County to Study Potential Franconia Ice Rink

Looking to go skating in Franconia, even in the summer? After the Board of Supervisors passed a motion to study the idea of an ice rink in the area last week, you could someday be able to.

The board, proposed by Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay (D) and passed on September 13, would allow county employees to begin considering an amendment that would allow construction of an ice rink on a property on Oakwood Road, near the intersection of Van Dorn Street and 495. 

"It presumes nothing, but it allows our county staff to invest the time," McKay said.

Currently, Kettler, the company that owns the currently-empty property at the dead-end of Oakwood Road, has a right to construct a 230,000 square foot office building on the land. With a weak economy and neighbor objections, however, McKay thinks the company could open an ice rink instead.

"Youth hockey’s on the move," McKay said. "The demand is tremendous”

The property's neighbors on pothole-rich Oakwood Road are primarily companies, some with gravel driveways meant to handle extra vehicles. With homes to the property's southeast, the tension between businesses and residences factors into discussion of the potential ice rink. 

"Oakwood Road is an area characterized by blighted, underutilized properties, which have created an incompatible mix of uses wedged between the Beltway and established single-family residential communities," reads McKay's board matter on the ice rink.

Oakwood Road is the only street leading to the property, further complicating any potential uses. 

McKay said that even if the ice rink is not the property's final use, it's a better option than the office building Kettler has a right to construct.

"It worries me what can happen there 'by right'," he said.