities would benefit all of our neighborhoods, as well as - in this case - the Park Authority.

Toll Brothers is also planning three tot lots and picnic/play areas within the neighborhood they are developing.

Next to the drainage pond on the map are three rectangles marked "ADUs". ADU stands for "affordable dwelling unit." Under a recent regulation, developers in Fairfax County are required to build ADUs *within* new neighborhoods, unless those neighborhoods have one-acre or larger lots. These ADUs are planned to be 33 townhomes. They will be for sale to buyers who meet certain income and other standards (I don't know all the exact details, but the income requirement would be about 80% of the average income in Fairfax County, making the income requirement for a two-person family about $45,000/year). In addition, people living in the ADUs would be held to the same covenant as the rest of the Middleton Farm.

The ADUs will not be, as some have worried, apartments; they will not be assisted housing (the income requirement for this is 50% or less than the County's average income). Someone at the meeting brought up the fact that there is a slight possibility that the Housing Authority would buy these townhomes and would then turn them into assisted housing. However, this is (according to the County representative at the meeting) highly unlikely. Here's his logic: the point of having developers build ADUs is to create affordable housing within a less affordable neighborhood. The Housing Authority can buy apartments, townhomes, and single-family homes anywhere to use for subsidized housing. If the Housing Authority were to buy some of these ADUs to use as assisted housing, they wouldn't be increasing the amount of affordable housing in the County, whereas they *would* be increasing the amount of affordable housing in the County if they were to buy a regular (non-ADU) property. Yes, the Housing Authority could buy them, but it wouldn't make sense, and therefore, they most likely would not.

Drawings of the townhomes were shown at the meeting. They had two levels above ground. Some had third-floor lofts with dormer windows. Some had brick fronts. In all, they looked very pleasant and not at all "low-income."

Toll Brothers originally planned to make the main entrance to the community across from Monroe Street, but that would affect (and possibly require the removal of) a house or two at the corner of Borneham Wood. VDOT preferred, and Toll Brothers put into their plans, to have the main entrance across from Monterey Estates.

The biggest issue of the evening was where to connect Middleton Farm's second entrance to existing surrounding roads.

VDOT currently requires a second entrance to any community which has over 20 homes and/or has road frontage of 1000 feet or more. Middleton Farm will have about 269 houses, I believe, not including the 33 ADUs, so it far exceeds the minimum size. VDOT generally requires that new streets be built, whenever possible, to meet existing streets. The reasoning is that a second entrance is important so that emergency vehicles can access the community, even if the primary entrance is blocked or otherwise unusable. In order to build the Middleton Farm development with a single entrance, VDOT would have to grant an exemption to their multiple-entrance policy.

The residents of Spring Lake Estates who came to the meeting were most concerned about the connection of the main Middleton Farm residential street to Running Pump Lane. The Spring Lake recreational facilities are located in the box at what is now the end of Running Pump Lane. The Spring Lake residents were concerned about having additional traffic through their neighborhood, particularly as most of their residents have to cross Running Pump Lane to get to their private tennis courts. Toll Brothers has already offered to make the new connection to Running Pump Lane from the main Middleton Farm street a three-way stop with painted crosswalks.

The Spring Lake Estates residents were (and still are) hoping instead for the second entrance to Middleton Farm to be made either through the Borneham Wood stub or the Bradley Farm stub, or else to have connections at all three sites. They said they would also be satisfied (perhaps most satisfied) to have the County waive the requirement for the Middleton Farm development to have a second entrance.

There are problems with each of the three stub sites, as well as with the idea of connecting the Middleton Farm development to McLearen Road. However, the Spring Lake Estates connection is the easiest second entrance by far. It will most likely be built as currently planned unless the County gives a waiver to the two-entrances-to-a-neighborhood rule, or unless the County allows the Middleton Farm neighborhood to be split and disconnected, with some residents using the Spring Lake Estates route as their only entrance, and with the rest of the residents using the West Ox road juncture as their only entrance.

