New Agency [Homeland Security] Appears Headed to Northern Virginia

Richmond Times-Dispatch ^ | 12.11.02 | MARTY NILAND

[Ligeia]

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Bush administration is leaning toward northern Virginia as the home of the new Department of Homeland Security, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., and a congressional source said Wednesday.

"The administration has decided to lease space and is focusing on underutilized space in Virginia," said Norton, who sits on two committees that worked to create the department.

[Ligeia]

It won't be a surprise if the President and Secretary Ridge decide on Virginia given the criteria they gave the search committee.

[bybybill]

You guys are kidding your selves. The permanent site will be in old West Verginny.

[Axenolith]

Naw, thats where the Federal Air Transportation Aviation Security Service, Federal Armed Response Team, and Sentinal Homeland Intelligence Taskforce will be based...

[Ligeia]

Not ol' West Virginny this time. Bush and Ridge had such a narrow list of specs for the search committee only northern Virginia filled the bill.

[muawiyah]

Former Republican Representative Connie Morela's district was totally out of the running. To the degree Crystal City is in Romping Jim Moran's district it should be off the list as well.

There is space somewhere in Davis' and Wolf's districts!

[mrsmith]

Richmond radio news has been playing a sound bite all day of Sen. Allen saying it should go to Virginia.

I hope they don't vote like the rest of the DC invaders down here.

[Ligeia]

I heard President Bush and Sec. Ridge basically said they wanted the site to be located in either Fairfax or Loudoun counties. I know the Economic Development Authority aided by Sen. Allen put on the full court press. This is all I could find at the WP on the topic.

GOP Group Stresses the Importance Of Employees in Homeland Security

By Stephen Barr
Wednesday, December 11, 2002; Page B02

The government's homeland security programs will be no more effective than the people responsible for them, a Republican group said yesterday.

In a blueprint for the first 100 days of the new Department of Homeland Security, the Republican Main Street Partnership said deploying the right employees with the right skills would be a critical factor, especially in the areas of intelligence, border security, law enforcement, public health, transportation and nuclear safety. Continue

[Ligeia]

Oops, I missed your comments while I was zapping pop-up ads at the WP site. I'm going to go out on a limb and make a general assumption that employees of the Homeland Security Administration will be politically conservative to moderate. All the lefty peaceniks will be applying at Greenpeace to try and thwart the goals and objectives of Homeland Security.

[lewislynn]

All the lefty peaceniks will be applying at Greenpeace to try and thwart the goals and objectives of Homeland Security.

Nope. I wish you were right but they'll be infiltrating and taking over "Homeland Security" just as they've done with every other big government (in this case, bigger government) bureaucracy ever created...."lefty" and bureaucracy are synonymous.

[Ligeia]

I suppose you're right. I had a prof once who was retired CIA whose speciality was research. He had a very interesting story to tell the first class after which he went off on his lefty tangents and beliefs. I dropped his course after the second class. I would have thought research analysts at the CIA were all conservatives but he proved me wrong.

[bybybill]

Oh, you think a little thing like what`s best for the country is going to stop KKK Byrd?

[cynicom]

I can think of a lot of slums not far from the Whitehouse that need tearing down.

[steve-b]

A congressional source confirmed that the General Services Administration, a key procurement agency, is exploring the Crystal City area and other locations in Arlington County.

That's too close to the existing concentration of targets. I wouldn't put it within fifty miles of downtown DC.

[angkor]

There's a heck of a lot of unused office space out on the Dulles Toll Road from dot.bomb days.

And conveniently located near SAIC, DynCorp, Booz, CACI, and EDS, who will all prove beneficiaries of Homeland Security.

Crystal City, Rosslyn, and Ballston are all a bit crowded.

[Ligeia]

That's where I tend to think they'll end up. They said they want an office park setting and that's available along the Dulles corridor. The only other location would be in western Fairfax County out I-66 because the Metro runs out that way.

[Ligeia]

Former Republican Representative Connie Morela's district was totally out of the running.

The new bioterrorism building is planned for construction on the NIH campus which makes sense to include it there. Arlington wasn't even on the list excluding anything to do with Jim Moran. Wolf or Davis is definitely it not because of them but their districts are right for the job.

[Ligeia]

Northern Va. Likely to Be New Homeland Security Site
By Spencer S. Hsu and Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 8, 2003; Page A01

The Bush administration has narrowed its search for a Department of Homeland Security headquarters to three sites in Northern Virginia and is pressing Congress for immediate approval, congressional sources said yesterday.

The intense search process, conducted in secrecy over the past month, is on track for a selection to be announced in the next two weeks, federal officials said.

