Larger water tank approved for Idylwood neighborhood despite concerns | FFXnow

Oct 25, 2024

Poplar Heights is officially getting a new water storage tank with a capacity of 1.25 million gallons, despite continued objections from many residents of the single-family Idylwood neighborhood.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday (Oct. 22) — with Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn absent — to approve Fairfax Water’s request for a special exception allowing the facility to replace an existing standpipe tank at 7407 Tower Street that can hold 700,000 gallons of water.

Before the vote, Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik acknowledged that it was a “very difficult application” to get to the finish line, as the county sought development conditions that they hoped would address community concerns while recognizing the need to address aging infrastructure.

“This is not an easy one,” she said, thanking community members who spoke at the public hearing. “We definitely had a lot of sweat with staff to see if there was another site where it could be located, and it really became evident that there was not another acceptable site. This is a very built-out, mostly residential part of the community.”

Built in 1952 and acquired from Falls Church’s now-defunct water system in 2014, the existing Poplar Heights tank has reached the end of its useful life and is “functionally deficient,” John McGranahan, an attorney representing Fairfax Water, told the board.

It falls short of Virginia Department of Health pressure requirements, and with all 700,000 gallons needed for daily operations, there’s no additional capacity to ensure water is available for fires and other emergencies.

Residents take issue with proposed water tank’s scale

After evaluating possible options for what was initially going to be a 2.5-million-gallon tank, Fairfax Water determined the current tank site would be the most appropriate location based on its elevation and central position within the pressure zone, which encompasses about 40,000 homes, including about 12,000 that are directly served by the facility, according to McGranahan.

However, to make room for the larger tank with its 80-foot-wide steel bowl, the utility acquired four additional lots currently occupied by single-family houses, expanding the site from 6,400 square feet to 40,692 square feet. Two residences on Tower Street will be demolished, drawing protests from neighbors who say their loss will affect the area’s residential character.

In addition to calling for the tank to be downsized and moved further back from Tower Street, some of the residents who testified at this week’s public hearing suggested that Fairfax Water build a new house or a structure resembling a house in front of the facility to provide a visual buffer.

“This water tower will hover over our neighborhood like a giant spaceship well beyond our lifetimes. It is critical that we get this right,” resident Carmen Smith said. “… Making the tower smaller and setting it back from the street behind a home or residential-looking building is a reasonable request to save this neighborhood.”

Generally echoing comments made during the Fairfax County Planning Commission’s public hearing on July 24, speakers also voiced concerns about the project’s potential impact on their property values, shadows from the tower blocking rooftop solar panels, and safety and traffic issues posed by construction, which is projected to take about two years.

“With cars parked on either side, you can barely fit a standard sedan through, let along a cement truck,” Stephen Miles said of Tower Street. “I want to make sure you hear those words so, god forbid if something happens down the road, [you can’t say] the community didn’t do everything it could to raise awareness about the danger.”

Fairfax Water agrees to concessions

According to McGranahan, the proposed 1.25-million-gallon capacity is the “bare minimum” needed for the facility to achieve Fairfax Water’s goals of providing more consistent water pressure and better water quality as well as ensuring the water supply is sufficient for emergencies.

He argued that there’s no way to still fit a viable residence in front of the tank unless it’s pushed back toward Buckelew Street, closer to where the current facility stands. Eight of the nine speakers at the hearing identified themselves as residents of Tower Street, he noted.

The only Buckelew representative shared that her mother’s house regularly floods with rain run-off from the existing standpipe tank. Though she worried a larger tank will worsen those conditions, McGranahan said the project should mitigate flooding by moving the tank farther back and introducing stormwater controls that currently don’t exist on the site.

While some speakers dismissed them as “surface-level changes,” Fairfax Water has agreed to a number of development conditions that McGranahan said were crafted in response to public feedback.

Along with setting expectations for landscaping and tree plantings, the utility will allow a sidewalk on Tower Street, moved the location of an access driveway, reduced the number of lights and committed to monitoring vehicle trips during construction, including by coordinating deliveries with school bus drop-off and pick-up times.

Fairfax Water has also separately construct water main improvements that will increase water pressures by at least 15 pounds per square inch (psi) for those customers at the higher elevations within the Poplar Heights Pressure Zone, including the homes near the tank site.

“The price tag of this additional part of the project is $750,000 to $800,000, so it’s not an insignificant give, but it will be better for the community and better for the customers,” McGranahan said.

Per its project page, Fairfax Water is currently expecting to finish design and permitting work in the middle of next year, with construction starting in 2026.

Angela Woolsey is the site editor for FFXnow. A graduate of George Mason University, she worked as a general assignment reporter for the Fairfax County Times before joining Local News Now as the Tysons Reporter editor in 2020.