Kingstowne Park

Kingstowne Park
Type Countywide
Size 76.92 acres
Planning District Rose Hill
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Kingstowne Park is a 76.92-acre countywide park in the Kingstowne area of Alexandria.

Originally part of a gravel quarry, the land that was to become the park was included in a proffer by Halle Enterprises as a part of their scheme to get the land rezoned to allow them to build Kingstowne. A May 1989 master plan for the proposed park shows that the county intended to build athletic fields and other recreational amenities on the site.

However, during the construction of Kingstowne (and before the land was actually transferred to the county), the Environmental Protection Agency determined that Halle was in violation of the Clean Water Act. On September 11, 1996, Halle entered into a consent agreement with the EPA that they would mitigate the damage to wetlands that required them to repurpose the land intended as a park.[1]

The land was finally transferred to the Board of Supervisors and the Fairfax County Park Authority on March 19, 2003.

On September 30, 2010, the dam in the park failed, causing at least two of the five ponds within the park to drain.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Accomplishments Report FY 1996. Rep. no. 300- R97-003. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997. Print. p. B-20.
  2. ↑ Kravitz, Derek. "Dam Failure Drains Fairfax County Lake, Kills Wildlife." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 06 Oct. 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2012.