Republicans on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors worked late into the night to convince Democrats to vote against an asphalt plant that would be built on 22 acres of land next to the Blackburn residential neighborhood.
“Don’t support big business,” Brentsville District Supervisor Jeanine Lawson said. “The Democrats up here say they want to work with us, but they continue to shove these projects down our throats.”
“An asphalt plant is not going to be built in Montclair, or Heritage Hunt, or in Potomac Shores… not in the communities that go to the chamber [of commerce] meetings and make out the [political] campaign donations.” said Gainesville District Supervisor Peter Candland.”It’s a travesty for the Board of County Supervisors to talk about equity and serving minority communities, and then turn around and spit in their eye with an asphalt plant.”
Initially, a vote to approve the plant failed in a tie vote, with Occoquan District Supervisor Kenny Boddye joining Republicans in opposing the plant. Woodbridge District Supervisor Margaret Franklin then asked to change her vote, choosing to oppose the plant.
On July 21, an effort to approve the asphalt plant died in a tie vote. County Attorney Michelle Robl told Supervisors the tie vote equaled “no action taken” and that Supervisors would need to hold an up or down vote. So, the measure was brought back to the Board of County Supervisors Tuesday night.
Multiple residents voiced their concerns about poor air quality at their homes and nearby Mullen Elementary School. They also opposed increased truck traffic that would be traveling in and out of the asphalt plant on local roads, including Mason King Court and Route 234.
Concessions from the Alan Meyers Paving Company, the firm that wanted to build the plant, such as erecting sound walls, and donating a quarter-million dollars to local schools over the next five years if the project was approved, was not enough to sway residents or supervisors.
The new plant would sit on 22 acres of property off Bethlehem Road, just five miles outside Downtown Manassas.
The Allen Meyers Paving Company wanted to rehabilitate an old concrete plant that, until recently, was in use since 1974. It required a special use permit from the Board of County Supervisors to allow the asphalt plant to operate.
The new plant would have included an 82-foot tall silo, about half the height of Chicago’s famed Water Tower building, and it would have generated as many as 22,600 dump truck trips per year, with trucks entering and exiting the plant.
The proposed plant would be located near the Blackburn neighborhood, full of single-family and town Homs, approved by county leaders in 2015.
Neabsco District Victor Angry praised the paving company for its willingness to address residents’ concerns about traffic and air quality, opting to keep truck traffic off of Bethlehem Road, a two-lane road that runs adjacent to a residential neighborhood, and offering to install state-of-the-art filtration systems to mitigate air quality issues.
“If you tell me what the issues are and I go out and fix these issues, you’ve got to work with me and give me something else,” Angry told residents opposing the plant. “We have to make the decisions that are right for the entire county.”
“The plant’s emissions equipment is going to be above and beyond what is there now [at the old concrete plant],” said Chair At-large Ann Wheeler.
“I’m glad you think these conditions are OK, but [residents who live nearby] don’t. You don’t have to live there. They do. They’ve seen the conditions Alan Meyers has agreed to make, and they’ve still said no,” Candland responded.