Real estate industry and congressional sources said the leading sites include a Chantilly office park on Route 28 near the headquarters of the high-security National Reconnaissance Office. [This sounds like the MCI/Worldcom site] Also in contention are two Tysons Corner sites near the Dulles Toll Road and the Capital Beltway. Continue

[Ligeia]

Three County Sites Vie for Homeland Security
Smart Growth advocates express traffic concerns.
By David Harrison
January 16, 2003

Photo By David Harrison/The Connection
The Chantilly site is located in the Westfields Corporate Center.

When Fairfax County officials first heard that the federal government was considering locating the new Department of Homeland Security in Fairfax County, they were eager to help. Supervisor Michael Frey (R-Sully) wrote a letter and Supervisor Gerald Connolly (D-Providence) said he would be happy to as well, if asked.

Three sites, two on Colshire Road in Tysons Corner in Providence District and one in the Westfields office park in Chantilly in Sully District, have been mentioned as possible sites for the Department of Homeland Security. The department is expected to have 17,000 employees at its headquarters.

FREY OFFERED to write a letter about a month ago on behalf of the Carr Capital Corporation which was trying to lure the agency to a building it owns in the Westfields area of Chantilly. A couple weeks ago, the company took him up on his offer. In his letter, Frey said he "made a commitment for trying to expedite the reviews and permits that might be needed."

"I made the commitment to the Carr Company so that they could demonstrate to the local procurement folks that they had local support."

William Keech, of the Westfields Business Owners Association said Westfields is well positioned to receive the new agency. The association already negotiated with the federal government 15 years ago to bring the National Reconnaissance Office to the area.

"We would do whatever it takes to bring homeland security into Westfields," he said.

Connolly said he had not written a letter assuring the federal government of his help, but added that, "if asked, I'd be happy to do it." Such letters are fairly common from local officials trying to attract a company to their districts.

"I certainly have let anyone who's asked know that I am supportive of Fairfax County in general and Tysons in particular as a logical place for the new Department of Homeland Security to be located," said Connolly, who said he first heard about the plan "several weeks ago." But he added that he did not think a letter from a local official would sway the federal government's decision.

FREY SAID the federal agency would be a boon to the region's economy. "There's a huge economic benefit," he said.

Michael Lewis, the president of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, called it "a very positive opportunity."

"We're capitalizing our activity in areas where we already have skills and strengths in," he said. "Right now I think the most critical aspect is to get those that were displaced by the downturn of the Internet industry back to work."

But Stewart Schwartz, the executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said putting the agency in Chantilly would be "like dropping a sprawl bomb in the middle of Western Fairfax."

"Tysons is marginally better," he added.

Not placing the agency near an existing Metro station demonstrates "yet another failure to link land use and transit in the region," he said.

"Somebody's going to have to pay for all the transportation infrastructure out there, somebody's going to have to pay for the air pollution problem, somebody's going to have to pay for the economic dislocation."

Lewis disagreed: "A lot of these folks are already here," he said. "We're not talking about a considerable impact on roads and schools."

Connolly said: "I can't pretend it won't have an impact on roads. It will."

At the same time, he said, "it gives some renewed interest at the federal level to rail to and through Tysons on the way to Dulles."
Frey said there would be some impact on traffic but that a new interchange between Route 28 and Westfields Boulevard was scheduled for completion in 2006. The first homeland security workers could start working in the new location in the next few months.
Frey also said the county's Comprehensive Plan on land use calls for commercial developments in Westfields.

"The office park was planned for that intensity," he said.

"That assumes that the Comprehensive Plan makes sense in the first place," said Schwartz.

Connection

[Ligeia]

Homeland HQ Will Be in D.C.
By Spencer S. Hsu and Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 22, 2003; 7:41 PM

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge today announced that the headquarters for the new department will be located at a military-controlled base in Northwest Washington for the foreseeable future, saying the agency's security and operational needs are too pressing for it to lease space in the Washington suburbs as first proposed.

The move, which will begin as soon as the 177,000-employee department is legally organized Friday, caps a contentious and frenetic search in which homeland security officials considered and ultimately rejected several Northern Virginia locations in recent days.

Instead, Ridge's spokesman said the department's "initial headquarters" will be housed in a four-story building at the U.S. Naval Security Station at Nebraska and Massachusetts avenues that already serves the department's national, round-the-clock command center. The gated, 38-acre defense post about five miles from the White House is under the command of the Naval District of Washington and houses the Navy's global computer and telecommunications systems commands. Continue at the WP