Transforming Floodplains into Ecological and Community Assets: Restoration of the Four Mile Run Corridor, Virginia

The lower Four Mile Run corridor, 2.3 miles along the border of the City of Alexandria and Arlington County, Virginia, represents an untapped and largely forgotten resource. In spite of its lingering beauty, today's stream corridor functions largely as a flood control channel — an in-between space defined by concrete banks, utility infrastructure and buildings that turn their backs to the stream. Yet, the two jurisdictions have begun to rediscover the potential of the Four Mile Run corridor as envisioned by community leaders who have sparked renewed energy and creativity into imagining the stream's glorious potential. The resulting Four Mile Run Restoration Master Plan represents a bold community-based vision to revitalize the stream corridor, and to enhance the urban vitality of the communities along its shore, by improving its environmental, recreational, and open space resources. The master plan provides an overall blueprint for the transformation and identifies an initial demonstration project as well as the next steps in the implementation process. Community input was sought throughout the 14 month process. Public outreach included an extensive Visioning Event that brought over 150 people to a one-day session during which groups collaborated on developing individual and shared visions for the future of the corridor and a series of Open House events that provided opportunities to review and respond to concepts as they were being developed. The plan was approved unanimously by both the Alexandria City Council and the Arlington County Board of Supervisors in 2006. The Four Mile Run Restoration Master Plan provides a planning and conceptual design framework for dramatically transforming the stream corridor in ways that reflect the project vision that was developed early in the planning process: Four Mile Run will become a model of urban ecological restoration. Through the sensitive and sustainable integration of natural areas with active urban nodes, the Four Mile Run corridor will be a place along which the communities of Arlington County and the City of Alexandria can gather, recreate, and celebrate a shared waterfront legacy. The core of the Plan is focused on maintaining and enhancing flood protection while, at the same time, restoring the natural stream processes and improving habitat within the corridor. The aesthetic, recreational, and urban life enhancements contained within the Plan are organized around the central principles of ecological restoration and enhanced flood protection. The Four Mile Run Restoration Master Plan is a model of inter-jurisdictional and multidisciplinary collaboration. It illustrates the strength that communities, working together, can bring to developing a long-term vision that focuses on environmental and community enhancement. A stream that once served to divide communities has now become a means of uniting and renewing them.