User:Chuck369/Woodbridge

]] Woodbridge is a census-designated place (CDP) in Prince William County, Virginia, United States. The population was 40,561 at the July 2007 census. It is the home of the Northern Virginia Royals soccer club and the Potomac Nationals baseball club.

Pre-Columbian era
The Dogue Indians lived in villages in the area dating back to the 1st millennium.

Early Prince William County
When Prince William County was formed in 1731, it included the present day counties of Prince William, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, and Arlington. The Woodbridge area, being at what was the center of the settled portion of the new county, was established as the first seat of Prince William County. The site of the first county courthouse built was on an estate owned by George Mason III, on the south side of the Occoquan River near present day U.S. 1.

Present day
Luxury Housing Communities

Woodbridge is undergoing a "face-lift" and population growth. Over the next five to six years the city will experience a dramatic expansion with the development of many new and luxury single family home, town home and condominium communities along the eastern end of the city (Route 1 Corridor). Many of these communities (Potomac Club, Port Potomac, Eagles Pointe, The Villages of Rippon Landing) will feature amenities such as club houses, pools, tennis courts, hiking trails, parks and large fitness facilities. These communities are attracting many affluent families to the area due to the availability of these types of luxurious amenities coupled with the city's geographic proximity to Washington DC, local military installations and the local availability of mass transit (Omniride Bus Service, Virginia Railway Express (VRE), etc.). "Prince William used to be seen as a low-cost entry into the D.C. housing market," said Richard Lake, a partner at Roadside Development. "Now we're seeing residents choosing to live here because of quality of life. Income levels have grown tremendously, the housing stock has matured and people have more disposable income," he said.

The forthcoming Potomac Harbor planned community (formerly known as Harbor Station) in Woodbridge will contain a new VRE station, gated golf course housing community, a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course  and a marina with shopping and boat slips. The planned community will also add a Potomac Harbor Town Center to Woodbridge, with a hotel and conference center, spa, unique shopping and dining opportunities as well as riverside attractions. The Potomac Club planned housing community will contain an upscale shopping center known as Potomac Town Center, "a new lifestyle center," with more than 600000 sqft of high-end retail, office space, luxury housing and a hotel. "We'll see in this whole area people who are going to be living and working in that same development," says former Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sean Connaughton. . "And those who do have to travel some place else will have the ability to very quickly get to Virginia Railway Express, down to the HOV lanes or using one of our bus lines."

There has been a large amount of investment in Woodbridge with the hopes that the area can be revitalized with new housing, new shopping and new employment opportunities. With its proximity to the Potomac River as an attraction, several developers and investment groups are recognizing the area's future potential with new projects. According to former Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sean Connaughton, "Over the last two or three years, we've seen at least $1 billion worth of private investment, either on the ground, underway or planned in the entire corridor." With the realignment of US military bases (BRAC Base Realignment and Closure) that could bring 20,000 new employees to Fort Belvoir and another 5,000 to 10,000 to Quantico, defense contractors will relocate to the new office space.

The development of town centers in different areas of Virginia (Reston, Tyson's Corner, Manassas, Alexandria, etc.) is becoming a popular trend. According to Prince William County Board Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large)the "Reston-style town center" should be the development model for Prince William. He also stated that "This is exactly what we want, the trend is away from separate office parks and retail center and subdivisions and toward a more European-style living where you live within a pleasant walking distance of places, where you shop for groceries, do other shopping and walk to dinner at a nice restaurant.  Many home buyers in Virginia appear to be looking for ths type of townlike setting and are willing to pay more to live in that kind of setting.

Upscale Shopping
Prince William County has traditionally lacked the type of upscale shopping seen in other areas of Virginia such as Fairfax and Arlington. As such, residents of Woodbridge used to go to neighboring towns to find this type of shopping. According to Richard Lake, a partner at Roadside Development, the D.C.-based real estate firm developing the new Potomac Town Center in Woodbridge, "The days of Prince William being a lower-cost stepsister to other counties are gone, the market is ready in Prince William for quality retail and lifestyle retail." . The county's demographic profile has changed. The median household income is the seventh-highest in the nation, yet the vast majority of its shopping and dining options are, Lake said, "big-box and discount-level retail options."

Potomac Town Center
In the second quarter of 2008, The Mills (acquired in 2007 by Simon Property Group ) and Lerner Enterprises opened an upscale shopping center known as the Potomac Town Center. It is located at the southern end of Woodbridge, across I-95 from Potomac Mills between Dale Boulevard and Opitz Boulevard. The Potomac Town Center will feature 650000 sqft of retail in an "open-air lifestyle" town center anchored by a Macy's department store, a Wegmans gourmet food market and a major bookstore (Barnes & Noble). The project also will include high-end restaurants (Coastal Flats, Essential Grille, Cosi), 500000 sqft of office space, 500 residential units, and an 8- or 9-story hotel. The Wegman's gourmet food market was the first store at Potomac Town Center to open on June 8, 2008. Future plans feature what the developers say will be a pedestrian-friendly Main Street with outdoor dining at sidewalk tables and a vibrant urban atmosphere fueled by hundreds of upscale housing units. The entire project should be complete by spring 2010.

