There’s still time for an amicable conclusion, but members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 12 took a procedural step to keep the long-planned replacement of a major sewer pipe in Merrifield on track.
On an 8-2 vote, supervisors gave county staff the power to begin condemnation proceedings that would allow the county government to use a portion of a commercial property at 8315 Lee Highway for installation of a new 563-linear-foot sewer.
The property’s owner is the lone one remaining among seven landowners whose consent is needed to move forward with the project. The owner has been negotiating with county staff over both compensation and the staging requirements before agreeing to provide an easement for the pipe and construction work.
That negotiation will continue in coming weeks, both sides say.
“We’re not condemning property today – the potential to reach an agreement is still there,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay (D). “Hopefully we reach an agreement before it ends up in court.”
Supervisor Dalia Palchik, a Democrat in whose Providence District the project is located, was unable to convince board colleagues Dan Storck (D-Mount Vernon) and Patrick Herrity (R-Springfield) that the vote shouldn’t be delayed two weeks to see if progress could be made on the negotiations.
“I’m uncomfortable,” Storck said. “I don’t think the property owner’s concerns have been addressed. Once we approve this, we will not have an opportunity to do anything else [from the board dais].”
Jim Coakley of CJC Associates, which owns the 60,000-square-foot office building and surrounding parking, said he has been working with county officials for more than a year to come to a mutually satisfactory arrangement.
“We’re trying to be as cooperative as we can,” he told supervisors. “We want to be partners with you.”
But, Coakley said, county officials have to address losses he projects at $325,000 owing to the upcoming construction to install the sewer line.
“They’re not going to want to have anything to do with our property,” he said of prospective tenants.
If the two sides can’t reach an agreement, the entire matter will go before a judge to rule on the financial matters.
The project will replace the current 12-inch sanitary sewer with a 20-inch sewer line inside a 30-inch case, running roughly parallel to the existing line. It is designed to accommodate significant growth in the Merrifield/Mosaic area of the county.
Work will not start until early 2024 in order to avoid impacting the U.S. Postal Service’s huge Merrifield facility during the busy mailing season over the holidays. The plan is to finish work on the USPS parcel before the 2024 holiday season while also working to wrap up construction on other parcels.
Three new manholes also will be part of the project, which will run from the Postal Service site to Eskridge Road.
As late as July, only one of the seven property owners along the route of the sewer had reached an agreement with the county government to provide access. There were three holdouts, but now all but the CJC property have come to terms.
McKay, who like most of the supervisors has been through similar proceedings in the past, said that authorizing a potential condemnation proceeding in the courts could provide both sides with “the impetus to get to the finish line” of negotiations.
