Fairfax Water still intends to build a bigger water tank in Poplar Heights, but the new facility might be less visible than the Idylwood neighborhood’s residents feared.
After being challenged at a lengthy public hearing in July, the water authority revised its lighting, landscaping and construction plans enough to win the Fairfax County Planning Commission’s support for the project last Wednesday (Sept. 11).
While acknowledging that the changes might not be extensive enough to satisfy skeptics, Providence District Commissioner Jeremy Hancock concluded that “a lot of work” had been done to address community concerns without compromising the effectiveness of a storage tank upgrade that Fairfax Water says is urgently needed.
“At the end of the day, I believe we need to provide adequate services to the community, and we are faced with the facts in the application that is before us,” Hancock said at the commission meeting. “In my view, the application meets the required land use standards and will provide needed services to the community.”
Fairfax Water identified the 700,000-gallon standpipe tank at 7407 Tower Street as in need of replacement after acquiring the facility from Falls Church City in 2014. Nearing the end of its useful life after 70 years, the tank can only utilize 40% of its capacity and needs to be regularly drained to maintain state-mandated pressure levels, according to the utility.
The proposed replacement will consist of a 40-foot-wide concrete pedestal and an 80-foot-wide steel bowl that can hold 1.25 million gallons of water — the amount needed to ensure customers get consistent service pressures and firefighters have enough water to use in emergencies.
However, in order to accommodate the larger facility and move it to a more central location, Fairfax Water acquired four adjacent parcels occupied by single-family homes, two of which will be permanently demolished.
In addition to objecting to their neighbors being displaced, Poplar Heights residents voiced concerns at the July 24 public hearing about noise, disruptions to wildlife, shadows blocking solar panels, the loss of trees, and construction-related traffic and pedestrian safety issues on Tower Street, which currently lacks sidewalks.
Though it maintains that the tank can’t be downsized, Fairfax Water has dropped all but two of the nine light fixtures originally planned for the 0.9-acre site, and the lights will be activated with a manual switch, rather than a motion sensor.
“The obligation and the commitment and the condition is that they would only be illuminated when they’re needed,” John McGranahan, the lawyer representing Fairfax Water, told the planning commission. “So, [it’s] a tremendous adjustment in the lighting of the tank, and I credit the community for bringing that issue to you and to us.”
The utility has committed to providing taller trees as buffers around the site, including evergreen trees that will be at least 7 feet tall when they’re planted and deciduous trees with at least 3-inch calipers, which translates to about 14 to 16 feet in height, according to McGranahan.
As part of the updated development conditions, Fairfax Water has agreed to coordinate construction traffic with Fairfax County Public Schools to avoid conflicts with bus drop-offs and pick-ups, and a worker will be available to facilitate traffic control. In addition, space will be dedicated for the construction of a 5-foot-wide sidewalk along the site’s Tower Street frontage.
The conditions also cement the water authority’s promise to make separate water main improvements that will increase water pressures for nearby residents to at least 15 pounds per square inch.
“[That] would move their pressures up into the range that Fairfax Water targets for their other customer base,” McGranahan said.
Though they recommended that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approve the revised application, some planning commissioners noted that the community frustrations stemmed in part from a feeling of being left out of the process, particularly early on when Fairfax Water commissioned a study to identify the site location.
“I’m hopeful that Fairfax Water has learned from this process. We also have other aging infrastructure. It impacts all land decisions and planning in the communities where they’re located,” Hancock said. “…My hope is that this is not the end of the conversation with Fairfax County, but we can continue an open dialogue about preparing for what’s next.”
The special exception application, which is required to put a water tank in a residential district, has now advanced to the Board of Supervisors for a public hearing on Oct. 22. If approved, the project would wrap up design and permitting around mid-2025, start construction in 2026 and finish in 2027, per Fairfax Water’s timeline.
