A newbie to the Broadlands community - questions!

My wife and I (and 2 kids - ages 1 and 4) are moving to Broadlands from Fairfax, VA on July 1st, and are very excited about joining the neighborhood... a couple of questions :

1. Can you walk to the W&OD trail from the neighborhood?
2. Does anyone have any thoughts on the sports clubs/gyms in the area? We are looking for a nice, new facility that offers daycare, new treadmills/elliptical machines, and has classes (yoga) that is reasonably priced and is close to Broadlands....
3. What kids opportunities are there in the Broadlands area in August? We are looking for camps (besides karate), or other ideas for 1 and 4 year olds....
4. Where are the best walking paths/tot lots in the community?

Any thoughts are welcome! Thank you!

 

DC - welcome to the community - a couple of answers....
1) Yes but its a couple miles down Claiborne parkway - depending on your location in Blands.
2) New/Newer facilites include Sport&Health in Brambleton, Golds-Ashburn Village, and Lifetime. I personally cant comment on the kids activites at any but the Lifetime is nice and you can search the forums here to get the rest of the comments on them.
3) Cant comment.
4) Depending on where youre moving there are tot lots in several areas of the community - more in the northern section than in the south. Walking paths are all over

 

1. Can you walk to the W&OD trail from the neighborhood?

It IS possible to walk to the W&OD trail from the Broadlands. It is closer to the northern part of the neighborhood (probably about 1.5 miles from Broadlands Blvd/ Claiborne Parkway intersection. That being said, there are a TON of walking paths within the community.

2. Does anyone have any thoughts on the sports clubs/gyms in the area? We are looking for a nice, new facility that offers daycare, new treadmills/elliptical machines, and has classes (yoga) that is reasonably priced and is close to Broadlands....

The biggest clubs that fit your criteria are Lifetime Fitness (sort of near the Wegmans/ AOL), Sport and Health in the Broadlands and the new Gold's Gym closer to Broad Run HS. All three fit your criteria. There are a few other gyms that have daycare but I don't have a lot of experience with them.

3. What kids opportunities are there in the Broadlands area in August? We are looking for camps (besides karate), or other ideas for 1 and 4 year olds....

Check out the Loudoun County Parks and Rec camps guide (you can look online on the county website). I believe they have activities and camps for all ages.

4. Where are the best walking paths/tot lots in the community?

I'll leave this question for a Broadlands resident (I am close by in the Farm)...

Welcome to the neighborhood!

 

Looks like you have plenty of answers so just wanted to welcome you to the community. We have lived here for 2 years now and its great.......there is definitely a community feel which really does help when you are from out of the area.

Where abouts are you moving to....as people have already pointed out the W&OD is within walking distance dependent on where you live....I wouldnt walk there with my kids as we live near the nature center so its a little far for small feet, but there is great parking at the Trailside park so its easily accessible either way.
We are at Lifetime Fitness which is a great gym. The kids play center has enough for most ages (i have 3 kids ranging from 6 months-8 yr old), but the best thing is the outdoor pool (in my opinion)....in the summer we stay there most days and then go to our local pool early evening. Its worth checking out.
There are plenty of tot lots around, some you would need to drive to like Trailside and the dinosaur park (not sure if thats its real name!!!) near cedar lane em. But again, dependant on where you live there will be plenty that are a stroll away.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we are and wish you all the best for your move. Feel free to pm me if you need more info on things.....we are still finding new places to go etc

 

Hey guys - thank you for the responses so far - it's very helpful.... we are moving to Middle Ridge Place (near Clyde's), near the intersection of Stonewheel and Middle Ridge Place.... any further thoughts knowing that location is where we will be, I'll look forward to hearing.....

 

There's a great north-south trail that starts across the street southeast of Clydes at a small playground. It meanders past a nice little circle (Native Tree area), a creek, a tot lot, a gazebo, then across a street where it continues down to the butterfly wetlands area, another tot lot, and the community center pool (in one direction, Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins in the other direction), and continues on underneath Truro Parish through a tunnel (fun for yelling in) ending up at Hillside Park, which I think is the best walkable park for young kids - it has swings, a circle for running around, tennis courts, as well as the playground equipment. You could spend all day on that trail. Up near the native tree area there's a turn off that comes out near Bullfrog pond for fishing. I wonder if you can see it on Google Earth.

