ISA: Fairfax Christian School Responds
The property in question. Click to see how rural the area really is.
As I mentioned previously, I wrote to Fairfax Christian School to try and find out what their thoughts surrounding the ISA expansion was.
FCS has responded, and has quite a bit to add to this story:
To the best of my knowledge, the property was sold because it was put is a Chesapeake Bay watershed district (which I believe has now been removed). We were not able to expand or even replace a building that burned down. We had secured 65 acres on the corner of Vale Rd and Hunter Mill Road and did not think the zoning was going to be a problem. Unfortunately, we were wrong and ended up at our current location.
We hope that is Saudi Academy get all the zoning they want. Any private school expansion is an asset to the county.
Thank you.
Jo Thoburn
Director
The Fairfax Christian School
www.FairfaxChristianSchool.com
The Center for American Culture
www.CenterforAmericanCulture.com
I'll dig into this a little bit below, so be sure to click beyond the fold if you're looking for more!
Jo didn't go into detail, but from the sound of things, the school had originally intended to live on its Pope's Head Road property permanently. The property, however, was added to a special Chesapeake Bay district that put onerous restrictions on building, to the point that when one of the buildings on the property burned down, they were forbidden to replace it.
Seeing the writing on the wall, school founder Robert L. Thoburn had no choice but to sell the property to a school that would "never" need to be larger than the 250-student population allowed by the size and occupancy limits on the buildings already there. And, when the Saudi embassy approached them with plans for a school "for Embassy employees" (how big can an Embassy get, anyway?), the Thoburns took it as an opportunity to find a property that would allow them to educate a larger number of students.
Unfortunately, they quickly discovered that the County had no intention of allowing them to build a school on the property they had purchased off of Hunter Mill Road. In a situation that sounded eerily similar to what's going on in the current ISA expansion project, neighbors and surrounding property owners filed into Zoning meetings to complain about the school's plans. Of course, unlike the ISA's situation, the Commission actually listened to the neighbors complaints, and refused to issue any building permits.
Of course, one other slight difference between the way FCS was treated, and the way ISA is treated, is that the County Board of Supervisors also refused to help. One could say that the Thoburn family's time in politics in the late 70's and late 80's might have had some impact on the Board's direction, but I think that it's clear from my observations that this is not an isolated decision for the time. The Thoburns were not treated any differently than any number of other churches and schools that wished to expand in Fairfax County, then or now. (They did make for better headlines, though.)
The Washington Post had this to say about the Board's actions, in an article celebrating the "Christian Right's" setbacks in Fairfax County1:
The anti-conservative bias of the Post is one of the vaunted constants in life, I guess.
Anyway, the school spent some time temporarily in a church in Vienna, during which they fought with Vienna's fire marshal and safety laws. They then had to fight over their Reston property, but were finally, after nearly four years of legal wrangling, allowed to settle there.
Compare this to the repeated approvals, extensions, and assistance given to the Islamic Saudi Academy by the Fairfax County government, and you've got a very interesting contrast.
Finally, Jo hopes that ISA is successful in their effort to expand. While I disagree in the particulars of this case—The proposed construction is out of character with the land, period—I do see her point. If ISA is allowed to expand its buildings on land that is conserved, it will in theory be much easier for private schools across the entire County to expand their properties at will. An unprecedented opportunity for the expansion of private education in Fairfax County, perhaps.
Unfortunately, I think the political reality on the ground here is that ISA is getting special consideration that would not otherwise be available to other schools in the County. The Planning Commission has acted in a way that makes it patently obvious that they are advocating this expansion, in a way that I just can't see them doing for any other entity.
Which leaves the other schools at the back of the proverbial bus.
--
1. The Washington Post, 4 August 1987. Metro Section, pg. B1.
Seeing the writing on the wall, school founder Robert L. Thoburn had no choice but to sell the property to a school that would "never" need to be larger than the 250-student population allowed by the size and occupancy limits on the buildings already there. And, when the Saudi embassy approached them with plans for a school "for Embassy employees" (how big can an Embassy get, anyway?), the Thoburns took it as an opportunity to find a property that would allow them to educate a larger number of students.
Unfortunately, they quickly discovered that the County had no intention of allowing them to build a school on the property they had purchased off of Hunter Mill Road. In a situation that sounded eerily similar to what's going on in the current ISA expansion project, neighbors and surrounding property owners filed into Zoning meetings to complain about the school's plans. Of course, unlike the ISA's situation, the Commission actually listened to the neighbors complaints, and refused to issue any building permits.
Of course, one other slight difference between the way FCS was treated, and the way ISA is treated, is that the County Board of Supervisors also refused to help. One could say that the Thoburn family's time in politics in the late 70's and late 80's might have had some impact on the Board's direction, but I think that it's clear from my observations that this is not an isolated decision for the time. The Thoburns were not treated any differently than any number of other churches and schools that wished to expand in Fairfax County, then or now. (They did make for better headlines, though.)
The Washington Post had this to say about the Board's actions, in an article celebrating the "Christian Right's" setbacks in Fairfax County1:
In another vote, the board rejected for the second time in two years a proposal from Fairfax Christian School to build a 576-student campus on a wooded 42-acre site in the Oakton area. The application for a zoning exception was defeated on a 5-to-4 vote. The proposal, which drew heavy fire from nearby residents, became embroiled in further controversy because the school's owner, Robert L. Thoburn, is an independent candidate for the Board of Supervisors.
The anti-conservative bias of the Post is one of the vaunted constants in life, I guess.
Anyway, the school spent some time temporarily in a church in Vienna, during which they fought with Vienna's fire marshal and safety laws. They then had to fight over their Reston property, but were finally, after nearly four years of legal wrangling, allowed to settle there.
Compare this to the repeated approvals, extensions, and assistance given to the Islamic Saudi Academy by the Fairfax County government, and you've got a very interesting contrast.
Finally, Jo hopes that ISA is successful in their effort to expand. While I disagree in the particulars of this case—The proposed construction is out of character with the land, period—I do see her point. If ISA is allowed to expand its buildings on land that is conserved, it will in theory be much easier for private schools across the entire County to expand their properties at will. An unprecedented opportunity for the expansion of private education in Fairfax County, perhaps.
Unfortunately, I think the political reality on the ground here is that ISA is getting special consideration that would not otherwise be available to other schools in the County. The Planning Commission has acted in a way that makes it patently obvious that they are advocating this expansion, in a way that I just can't see them doing for any other entity.
Which leaves the other schools at the back of the proverbial bus.
--
1. The Washington Post, 4 August 1987. Metro Section, pg. B1.
Interesting that the site of the ISA has been removed from the Chesapeake Bay watershed district. How did that happen? When?
