Two important hearings related to Crow’s Nest will take place on Wednesday, December 7 at the Stafford County Administration Building.  We invite you to attend or contact your public officials to show your support for saving Crow’s Nest.

1. Plan to Develop Crow’s Nest Advances to Planning Commission (See editorial from the Free Lance-Star)
   Wednesday, December 7th, @ 7:30 pm.
   Board of Supervisors’ Chambers, Stafford County Administration Building.
   The preliminary plan to develop the Crow’s Nest peninsula is on the Planning Commission’s agenda for Wednesday, December 7.  (The Planning Commission is the body that reviews and decides whether or not to approve plans for new developments.)
   We understand that a 45 minute period will be set aside towards the beginning of the meeting to accommodate public comments on the plan.  Individual comments will be limited to 2 minutes. Learn more about the plan and view talking points for the Planning Commission.
   Crow’s Nest is the last item on the agenda for the evening.  The agenda is very long and, since the meeting typically recesses at 11:15, it is not clear if the Crow’s Nest plan will actually be heard that night.  If the Planning Commission does not finish the agenda, the remaining items, including the Crow’s Nest plan, will get bumped to a Planning Commission meeting on December 21.
   If you would like to express your opposition to the planned development of Crow’s Nest, you can contact Planning Commission members (see addresses below) or attend Wednesday’s meeting.
2. Public Hearing on New Road to Crow’s Nest (See newspaper story on this)
   Wednesday, December 7th, @ 6:00 pm.
   Board of Supervisors’ Chambers, Stafford County Administration Building.
   A public hearing on the first phase of a new road to Crow’s Nest will also be held this Wednesday, December 7th.  At that hearing, the elected leaders from Spotsylvania, Fredericksburg and Stafford will vote on funding for the “Route 630/Courthouse Rd” project (view a map of the project).
   This project, which will cost over $5 million, is the first phase of an $18.2 million dollar road project to widen Courthouse Rd, replace a CSX (railroad) bridge, and build a new road from Courthouse Rd to Brooke Rd that will dead-end right in front of Crow’s Nest and property owned by Stafford Lakes LP (also known as K&M Properties).  This road will facilitate development of the peninsula and nearby properties.
   The stated purpose of the project is to “improve ridership” on VRE by improving the road to the Brooke VRE station. However, VRE is already operating at above capacity (view Brooke Station parking lot counts).
   According to VDOT, this section of Courthouse Rd has less than 3,500 vehicle trips per day (view the VDOT traffic counts), and has on average less than three traffic accidents per year. In a five year period, there were only 14 accidents, none of them fatal and only six led to injuries of any kind (view the VDOT accident report).
   If you think scarce taxpayer dollars should go to improving traffic congestion and road safety in areas like the Falmouth intersection, Plank Rd/Route 3, the Massaponax exit, Route 610/Garrisonville Rd or Fall Hill Ave, instead of building roads for developers, now is the time to speak out.
   Please plan on attending the public hearing! And be sure to contact elected leaders that will be voting on this project:

Spotsylvania
Bob Hagan:  bobhagan@spotsylvania.va.us
Hap Connors:  hapconnors@aol.com; hconnors@spotsylvania.va.us

Fredericksburg
Thomas J. Tomzak: thomas.tomzak@medicorp.org
Tom Fortune: tfortune@fredericksburgva.gov

Stafford
Bob Gibbons: rgibbons@co.stafford.va.us; rgibbons@mindspring.com
Pete Fields: pfields@co.stafford.va.us