the washington post.
saturday, november 16, 2019eZ
2in Lake Ridge in 2006. In 2014,
they decided their growing family
needed a larger house and bought
another home in Lake Ridge.
“A lot of the new development,
where they’re just clear-cutting
all the trees, building the houses
and then planting saplings, thattrail that winds along the banks of
the reservoir, and Fantasy Play-
ground, a labyrinthine wooden
climbing structure with passage-
ways, slides and swings.
“There are activities for every
member of the family, so you don’t
have to leave the community for
anything, said Wavery Brown, a
real estate agent with Keller Wil-
liams Realty. “And that’s for early
child care all the way up to se-
niors.”
The homeowners association
operates Creative Preschool,
started by the Lake Ridge Moms
Club more than 20 years ago.
About 75 children are enrolled in
the preschool, which emphasizes
character-building and social
skills, Mutlu said.
Christine Wilder, whose three
children have attended the pre-
school, serves as president of the
Moms Club. The club offers a
weekly play group for mothers
and their young children, and
coordinates social, holiday and
community involvement activi-
ties, such as a “Mom Prom,” Hal-
loween and Christmas parties,
turkey drives and coat collections
for people in need, Wilder said.
Wilder and her husband moved
from Alexandria to a townhousewasn’t for me,” Wilder said. “I like
the houses that have older trees,
big trees.”
“Lake Ridge has a unique ad-
vantage in that it has a lot of
undeveloped, forested common
area,” said John Maher, a Lake
Ridge resident since 1990. The
woods provide habitat for a vari-
ety of wildlife, including deer,
opossums, raccoons, beavers,
bats, foxes, coyotes, snakes, bald
eagles, hawks and great horned
owls, he said.
“Most of the houses back to
trees or woods of some kind, a nd if
they don’t back to trees or woods,
they back to the Occoquan Reser-
voir,” s aid Nancy Poe, a real estate
agent with Long & Foster who
lived in Lake Ridge for 30 years.
“You see people walking
through Lake Ridge all times of
the day and night,” Poe said. “It’s
just this fabulous, cohesive neigh-
borhood that people meld into
very quickly.”
Living there: Over the past
year, according to Brown, the av-
erage sale price for Lake Ridge
homes was $355,000, ranging
from $ 105,200 for a one-bedroom,
one-bathroom condo to $2 mil-
lion for a single-family house with
five bedrooms and seven bath-rooms.
There are 163 houses on the
market, ranging from a two-bed-
room, one-bathroom condo sell-
ing for $144,900 to a waterfront
house with six bedrooms and
eight bathrooms for just under
$1.7 million.
Schools: Antietam, Jenkins,
Lake Ridge, Occoquan, Old
Bridge, Penn, Rockledge, Spring-
woods and Westridge elementary
schools; Benton, Lake R idge, Fred
Lynn and Woodbridge middle
schools; and Colgan, Gar-Field
and Woodbridge high schools.
Transit: Interstate 95, about a
mile to the east, is the main com-
muting corridor. Slug lines form
in parking lots at t he Ta ckett’s Mill
shopping center and the intersec-
tion of Old Bridge Road and Route
123, which also serve as OmniRide
Express commuter bus stops. The
nearest VRE station, in Wood-
bridge, is about four miles away.
Franconia-Springfield, the closest
Metro station, is about 12 miles
away.
[email protected]Where We Live Lake ridge in prince William County, Va.
BY JIM BARNESWhen developer Ken Thomp-
son conceived the Lake Ridge
community in the 1960s, he envi-
sioned a place where suburban
homes would coexist with nature,
where active individuals and fam-
ilies would enjoy spending time
outdoors.
A half-century later, Thomp-
son’s v ision for Lake R idge, a large
planned community in eastern
Prince William County, has come
to fruition. Wooded areas teeming
with wildlife twine through sub-
urban neighborhoods, and resi-
dents enjoy a variety of outdoor
recreation opportunities, includ-
ing five Olympic-size swimming
pools, two marinas, walking
paths, parks, playgrounds and a
par-three golf course.
The Occoquan Reservoir,
where ramps provide access for
rowing, fishing and kayaking,
forms the northern boundary of
Lake Ridge. Other borders are
Harbor Drive and Minnieville
Road to the east; Dale City to the
south; and Springwoods Drive to
the west.
Lake Ridge has a balanced mix
of single-family detached houses,
townhouses, condos and apart-
ments, according to Ike Mutlu,
general manager of the home-
owners association. Although
many of the homes were built in
the 1970s, construction in some
neighborhoods continued
through the late 1990s.
Housing affordability is one of
Lake Ridge’s main draws, Mutlu
said.
“For people who want to have
families and live in a regular
house with a regular yard with
trees and sort of a Norman Rock-
well world — this is the best you
can do in [the Washington, D.C.
area], and it’s hard to do that
when you get any closer,” Mutlu
said.
The Lake Ridge Parks and Rec-
reation Association, the full name
of the homeowners association,
indicates the value the communi-
ty places on outdoor activities. In
addition to pools, tennis courts
and parks, the association main-
tains sections of a scenic walkingWoods,
water and
lots to do
outside
A planned community
with a variety of housing
fulfills developer’s visionphotos by amanda andrade-rhoades For the Washington post
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: A bird and autumn foliage in Lake Ridge, which has an abundance of wooded areas teeming with
wildlife; the Occoquan Reservoir gives Colgan High School rowers a place to practice; townhouses, along with single-family detached
homes, condos and apartments, are part of Lake Ridge’s housing mix; and a groundskeeper clears leaves from the Lake Ridge Golf Course.OccoquanBethel WoodbridgeLake Ridge95123640294 641647PRINCE
WILLIAM
COUNTYOLD BRIDGE
RD.Occoquan
Reservoir2 MILESD.C.MD.VA.
DetailSource: Maps4News/HERE
MEGHAN KELLY FOR THE WASHINGTON POST to see more photos of Lake
ridge, go to washingtonpost.com/re-
alestate.“It’s just this fabulous,
cohesive neighborhood
that people meld into
very quickly.”
Nancy Poe, a Long & Foster agentUPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws