
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 1, 1995                   TAG: 9507030034
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: FAIRFAX                                 LENGTH: Medium

ARMY DROPS PLAN TO HELP BUILD CITY

Plans for the Army to be a partner in the construction of a small city south of Springfield have fallen through after Army officials said the project would be too expensive.

No ground had been broken on the project, but local and federal officials have spent six years and hundreds of thousands of dollars preparing for construction of 4,000 housing units, a light-rail system and enough high-rise office buildings to hold 30,000 people. The project was to be built on 805 acres of the Army's Engineering Proving Ground.

Army officials said Wednesday they were concerned about the high cost of the required transportation improvements and the decline in demand for office space.

``There is no sense beating a dead horse,'' said Fairfax Supervisor Joseph Alexander, the county's leading proponent of the project. ``It is just important that we salvage this, and I am going to go to any length to do that.''

Possible alternatives mentioned include the Army's turning the land over to the county in return for a commitment of some free office space. The site also could be used for a baseball stadium if Northern Virginia gets a major league team.

Reps. Tom Davis, R-Fairfax County, and James Moran, D-Alexandria, said they would prefer giving the county about 80 acres for recreational use and allowing the planned construction of the Fairfax County Parkway, but letting the rest sit undisturbed for a while.

``The timing is not right for a major project there today,'' Moran said.

The Army had planned to cover the more than $10 million cost of building the parkway through the site, meaning the county will have to find another source of money for that project.

by CNB