My kids are able to bike to W&OD and on to Leesburg for a meal at Doner Kabob - they're 11 and 13. It's 3 miles from Vestals Gap to Trailside Park on a bike. I'd say the ride just to W&OD is too far for little ones. Trailside Park was our favorite park for playdates. Lots of parking there to head out on the W&OD.

 

Beware of the bees at Hillside park... in season of course. They're brutal!

My favorite tot lot, when my kids were that size, was the one off Marsh Creek Drive.

 

I understand that you are moving here from Fairfax....My wife and I just moved here a year and half ago ourselves from Fairfax and we absolutely LOVE Broadlands...Best decision we ever made and the residents here are fantastic...very family oriented....Don't forget to attend our famous Movie Nights at the Broadlands Nature Center courtesy of our awesome HOA staff.

This year they are having HD screens set up...so that is going to be one heckuva of a summer!!! We are looking forward to it. One of many things that I like about this community is that everyone is so friendly and willing to help out their fellow neighbor!

Welcome!!! (p.s. we have a 4 yr old kid so you are welocome to arrange play dates with our kid if you'd like to with your 4 yr old!)

 

Capricorn1964 - good to hear! We are looking forward to the move as well...

Is there a faster way to get to Leesburg, other than Belmont Ridge to Rt. 7, or is that the best way? How about getting to Rt. 50 other than Rt. 28? Does Loudoun County Parkway go all the way through to Rt. 50? Any ways to avoid the Greenway/Toll Road in terms of going east to DC, or to the Beltway besides Rt. 7 East?

 

Belmont Ridge to Route 7 does it for me....its the fastest way other than Claiborne all the way to Route 7....But I use Belmont Ridge to Route 7 from Broadlands.

I always avoid the Greedtollway (My term) because of their HIGH toll costs. I usually get onto Waxpool then go down Route 28 to Dulles Toll Road....But I've heard some people take Route 50 to Pleasant Valley Road to go to Centreville to I-66...

But yet again, some people take the Shuttle to go to DC. IT'll be a long while before the Silverline for MEtro to open up....

That's my take on it....Give me a holler when you move in!

 

Sycolin Road - Where the new Harris Teeter is going in on Belmont Ridge - seems quicker than Belmont Ridge to Route 7.

 

I read somewhere that the toll, if the "grant" (of something for the Dulles Airport) fails to materialize, could go up past $10 bucks per way. (Am I right, Flynnibus?

On a side note: could this toll increase potentially put a dent in the home values in Loudoun County???

 

Yeah....total insanity, alright. This country is definitely "taxing" us to the hilt nowadays for EVERYTHING.

Anyone wanna speculate on what's next for us to be "taxed" on???

 

Exactly....I was, in fact, using the word "taxes" rather loosely because that's what its feeling like to me....fee this, fee that, etc. Its starting to become like a tax.

In fact, a good friend of mine and I were talking about toll roads, etc and the NJ Turnpike was a good example between us. Long ago, when they built the turnpike, they said that once the road paid off the bonds, etc, they would stop charging tolls. Well, guess what? They are still collecting tolls as we speak today...its become a cash cow for NJ. I highly doubt that the Dulles Toll Road and Greedway will EVER be toll-free. VA probably will keep on collecting $$$ from us as long as we are alive! Its just a cash machine as you put it. To me, its like a tax machine so to speak. Both Va and NJ cannot do without it.

 

Never did I say that State of Va gets the $$$...I just stated that I feel like all these fees are becoming like they are TAXES...Period. I already KNOW its a private corporation.....

I've heard that after a certain number of years have gone by, the state of VA will be taking over the "greedway" and they will be keeping the Tolls intact. Whether its true or not is not what Im concerned with. What Im concerned with is the amount of fees we all pay if we wanna use the greedway. In fact, I believe that Congressman Wolf got involved because he felt the fees being charged was kind of exorbitant.

I also read elsewhere on this forum approximately a year ago (?) about this issue of whether the corporation actually makes a profit or not...Something was written about the accounting of their books or something along those lines. I'd have to spend some time to try to find those threads on the forum to quote them by.

 

From your post at 5:05 PM:

"I highly doubt that the Dulles Toll Road and Greedway will EVER be toll-free. VA probably will keep on collecting $$$ from us as long as we are alive! Its just a cash machine as you put it. To me, its like a tax machine so to speak. Both Va and NJ cannot do without it. "