BRMC pulls Silver Lake proposal
By Dan Roem
After years of wrangling with the Board of County Supervisors and the Prince William Park Authority, the Bull Run Mountain Conservancy has officially pulled its proposal to take control of Silver Lake in Haymarket.
Michael Kieffer, executive director of the BRMC, made the decision public Tuesday morning at 11 a.m.
“It's clear [the Park Authority is] an unwilling partner and for any compromise to be successful, you need willing partners,” he said during a phone interview that same afternoon.
He later added, “We're not going to be the reason that it's held up any longer.”
The Park Authority is now virtually assured to gain ownership of the 233-acre park once the BOCS approves its proposal.
What this also means however is the 268 acres of adjoining land that would have been donated to the BRMC is the conservancy gained control of Silver Lake will not be donated and will not be made available for public use. Instead, the anonymous donor has decided to preserve the acreage with a conservation easement.
“And the donor's decided that enough's enough. And we were never able to garner five votes.”
This past summer, the county supervisors rejected competing proposals from the Park Authority and BRMC on 3-5 votes. Supervisors Mike May (R-Occoquan), Marty Nohe (R-Coles) and Maureen Caddigan (R-Dumfries) supported the BRMC while chairman Corey Stewart (R-At large) and supervisors John Stirrup (R-Gainesville) and John Jenkins (D-Neabsco) sided with the Park Authority.
Supervisors Wally Covington (R-Brentsville) and Frank Principi (D-Woodbridge) voted against both of them for various reasons. Privately, Covington had leaned toward supporting the Park Authority while Principi supported a compromise tentatively made by the BRMC and Park Authority this past August.
Principi had in fact asked the county executive's office to intervene and help the two sides come up with a compromise solution in the first place.
The BRMC and Park Authority agreed on a basic principle that the park should be used for passive recreational purposes only. So while campers and motorboats will not be allowed, hiking, horse-back riding, bird watching, and camping will be permitted.
However, the Park Authority board eventually rejected the notion of a compromise and recommended the Park Authority go ahead with resubmitting its only proposal once against to the BOCS.
During the last week, Kieffer finally decided to give up.
“Well, I mean, it gets to a point where you can only bang your head against the wall for so long,” said Kieffer, who singled out the Park Authority executive director Jay Ellington in particular for allowing the collapse since he is the Park Authority's leader. “It was clear that a compromise proposal wasn't going to work and they weren't going to entrust us to develop the 500-acre natural recreation area.”
Kieffer said the BRMC will still encourage volunteers to help out with the park.
“We'll do everything we can to be supportive of the Silver Lake project,” he said, noting the Park Authority claims it can reopen the park within six months of securing the county government's approval. “We want to see that opened to the public as soon as possible.”