Rabbit Run Remediation Project

May 2025 Rabbit Run Remediation Project Update

- By Bob Cosgriff

I’m happy to be able to report some news on the Rabbit Run Remediation Project. First of all, there is a new project manager, Jim Waters. He just provided me with the current status of the project. Basically, most of the preliminary surveys have been completed, but the design engineers still need to collect soil borings along the length of the stream to help assess underlying soil conditions. The plan is to send a crew to the site this summer (June/July 2025) to complete the soil borings. The drilling rig will access the creek by entering off Cotton Farm Road (near the Farm House Lane intersection) utilizing the County’s sewer easements in the Hickory Farms HOA common area parcels that run behind the houses on Cotton Farm Rd and Country Squire Lane. See the below image for reference map. This will likely require the removal of some small trees and understory growth in the process of gaining access. (Following construction, replacement trees and shrubs will be planted in areas disturbed by the remediation work.)

In my reply to him, I asked for the timeline of the project as best as it is known at present. The County is in the process of gaining easements from properties on Burke Station Road that extend into the work area. This can be a lengthy process. I also expressed our desire to be fully involved in the design phase reviews so that we can have a say in tree preservation along the creek. From past experience with the County project managers on similar projects, their goal is to disturb the existing environment as little as possible, and replanting to restore canopy is part of the deal. By improving stream flow, the overall environment should be enhanced in the long run.

Obviously, once there is equipment in the Rabbit Run RPA in June/July, the work area will be off-limits. More on that (and hopefully further updates) in a later newsletter.

Common Area Tree Issue Reporting

Have you seen a tree issue on our paths or in the Common Areas?  Please report your tree concern by clicking on the link and filling out the Hickory Farms Common Areas Tree Issues Request form. A Common Areas Committee member will review and reach out for more information as needed.

Tree Issues Request Form

Driving on Common Areas

The common areas are for everyone’s enjoyment.  This does NOT include, however, the use of motorized vehicles like mopeds and motor scooters.  Our insurance doesn’t cover them and they tear up the grounds and grass.  Also, our Rules and Regulations prohibit them.  So, please find somewhere else where it is legal to ride them.

Dumping on Common Areas

The Common Areas are part of everyone's back yard.  However, in several areas, yard debris such as grass clippings and branches are being dumped.  PLEASE do not dump debris in the common areas.  Besides being unsightly, these dumping areas draw rodents and other wild animals into our neighborhood.  Your trash service will pick up yard debris separately for recycling from spring through fall.  It will even pick up debris as part of your trash service during the winter. If you have been putting debris in the common areas, please move it out to the street on debris day or haul it to the Fairfax County dump on West Ox Road.  Although the common areas may be wooded, the woods can’t decompose more debris than it generates itself.  In other words, the clippings and branches you dump in the common areas overload the area’s ability to decompose the material.

Community Paths

There are a number of community-owned paths in Hickory Farms, some of them made of concrete, some asphalt, and some “invisible.”  You may live next to a community-owned path and not even know it!  First, a big “thank you” to those folks living adjacent to the paths who have helped maintain them over the years.   Your hard work maintaining the paths benefits all of us by adding to the beauty of our community.  The Hickory Farms Common Grounds Coordinator also has community property maps that show the locations of these paths.

• North Black Path
  HFCA property is 10' wide from 4279 Country Squire to 10035 Wheatfield Court.  The community property then widens to 20' where it continues to Roberts Road.
• Cotton Farm
  Unmarked path between 10019 & 10021 – 20'
• Country Squire
  Black path between 4278 & 4280 – 8'
  Concrete path between 4285 & 4289 – 10'
• Cotton Farm & Farm House
  Black path between 10007 Cotton Farm & 4314 Farm House – 20'
• Farm House
  Concrete path between 4339 & 4341 – 12’ (In the community survey, the path is described as an easement on the property at 4339 Farm House Lane, and not owned by Hickory Farms (like the others).)
• Harvester Farm
  Unmarked path between 4356 & 4358 – 10'
• Still Meadow
  Concrete Path between 4337 & 4339 – 30'
  Concrete path between 4328 & 4330 – 12'
• Wheatfield
  Black path between 10034 & 10035 – 8'