Potomac Mills Expansion and Renovation
The Potomac Mills mall is undergoing an expansion and renovation that will add more upscale shopping to the area. The Indianapolis-based investment group, Simon Property Group (who acquired The Mills Corporation), is planning a multi-million dollar project that will bring an upscale retailer and an expansion that will eliminate Potomac Mills warehouse-like exterior. The investment group plans to add a Neiman Marcus Last Call Clearance Center into the mall's 200-plus store roster and construct an expansion that would include 50,000 square feet (4,600 m²) of restaurant and retail space. Neiman Marcus Last Call Clearance Center will be placed into an existing 34,000-square-foot (3,200 m²) space between the Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse and AMC Theatres. The expansion will feature 20,000 square feet (1,900 m²) of retail space, 30,000 square feet (2,800 m²) of restaurant space. Construction work is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2008 and open the following spring of 2009.

Private Education
In the fall of 2008 a brand new private Catholic High School, Pope John Paul the Great Catholic High School, will open in the planned Potomac Harbor community located along the Potomac River in Dumfries/Woodbridge. Features such as a "trussed entry" and a "glass-encased chapel" are designed to make the school architecturally stunning but also a very practical and functional educational facility. The state of the art 188,000-sqauare-foot facility with its vaulted ceilings on the third floor and the welcoming yellow paint in the hallways will include eight science laboratories, two gymnasiums, a lecture hall, auditorium and a chapel. Courses will include a unique four-year science bioethics curriculum in a region where the biotechnology industry is a major employer. Woodbridge is also home to another private Catholic school, an elementary (K-8) School, St. Thomas Aquinas. This makes Woodbridge a very unique and desirable area for families with children by providing local access to a complete private catholic education. It is very rare that a single municipality is home to both a private catholic elementary school (K-8) and a private catholic high school (9-12).

It is expected that by providing local access to private schools of this nature, upscale shopping (not currently available at the eastern end of Prince William County) and luxury housing communities with various commuting options (VRE, Omniride, I-95 HOV) to Washington, D.C. that Woodbridge will attract many more affluent families over the next ten years.

Geography


Woodbridge is located at 38.64361°N, -77.26083°W (38.643517, -77.260843). According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 10.8 square miles (27.9 km²), of which, 10.5 square miles (27.1 km²) of it is land and 0.3 square miles (0.8 km²) of it (2.87%) is water. Woodbridge is geographically located about 20 mi from Washington D.C.

Climate
Woodbridge has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa).

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 31,941 people, 10,687 households, and 7,769 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 3,047.8 people per square mile (1,176.8/km²). There were 11,026 housing units at an average density of 1,052.1/sq mi (406.2/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 56.34% White, 23.45% African American, 0.55% Native American, 4.90% Asian, 0.17% Pacific Islander, 9.62% from other races, and 4.96% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 19.07% of the population. There were 10,687 households out of which 41.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.3% were married couples living together, 14.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.3% were non-families. 20.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 3.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.96 and the average family size was 3.40.

In the CDP the population was spread out with 30.0% under the age of 18, 10.7% from 18 to 24, 35.7% from 25 to 44, 17.0% from 45 to 64, and 6.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 102.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.2 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $50,525, and the median income for a family was $52,362. Males had a median income of $35,538 versus $28,587 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $19,810. About 4.6% of families and 5.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.7% of those under age 18 and 5.9% of those age 65 or over.

Population history of Woodbridge CDP from the U.S. Census Bureau

 * 1970....25,412 *
 * 1980....24,004
 * 1990....26,401
 * 2000....31,941

* Area reported as Woodbridge-Marumsco during the 1970 census.

Source U.S. Census Bureau

Attractions and culture
It is highly notable that Woodbridge experienced its current development boom in the mid-1980s, after being a municipality composed largely of either farms or industrial complexes, as an annex of sorts of Dale City, which had previously been forged as a planned community in the 1960s and 1970s. Its large and rapid growth is cited by many development expert's claim of Prince William County being "The Orange County of Virginia" (though Virginia in fact has an Orange County approximately 60 mi South of Prince William County).

Woodbridge is home to Potomac Mills Mall, one of the largest shopping centers in Northern Virginia, and at one point, the entire United States, and is the largest outlet mall to date. Woodbridge is a typical suburban city in that many of its residents are employed in nearby Washington, D.C. This is especially true in the areas near Dale City and Manassas. Prince William Parkway is probably the most important road in the city. It connects the city to I-95 and runs right through the middle of Woodbridge. Route 234 is also described as an "outer beltway" connecting the I-95 corridor and U.S. 1 (Jefferson Davis Hwy.) to points west and north and ultimately terminating at Interstate 66. Route 234, also known as Dumfries Road, was widened from two lanes to four to accommodate residential development in the southern part of Prince William County.

Due in part to the I-95 and I-66 HOV waiver given to hybrid vehicles, many D.C. government workers have relocated to the area to take advantage of the lower-priced housing. However, in July 2006, the hybrid/HOV privilege was revoked. Vehicles registered prior to July 2006 are exempted from occupancy requirements in all (HOV) facilities in Virginia until July 1, 2009.

Because of its convenient location along the I-95 corridor, the area is currently experiencing the increase in real estate values that has affected the entire Washington, D.C., metropolitan area in recent years.

Other cultural resources include Rippon Lodge, the oldest house in Prince William County, which was opened as a park and museum in October, 2007.

Nearby towns

 * Occoquan
 * Dumfries
 * Quantico
 * Haymarket

Nearby Unincorporated communities

 * Dale City
 * Lake Ridge
 * Lorton
 * Montclair