Following concessions by Fairfax Water to minimize impacts on neighbors, the Fairfax County Planning Commission unanimously recommended Sept. 11 that county supervisors approve the utility’s special-exception request to build a new, higher-capacity water tower in the Poplar Heights neighborhood near Falls Church.
The proposed 1.25-million-gallon elevated water tank would be located between the southeast side of Tower Street and north side of the cul-de-sac at the end of Ronald Street.
The replacement tank, which would have 78.5 percent more capacity than the existing standpipe tank, would be about 100 feet tall, or just a bit taller than the current tank, which is slated to be removed.
The new tank would have an 80-foot-diameter steel bowl atop a 40-foot-wide concrete pedestal.
Fairfax Water staff would operate the facility remotely around the clock and access the site once per week between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. on a weekday to perform routine maintenance.
The existing 700,000-gallon water tank is 94 feet tall and 37.5 feet wide and situated on a 6,400-square-foot parcel. The current tank has deficient water-service pressures and fire-flow reserves and provides poor-quality water, officials said.
The proposed tank requires 40,692 square feet of space using three parcels and parts of two others, all of which are owned by Fairfax Water.
Four of the five parcels are developed with single-family detached homes, two of which would be demolished under the proposal. The existing tank is located on the fifth parcel.
After the commission’s July 24 public hearing, during which some residents objected to the tower’s potential impact on the neighborhood, the utility made the following alterations to its request:
• Instead of nine lighting fixtures, the utility has offered to install just two. Six previously planned lights around the water tower’s base have been removed, as have three proposed 12-foot-tall lighting poles at the site. One light, situated atop an 8-foot-tall pole, will be relocated to the site’s entrance gate, where it will be blocked from view by the perimeter fence.
• Two planned parking spaces have been shifted from the water tower’s base to the side of the property near a telecommunications tower, which is farther away from the home at 7403 Tower St. The property’s second light will be located near those parking spaces and be shielded from the home by a pedestal.
• Instead of using motion-activated lights, which could be triggered accidentally by wildlife, Fairfax Water has proposed having employees who visit the site turn the light fixtures on and off using a switch.
• In lieu of landscaping trees at least 7 feet tall, Fairfax Water will provide evergreens that are 8 to 10 feet tall at the time of planting, plus some deciduous trees with a caliper of at least 3 inches, said John McGranahan, an attorney representing Fairfax Water.
“If you plant too tall of a tree . . . they have trouble surviving,” he said.
• To enhance safety, Fairfax Water will coordinate with Fairfax County Public Schools to ensure that construction traffic and deliveries at the site do not conflict with when and where buses drop off or pick up students.
Fairfax Water also has committed to having a traffic-control employee on site who will keep traffic moving and maintain pedestrian safety during scheduled deliveries and when students are dropped off and picked up.
• Residents with complaints about the project now will be able to contact Fairfax Water directly instead of having to go through the Providence District supervisor’s office.
Fairfax Water will post a sign at the site’s entrance listing the point of contact for complaints and arrange to obtain e-mail addresses from residents who wish to receive updates about the project.
Fairfax Water looked at ways of reducing the tank’s size, but officials concluded its capacity could not be less than 1.25 million gallons, McGranahan said. It also was impossible to save two homes located next to the tank, he said.
“There is not a feasible alternative that does not create risks of deficiencies in the system or could be completed without unreasonable costs to ratepayers,” said Planning Commission member Jeremy Hancock (Providence District).
The project’s benefits include extending a sidewalk along Tower Street, moving the water tower farther away from adjacent properties, improving the site’s soil to ensure adequate stormwater management and installing a new water tower that will not require flushing, he said.
Fairfax Water also will make “significant investments” to improve the neighborhood’s water pressure, Hancock said.
Planning Commission Chairman Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner (At-Large) said the project’s site selection could have been better and done more openly, but added the project was necessary.
“Water is fundamental to our life,” he said. “Our water authority is one of the best in the nation . . . An honest and concerted effort has been made to effectively address the issues that were raised.”
