Board rejects water tank site
The board found the park site to be inconsistent with the county’s 1998 comprehensive plan, a blueprint for development in the county.
The site had been approved by the Prince William County Planning Commission in May. An alternative site along Antioch Road recommended by the Prince William County Service Authority was rejected by the Planning Commission last year. Neighbors convinced the Service Authority to search for a different site. An Antioch Road tank would have been much shorter than the proposed tank at Long Regional Park: only 40 feet tall.
On Tuesday night, numerous Rural Crescent residents spoke against building any water tank in the protected 80,000-acre preserve in the county’s western end.
Now, the Service Authority must find a location other than Long Regional Park for a tank in the county’s western end. Plans to build a tank on Antioch Road could be resurrected, but some supervisors said Tuesday night that they could not support such a proposal.
The Service Authority, responsible for providing water and sewer services to the county, said it needs 4 million gallons of water storage in the county’s west end by 2050 to meet state health requirements for a projected 11,800 homes. The tank will serve the nearby Dominion Valley, Piedmont and Heritage Hunt neighborhoods.
The Service Authority is under contract with Dominion Valley developer Toll Brothers to have a water storage facility in place by February 2004.