NATURE, HISTORY AND HORTICULTURE IN FAIRFAX COUNTY
VOLUME 7, NO. 4 FALL 2007
Hidden Oaks Nature Center Puts LID on Parking By Carol Ochs, FCPA Volunteer A bigger parking lot is one of the last things you’d think of as good stewardship of the land.
S
ince the days of Joni Mitchell’s “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot,” those dull slabs of asphalt have been more environmental blight than boon. But that’s not the case at Hidden Oaks Nature Center. The site’s new “green” parking lot is a lesson in environmental stewardship, public safety and public education. Hidden Oaks is using Low Impact Development (LID) techniques to expand visitor parking. LID means using permeable pavers that allow water to pass through and constructing an angled driveway and parking area that will send rainwater into a bio-retention basin, or rain garden. Michael McDonnell, the manager at Hidden Oaks Nature Center, says the parking lot project has “been in the hopper for ten years and we’re lucky that it’s happening when a great LID opportunity came along.” In addition, the Park Authority Board is focusing on environmental stewardship practices. Safety was the first consideration. Hidden Oaks had a relatively tight circular drive and four parking spaces that were adequate when the nature center opened in 1969 and catered mostly to walk-in visitors from the surrounding Annandale neighborhood. Safety concerns arose when it became apparent fire trucks and emergency vehicles would have difficulty negotiating the tight space. Over time, as the center became a hub for moms with mini-vans and strollers, students aboard school buses and adults attending evening meetings, the need for more parking grew.
Members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and the Park Board join Park Authority staffers and Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald Connolly (center, blue shirt) at the groundbreaking for the Hidden Oaks LID parking lot.
The four-space parking lot is being expanded to 20 spaces. All new spaces around the circle will be covered in permeable pavers except for the accessible parking area, where a solid, level surface is necessary. The porous bricks will allow rainwater to soak into layers of ground and gravel, rather than run off into the county’s storm drains.
WHAT’S INSIDE . . . Events ........................... 2 Park Foundation ............ 3 Accreditation ................ 4
The driveway and the parking spaces inside the circle will be covered in conventional impermeable paving material. That paved area will be angled so that rainwater runs into a rain garden in the center of the driveway circle.
Cross County Trail (CCT) ..5
Progress comes at a price
Awards ......................... 9
About two dozen trees, mainly those in the circle and at the edge of the current parking lot, were removed. Suzanne Holland, assistant manager at continued on page 10
School in a Park ............ 6 Nature Center Discovery .. 7 Composting .................. 8 Quilt Show .................. 11 Rentals ....................... 12
p Fairfax County Park Authority • Fairfax, VA 22035 • 703-324-8695 • FAX 703-324-3996 • TTY 703-803-3354 • www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/resources