Politics & Government

City Council: Red Light Cameras, and Deer Hunting Revisited

A peek at two big issues the Fairfax City Council has on its agenda for its Tuesday night meeting.

The Fairfax City Council has two big items of interest on its agenda for its meeting this Tuesday, July 9 - whether to add five new "red-light" cameras at intersections within the city, and a continued discussion of whether to allow limited deer hunting on certain tracts of land.

Should Fairfax City add more red-light cameras?

Tuesday night, City Manager Bob Sisson and Chief of Police Richard Rappoport will open a discussion with the Council and Mayor about whether to expand the City's current "Respect Red" program and place five additional red-light cameras at intersections within the city.

Currently, there are already four such cameras in Fairfax City. According to the City, the Commonwealth of Virginia allows the City to have up to a maximum of 10.

According to the City's staff report on the issue, the Respect Red program "enjoys wide community support, and the Police Department regularly receives requests to expand the program."

The staff report indicates that, according to data the City has received, the number of accidents at intersections with red-light cameras has remained stagnant, but that the number of traffic violations at those intersections is decreasing.

"The Respect Red program has been effective in reducing violations and improving traffic safety," City Manager Sisson said in the report.

As for the cost of adding the recommended five additional cameras, the staff report indicates that the revenue generated from the traffic violations the cameras yield would off-set all costs, and that the City expects that the costs of maintaining the Respect Red program would never out-pace that revenue.

The staff report also indicated which five intersections the City Manager and Chief Rappoport are recommending the five new cameras be placed at, after crash data, violation data, difficulty of traditional enforcement, risk to pedestrians, signal timing standards, and engineering, design and terrain considerations were taken into consideration:

  • Chain Bridge Road and Eaton Place
  • Fairfax Boulevard and Plantation Parkway
  • Main Street and Pickett Road
  • Main Street and Burke Station Road
  • Main Street and Woodland Drive

Deer Hunting in Fairfax City?

The Council is scheduled to continue its discussion of the idea of allowing controlled deer hunting in certain areas of Fairfax City, after a long discussion that seemed to yield more answers than questions took place at its meeting on June 11.

It has been suggested that, to help deal with an overpopulation of deer in the area, the City allow deer hunting by archery on tracts of land of 25 acres or more, provided the hunters obtain all the necessary legal "kill" permits and they generously advertise their intent to hunt in the area at least one week prior.

At the June 11 council meeting, it was also suggested that the City entertain the idea of allowing sharpshooters as well, particularly since some residents and councilmembers, as well as Mayor Silverthorne, have expressed concern that archery does not always yield a "guaranteed kill," and therefore could be inhumane.

The issue of allowing shooting gets complicated, however, when one takes into consideration the accuracy of the shooter, they said. The idea of having only trained sharpshooters do the hunting was raised, but Chief Rappoport said, usually the only shooters trained well enough end up being law enforcement officers, and if the land is private - such as the Army-Navy Country Club, which requested the deer hunting ordinance in the first place - that may not be possible.

Councilmembers Dan Drummond and Michael DeMarco also said they would like to see more data on deer migration patterns in and out of the area to help them make their decision as well, as it could potentially speak to the future of the deer overpopulation problem and whether the problem could come up again after it is dealt with this time.

TELL US - What do you think about adding more red-light cameras at these intersections in Fairfax City? Do you see people running red lights at these spots? And, what's your opinion on the deer hunting debate? 

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

FOLLOW FAIRFAX CITY PATCH FOR THE LATEST NEWS AND EVENTS!

Facebook | Twitter | Daily & Breaking News E-mail Updates

Find out what's happening in Fairfax Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here