UCP Lights Update

Here's a letter sent to the UCP by HC Board member Ralph Youngren on 5/23 proposing a meeting to discuss the lights issue... thank you Ralph!

Please comment on this post with any issues on the lights at UCP, especially if they effect your house.

Church Lights

Board member Ralph Youngren is going to meet with our contact at the UCP about Hickory Cluster residents issues about night-time church lighting.  If you have an issue, please comment here or email Ralph by Monday, 5/25/12.  See previous post and comments here.

UCP Church: Lights & Landscaping

HC board member Ralph Youngren met with UCP representatives on behalf of the board with concerns about the church lights and car headlights on facing HC Block III residents.  See his notes below.

"I met with Bob Bain and other representatives of the United Christian Parish of Reston on Tuesday Mar 13 at 2:00PM.

In our previous meetings I had a concern about parking lot lights and car headlights shining into Hickory Cluster at night. 

I found that the parking lot lights are focused away from HC, and there is a great deal of new plantings, evergreen varieties to shield the cars. The planting will begin in about two weeks. When everything is in place, the church will be open to suggestions from us to adjust any problem."

-Ralph Youngren
Hickory Cluster Board

UCP Expansion Landscaping Plan

Ralph Youngren and Greg Gallardo of our HC Board met with the UCP (United Christian Parish) folks, their landscape architect, and a Fairfax County arborist yesterday about their plans for plants to screen headlights.

Thank you to Ralph and Greg for attending this meeting!

From Greg:
The plan, shown on graphic, calls for native evergreen trees and shrubs (listed on the plan) to be planted along the edge of the parking lot. The county arborist would assist them in actual placement of the plants to optimize screening. He also suggested that the church have people attending night meetings to park facing the church, including backing into the parking spaces adjacent to Hickory Cluster. Neither the landscaper nor the arborist thought that planters would be a good solution as they'd require too much maintenance. They said that they'd consider planting a sample of the screening plants at some time, but couldn't think of any current example of such a planting that we could visit now.

UCP Church Expansion Meeting

Dear All,
The church will give an update on the building plans on November 19th at 7:30PM in the church.

This will be a good time to see the most recent drawings including the proposed traffic roundabout, and also find out the status of the permitting process, including outstanding DRB issues.

ps. added photo (sorry for the shadow!): click to enlarge, the traffic "roundabout" is visible in this drawing close to the proposed new entrance nearest HC. To my understanding, this end of the proposed parking lot will be excavated and will be approximately 6ft lower than the elevation of the land backing up to HC. -Sara

Church Easement: Not Approved

After the votes were counted last night, it was announced that there were less than the 2/3 (60) ballots required. Therefore, the church easement vote was not approved. The church pastor stated that the church would most likely not ask Hickory Cluster to do another vote on the easement in the future.

The church is planning on having a new access into their property from North Shore Drive where the current rectory is but because of the easement vote it will only be a one-way access going into the church.

There was some new explanation by the church representatives about changes that will have to be made in their parking lot plans with the inclusion of a "roundabout" so their traffic can turn around on the property to use their now sole exit. The church pastor posed that this might be more disruptive to HC residents due to the added headlight disturbance at night.

There was also some discussion about status of the church designs with the Reston Association Design Review Board (DRB). It seems that there may be more opportunities for HC resident's concerns to be heard at future meetings on the church plans. The church has not, as it was previously understood, had final approval from the DRB. Check the blog for more information on this to come.

United Christian Parish Expansion

Over the last few years, the United Christian Parish Church has been working on plans to expand their present building to approximately triple the size of what it is now. The plan includes the removal of the "rectory" house that currently exists on North Shore Drive next to Hickory Cluster (Block 3) and a portion of the existing woods and trees to be replaced by additional parking and a brand new parking lot access onto North Shore Drive. The above drawing (click to enlarge) reflects the church expansion plans as of October '08.

The church has approached HC to ask for a HC vote on a county easement (2/3 of resident "yes" vote needed) on cluster property bordering North Shore Dr. between HC and the proposed new parking lot outlet that would require HC to remove all obstructions to visibility (trees, vegetation, green power box, etc.) back 25ft to satisfy the county by increasing motorist visibility while exiting the church from the new access. To date, the church has offered to pay for the cost of the vote and the costs involved in complying with the easement. The date for the vote TBA.

-Sara