By Justin Creech
Staff writer
Thursday, July 19, 2012

Fort Belvoir Residential Communities LLC, a partnership between the Army and Clark Pinnacle Family Communities LLC, welcomed residents of George Washington and River Village as well as Dogue Creek to the George Washington Community Center Monday night to discuss the development of a playground for the three villages.

Residents reviewed two models that representatives from Clarke Realty Capital, ParkerRodriguez and Torti Gallas and Partners, Inc developed after an initial meeting with the village residents on April 19.

As they were four months ago, the residents said they are happy to be included in the development process.

"I think it’s great," said Spc. Nathaniel Parsons, Fort Belvoir Community Hospital licensed practical nurse. "You put enough highly educated people in a room; they can come up with great stuff. But, to have input from the people that live in the area, I think you get better ideas. They get to see things they don’t see from an office building."

Aubrey Douglas of Dogue Creek Village also appreciated the community involvement.

"It gives us an opportunity to pick our park and make it our own," said Douglas. "I like it."

The play space will be located at the corner of George Washington Village and Mount Vernon Road

The residents were shown two models, Concept A, called "Imagine" playground and Concept B, called "Walk on the Wild Side."

Concept A consists of a wooden walkway that goes around the play area through Dogue Creek to allow residents to enjoy the surrounding nature. The play space would also have an observation tower located near the entrance, a wall for coloring and a music area with a sound wall, performance stage and pipes children can hit that make musical sounds.

Concept B would have multiple paths for parents and their children to walk through, a splash park with slides and play cannons and an open grass area near the entrance that could be used for picnics and movie nights.

Concept B was the most popular among the residents.

"With structure B, the grass play area is bigger and seems to be more user-friendly. The swing-set area and the splash park is also much bigger," said Parsons. "Structure A has more sand and dirt, but with pets that can be an issue with waste. Structure B still has the fossil yard they can dig in, so they aren’t losing anything there."

Douglas also likes the size of the splash park in Concept B and the idea of a joint movie night between the three villages on the grass play-area.

She also likes the multiple walk-ways Concept B would have.

"I like that you can walk a different way to a different area of the playground," said Douglas. "You don’t always have to go the same way because that gets boring."

Parsons likes the music area in Concept A and thinks the children would enjoy having musical instruments to play if it was added to the final model.

However, Parsons doesn’t like the coloring wall in Concept A because he feels it would require too much maintenance and would be an invitiation for graffiti.

"The wall would have to be repainted occasionally or washed off," said Parsons. "People would have to bring their own chalk, markers or paint, so I don’t know how much it would really get used for the proper purposes."

Casey Nolan, Clarke Reality Capital, project director felt the meeting went well and said afterward the final model will most likely be a combination of the two concepts shown to the residents.

His main goal, along with the representatives from the partnering companies, is to create a playground that provides Families and their children with everything they want.

"There are lots of great playgrounds here at Belvoir, but if you want to get every aspect of one you have go to different places or off post," said Nolan. "So, our goal is to have a place that has everything in one spot."