The Borneham Wood stub seems like the obvious alternative to Spring Lake Estates for a second entrance - the land in that area is flat; the stub is very close to a major road; using this stub wouldn't keep members of the Borneham Wood community from getting to their recreational facilities easily. However, the strip of land that AT&T owns is in between Borneham Wood and Middleton Farm. AT&T owns this land fee simple (aka. "outright"); they have already responded to a (correction here, for previous readers!) Toll Brothers (end correction) inquiry about creating a connection here. AT&T responded in writing, in fact; they said they were "not interested" in being involved with the Middleton Farm issue. As they own the land, and as they are not included in the Toll Brothers proffer, there is nothing the County can do to force AT&T to allow a road to be built from Middleton Farm and across the fiber optic cable to connect to the Borneham Wood stub. Even if AT&T would consider the connection, putting the second entrance to Middleton Farm here would not be as easy as it sounds - any damage or disruption to the fiber optic line could disturb communications up and down the East Coast.

The Bradley Farm stub ends near a ditch or ravine (depends on the size at which a ditch gets called a ravine). The area that would need to be crossed is both an EQC (environmental quality corridor) and a protected wetland. If a wetland in one place is disturbed, additional protections need to be given to wetlands in other areas to compensate. Building a road here would require a bridge, and the footers would cause a great deal of damage to the EQC/wetland.

Connecting Middleton Farm to McLearen Road seems like the ideal solution. However, VDOT's guideline that new roads should connect to existing roads means that the Middleton Farm connection would have to meet up with the one residential street on McLearen. The property between this residential street and Middleton Farm is partly park property and partly the part of Middleton Farm that Toll Brothers is planning on donating to the Park Authority. In addition, it includes a very steep slope and a wetland.

The stream that winds through the Park Authority property along McLearen has already been diverted through a culvert under McLearen - this was done when McLearen was extended through the EDS proffer a few years ago. Diverting the stream has caused some damage to the EQC, the wetland, and the wildlife. Building another road across the wetland would require diverting the stream through another culvert, which would further damage the area. Because of the slope and the length of this stretch of road, very large footers would be required; the footers would directly damage the EQC.

In addition, building a road here would divide the Park Authority's property so that a very small area would remain between this new road and Middleton Farm to the north, Bradley Farm to the east, and McLearen Road to the south. The Park Authority representative, who was present at the meeting and explained most of the above problems, was concerned that the small area thus boxed in would become somewhat dead to wildlife. In addition, the idea of Toll Brothers' donation of the land was for the Park Authority to create a neighborhood park in just about this area (the northern part of it, most likely above the slope from the wetlands and closer to Middleton Farm). The road would take up a lot of the room put aside for this recreational area.

The Spring Lake Estates stub needs to cross a ditch, but not one as large as the one involved at the Bradley Farm stub. The crossing is through an EQC, but the one at Bradley Farm is both an EQC and a wetland. The Spring Lake Estates connection would require a narrower crossing than at Bradley Farm. Compared to disturbing fresh or already-disturbed wetlands, this crossing is the best choice. Unless the County allows Middleton Farm to have a single entrance, the residents of Spring Lake Estates will be talking further with Toll Brothers to see how the situation can best be resolved to everyone's satisfaction.

We at the meeting were assured by the County representative that if a different connection should be considered seriously, another meeting would be called so that newly affected neighborhoods could be involved in the discussion.

The traffic increase discussion brought to mind another issue: we live in the part of Bradley Farm which is across West Ox Road from The Barns. We have to cross West Ox to get to the pool at The Barns, and would have to cross West Ox to get to the recreation areas in the new parkland that Toll Brothers is planning to donate to the Park Authority. There is one painted crosswalk, on the west side of New Parkland Drive (the pool is on the east side of New Parkland Drive).

West Ox is already a very busy road, busy and wide enough to be unsafe for elementary-school children to cross by themselves at any time; not easy for anyone else to cross either. The residents of Middleton Farm and any other new nearby development (and there are a few R1-zoned areas near Floris Elementary which could be sold to developers in the near future) would need to use West Ox Road at least some of the time, all of the time if they are built as single-entrance neighborhoods.

West Ox is already slated to become four lanes at some point not too many years from now. With the increased traffic and width, it would be even more difficult to cross West Ox, and would become extremely dangerous. I therefore asked for the County to request that Toll Brothers build an overpass somewhere between Monroe Street and McLearen to make getting to the pool more feasible. Such an overpass would benefit all of the nearby communities. It would enable those on the south side of West Ox to walk to Frying Pan Park without walking on West Ox; it would enable those on the north side of West Ox to walk to the creek and the wetlands and the Food Lion shopping center without walking on West Ox. It would enable those on both sides to walk the pipeline, which many of us do to exercise ourselves and our dogs.