Decision On Controversial Trail Postponed By City Leaders

Councilmember Tom Peterson submitted a letter to Patch clarifying his role regarding transportation and environmental issues for the city.

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — After an hour and 15 minutes of heated discussion during Tuesday night's work session, the Fairfax City Council failed to move the controversial George Snyder Trail Project perceptively forward.

On May 12, the Virginia Department of Transportation sent a letter to the city notifying it that it had a June 30 deadline to decide whether to move forward on the trail project with the approved alignment or cancel the project altogether and pay VDOT $3.7 million in concessionaire funding.

Tuesday's discussion began with several councilmembers asking city staff whether they could meet with VDOT about pushing back the deadline so they could present an alternate plan which offered less impact on the environment.

City Manager Bryan Foster told council members that given the June 30 deadline, it was probably too late for that type of meeting with VDOT.

"This is a project that has stirred up a lot of emotion and strong feelings within the community," he said. "I appreciate the comments that folks have made about trying to negotiate and so forth. But the reality is, when you use somebody else's money, they set the rules."

The work session ended with a majority of the council voting to discuss the George Snyder Trail Project further at one of its meetings before the June 30 deadline.

Peterson Speaks On Behalf Of City Without Apparent Authority

On May 8, Councilmembers Tom Peterson and Stacy Hall attended a public hearing hosted by VDOT and the Commonwealth Transportation Board on its Six Year Improvement Program.

During the public comment period, Peterson spoke and appeared to be advocating on behalf of the city council rather than as a member of the public. It was unclear whether he'd been authorized to do that.

Peterson began his testimony identifying himself as a newly elected member of the city council and asked the VDOT officials to give the city some flexibility, so that it could explore alternate trail alignments and leverage the $3.7 million in concessionaire funding for other transportation improvements.

"On behalf of the jurisdiction, one of the things that I think we have proven over the years is that we are nimble, " he said. "We move very, very quickly. We are prepared to do that. I have been working very hard with our entire city council to mobilize unanimous votes behind every single conversation that we are having with the Virginia Department of Transportation on that particular issue. But on other issues, where we need flexibility and cooperation, I would ask that we have the opportunity to continue that dialog that we explore and the option for making some smart decisions as quickly as necessary for everybody's benefit."

The next day, Peterson posted a video of his testimony on YouTube and Facebook. In the text accompanying the post, Peterson wrote:

"Following my remarks I spoke with our regional representative of the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) and VDOT state officials about the continued dialog between the City and VDOT on current and pending projects requiring top level coordination. This included but was not limited to the George Snyder Trail."

The only person granted the authority to speak on behalf of the city in interjurisdictional matters is the mayor, according to the Fairfax City Charter:

"[The mayor] shall be recognized as the head of the City government for all ceremonial purposes, the purposes of military law and the service of civil process, and he [sic] shall be the principal representative of the City in interjurisdictional matters. In the absence or disability of the Mayor, the Mayor may designate a member of the Council to serve as Acting Mayor and perform the duties of Mayor and if he [sic] fails to do so the Council shall, by majority vote of those present, choose one of their number to serve as Acting Mayor and perform the duties of Mayor."

Mayor Catherine Read told Patch on Wednesday that she was not aware of the May 8 meeting beforehand and only found out afterwards that Peterson had spoken and that Hall was also in attendance.

Although the city council voted unanimously at its April 8 meeting to not advertise the George Snyder Trail Project in its current configuration and directed city staff to work on alternative plans, it did not vote to cancel the project.

"My vote was for permission to submit that modification," Councilmember Stacey D. Hardy-Chandler said during Tuesday night's discussion. "I've heard it characterized in different ways, support of a pause, support of other things or an anti-trail position, but that's not what it was. The motion was to submit a modification, and that I feel was part of our due diligence in trying an array of things depending on or based on conversations that we've had."

A city spokesman confirmed that a majority of the city council had not passed a resolution directing Peterson to speak for the city at the May 8 meeting with VDOT.

Three of the officials at that meeting were Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sheppard “Shep” Miller III, VDOT Commissioner Stephen Brich and Bill Cutler, VDOT's Northern Virginia District Engineer, who wrote the letter informing the city that it had a June 30 deadline.

In the letter, Cuttler referenced the testimony of city residents about the George Snyder Trail Project during the public hearing.

"Those testimonies indicated that the city was planning to either move forward with the project as previously approved or present an alternative alignment that would leverage existing pedestrian facilities, something that was discussed at the council's April 22 meeting," Cutler wrote. "As my staff has previously advised the City's staff, the proposed alternative alignment is a significant deviation from the Commonwealth Transportation Board funded project and would be considered a new project," he said.

On Tuesday, Hardy-Chandler noted that comments by city staff alluded to a connection between the comments made at the May 8 and the May 12 letter from VDOT.

"Clearly, there is a timing connection that you're making between comments that were made and the receipt of that letter," she said. "I don't know how deeply to interpret that, but there's a timing connection."

Wendy Block Sanford, the city's transportation director, was also at the May 8 public hearing. She told council members that Cutler had received a directive from his superiors, which is why he wrote the letter.

"I don't think that at a staff level, they would be in a position to opine in any way that is different than what is in the letter," she said. "Of course, you can go ask them the question, and I think the answer is going to be, we've been given pretty clear direction. It's a binary choice. That's my two cents on this."

In 2017, NVTA awarded $17 million to the city to fund the George Snyder Trail Project as part of the overall Transform 66 Outside the Beltway project.

As approved, the George Snyder Trail Project would "expand regional trail network by constructing 1.4 miles of trail along Accotink Creek between Draper Drive and the new I-66 trail at the Route 123 Interchange."

Although the city had taken steps in recent years to move the project forward, such as acquiring properties along the approved trail alignment, many residents have voiced their strong opposition to the project during city council meetings.

Opponents of the trail said that the city would lose more than 7 to 8 acres of wooded habitat, which would cause erosion and lead to more stormwater runoff. With the removal of more than 1,200 mature trees, carbon levels in the air would also increase significantly.

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