Better to Beg Forgiveness Than Ask Permission

That seems to be the case in today’s news concerning one component of the NGIC/Military Base expansion underway. Reports Charlottesville Tomorrow … (bolding mine)

Two weeks ago, Wood asked the County to allow him to change the layout of two four-story office buildings in the Boulders Office Complex. What was to be basement storage with low ceilings Wood would like to be basement space with ceilings closer to height of a typical office floor. Storage space, however, is required to have ceilings no taller than 6 feet 6 inches. County staff told Charlottesville Tomorrow that it appears the basement of one building under construction has already been readied with bathrooms and HVAC in anticipation of future use. With ceilings placed higher than the storage space maximum, the basements become a new floor on the buildings that could be occupied for future offices, thus requiring Wood to build 200 additional parking spaces, or seek a waiver from that standard. Wood has requested a reduction in the parking requirements, presumably because the taller space will still be used for storage needs of his tenant and not for employees needing parking.

…

Wood’s commercial office complex is developing independent of the nearby military base expansion projects. Ground was recently broken on a $58.5 million Joint Use Intelligence Analysis Facility (JUIAF) located on about 47 acres of land the federal government purchased from Wood. JUIAF will join the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) as part of the growing military base. Wood’s commercial project has been described by the military as something that would support the work at the base by, for example, providing space for private military contractors.

…

Mark Graham joined the meeting in the afternoon and provided the Board with additional information about Wood’s request and the review process. “Everything we have [heard about the use] is anecdotal right now, quite frankly….Because we have heard storage is actually laboratory space as well, so we are trying to get a better handle on what the real use of this space is,” said Graham.

You can’t say no, I’ve already built it! It would be helpful for everybody involved to know how many jobs will be coming here from Fort Belvoir (archived: 2011) (among other places) as part of the BRAC (archived: 2019). (I’m still a little bit stunned that the Charlottesville area now has an official “Military Base” – Rivanna Station – I wonder if they’ll be getting a PX).

More people should mean more parking spaces, regardless of this fact:

… 1,000 people would be coming, only 625 new parking spaces were being built. Moffatt has to meet the federal government’s goal in new construction of only providing parking for 60% of the employees. Slutzky said he was glad to hear about that requirement. “It forces all of us to have to address it and that’s how we get transit results.”

Chicken, meet egg.