Dick Rogers

16 July 2010

Meeting with County Fire Department Planning Officers, June 30, 2010

Key Points

• FCFD has not yet focused on redevelopment of Reston or the

planning process.
• They assess the current and near term Reston situation as good
and do not consider the addition of any other Reston stations as
likely in the immediate future.
• Regarding Tysons, they have been heavily involved and are
planning two new facilities and the move of the existing station.
• In considering the future, they above all consider location and are
thinking of more “urban” facilities including multi-purpose
buildings in which the basement and bottom floors may be used
by the Dept with commercial or residential above.
• They are dependent on the operational side of FCFD for input and
on DPZ to get them involved.

1. On June 30 Dick Rogers and Tammi Petrine met with officers from the
planning unit of the Fairfax County Fire Department (FCFD). They
were Laurie Stone, Strategic Planner, and Diana Imlay, Capital
Projects Manager.

2. They stressed they could not talk about specific plans for Reston.
They had only general familiarity with the Master Planning effort. We
provided an overview and some of the strawman maps that were
being discussed about the Wiehle station area and North Town
Center. They provided a map of current Reston area fire stations.

3. Current situation: On the whole, they think the current situation and
near term outlook for Reston is good. Reston 425 at Wiehle is in a
central location. The Herndon fire station will not move West but stay
in its present location and be expanded (Herndon has a particular role
responding to town center situations). A new station will be completed
by 2013 at Beulah Road and Route 7. This station, on land the county
acquired over 20 years ago, will respond to situations in its immediate
area but also serve as a back-up for Reston, Tysons and Metro
problems. The Fox Mill and North Point stations are somewhat
underutilized. The Computer Aided Dispatch System is also a major
asset in mobilizing available equipment. This new system tracks each
 FCFD piece of equipment in the county and sends the closest units to
the appropriate calls to improve response times.

4. Tysons planning: They have been involved in the Tyson planning

effort. As a result, several changes are anticipated. The current
Tyson’s station, located near a Metro station, will move. Its valuable
location will be acquired by a developer who will in turn build them a
state of the art station in a nearby location. In addition, to the Beulah
road station and the existing one, two new stations are anticipated:
one station near the Beltway and 123 and a station in Mclean. They
will be built over 40 years assuming the Tyson’s plan is developed as
proposed.

5. The future: They are actively looking at new models for fire station
more consistent with urban areas. The era of single floor stations on
five acres is over. They are thinking about stations located in a bigger
structure.

6. When they look ahead, they need data on building types, density,
square footage and population. Above all they have to consider
location, location, location since site is all important. (We mentioned
the issue of North town Center redevelopment and the 20 acres of
county land there. They had not focused on this area.)

7. They are less worried about equipment acquisition because this can
usually been done within a relatively short time frame. Regarding hook
and ladder type trucks, they to need to be conscious of turning radius
and will weigh in when streets are planned to be sure areas in urban
cores are accessible by the available equipment.

8. Traffic congestion is a secondary consideration. They believe that

“opticom” devices to control traffic lights have made a big difference.
Although they have not been installed on every light in the county, they
are at key intersections. If express bus lanes are created, this could
also help speed engines.

9. They are also interested in types of construction. The FCFD is always

trying to get more stringent building codes adopted. They note that in
high rise developments, installations of effective sprinkler systems are
very important because they slow the spread of a fire. Detached
residences and townhouses can be more of a problem.

10. They are highly dependent on DPZ to get them involved. In Tyson’s,
they spent a lot of time on various iterations of plans only to have to
scrap earlier versions at the end. They wasted a lot of valuable time
and resources so are anxious to get involved in Reston. They think
 that DPZ “may“ have learned the utility of getting them involved early in
the process. They too are suffering from cut-backs in planning
personnel but not in emergency services to the public.

11. They stressed that they are also highly dependent on the input from
operational side of the FCFD. They urged us to consult with Reston
425’s commanding officer at Wiehle to get his assessment of current
conditions such as traffic and possible changes that might be needed.
They subsequently identified Captain Eric Cunningham as the person
to contact there.

12. Subsequent to out visit, Laurie Stone in a phone call on 16 July said
that she and Diana Imlay in response to our visit had gone out to
Reston 425 (Wiehle) to discuss the operational situation. They noted
that it seemed that the fire house there could be expanded to handle
additional equipment and have a second floor added. They need
further assessment on potential traffic problems there.

13. Both Stone and Imlay were welcoming and delighted to have made the
connection with 2020 to get the flavor of the Reston process. They
were also appalled, in view of the already hideous gridlock on Wiehle,
that the BOS and P & Z had not required direct access ramps for the
Comstock Metro Garage from and to the west-bound lanes of the toll-
way to reduce the load on Wiehle. They suggested continuing
communication as the planning process continues if we have any other
concerns. Dick Rogers’ maps from various meetings were of particular
interest to them.