Rep. Frank Wolf (R) sent a letter to Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) voicing extreme concerns about the proposed major North-South highway through Loudoun and Prince William counties. (Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)

The proposed major North-South highway through Prince William and Loudoun counties landed another significant opponent Tuesday night when Rep. Frank Wolf sent a detailed letter to Gov. Bob McDonnell, saying the approval process should be delayed until other alternatives can be explored and residents can be heard. Wolf spoke to The Post's Jeremy Borden Tuesday night and the full story is here.

As a federal legislator, Wolf doesn't have a direct vote on the 45-mile road, which would begin with the existing Prince William Parkway at I-95 in Dumfries, then head north all the way to Route 7 in Ashburn. But the part of the road that would skirt the Manassas battlefield and head north through Loudoun County is solidly in Wolf's 10th District, and he is hearing from constituents who say they haven't been given notice, that it would open up Prince William's rural crescent and close off Pageland Lane. Wolf has been a longtime protector of the battlefield, and he appended documents dating back to 1988 as proof. He argues to the governor that there's been a "lack of transparency" in this process, which suddenly gained a lot of steam last year. His full letter is below. Earlier this month, a group of six Republican state legislators and Prince William Supervisor Peter Candland, declared their opposition to the road -- sometimes called the Tri-County Parkway, but which only goes through two counties and should be called the Bi-County Parkway -- and the Loudoun and Prince William chambers of commerce promptly fired back that they didn't know what they were talking about.

A state map of the planned 45-mile highway from Route 7 in Ashburn, past the west side of Dulles Airport, down to Dumfries and I-95 in Prince William County. (Virginia Department of Transportation -- Office of Intermodal Planning and Investment)

But perhaps the most fascinating part of Wolf's letter is his last bullet point, in which he claims that such a road will not increase cargo traffic at Dulles Airport. Besides improving mobility between Loudoun and Prince William, state officials have emphasized that a main reason for the road is to fire up the economic engine that is Dulles by smoothing the path for cargo shipped into Norfolk and then trucked up here. Wolf said he has been told by "officials at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority" that the road would not lead to an increase in Dulles cargo traffic. That is a significant declaration, and we are waiting to hear more from MWAA on that.

The Virginia Commonwealth Transportation Board is scheduled to discuss the project Wednesday in Richmond. A new consultant's report on the project, which reports that "two rounds of public meetings were attended by over 200 attendees," is here. My detailed look at the project after those public meetings is here.

Here's Wolf's letter:

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Melvyn Wilson, 72, of Woodbridge, returned to the Virginia Lottery winner's circle on Monday with another oversized check for $500,000. It was his third lottery win of at least $500,000 since 2005. Wilson is pictured with Paula Otto, executive director of the Virginia Lottery. He later asked if maybe they could make the checks a little smaller, seeing as how he was running out of wall space and all. (Virginia Lottery)

They were already calling Melvyn Wilson "Mr. Lucky" back in 2005, when he hit the lottery three times in 10 months: $500,000 in November 2004, $25,000 in March 2005, and then $1 million from a scratch-off bought at a Woodbridge gas station in September 2005. Two years later, the postal worker retired.

Now, he's done it again: Wilson, 72, bought, scratched and won another $500,000 at the Handy Dandy Market on Occoquan Road in Woodbridge recently, the Virginia Lottery announced Tuesday. The latest hit came in the "Millionaire Mania" game, which costs $20 per ticket. That brings his lottery winnings now to just over $2 million on those four games alone.

Lottery officials could not say whether anyone had ever hit three six-figure payouts before, and they did not know how many tickets Wilson had bought. All have come from scratch-off games, as opposed to the multi-state Powerball or Mega Millions games with the occasional eight- and nine-figure payouts.

Back in 2005, when he was struck with "Million Dollar Madness," Wilson revealed that his strategy was to play every day except Sunday. "I stop by different places at different times and buy a few tickets," he said. "You gotta play to win." Never heard that one before.

The odds of winning the million dollar prize in 2005 were 1 in 1,040,400. They were 1 in 816,348 for the $500,000 "Casino Royale" jackpot and 1 in 520,200 for winning the $25,000 "Cash Spectacular." The odds of winning all three? In ten months? And now, winning four times? Real long. You figure it out.

Lottery officials asked Wilson what he did with all his winnings. "I invest in Melvyn," he said, reportedly laughing. I called Wilson to interrogate berate befriend congratulate him and learn more of his scratching secrets, but his answering machine isn't taking messages. He's probably used to this by now. Has a strategy for after the winning too.

An architect's rendition of what a mixed-use development might look like atop a Silver Line Metro station in the middle of the Dulles Toll Road. (Davis Carter Scott Ltd.)

The idea of developers building large buildings on top of the new Silver Line Metro stations along the Dulles Toll Road -- glassy condos, high-rent offices, rotating restaurants -- would fit most everyone's desire for smart growth near mass transit and maybe produce revenue that could be used to keep the tolls down that are being used to finance the Silver Line.

But should the planning for the "air rights" over the stations, and building the foundations of such projects, begin now, as plans are being made to start building the Phase 2 stations near Reston Town Center, Herndon and Innovation Center near Route 28? Some say yes, including Supervisor Pat Herrity (R-Springfield), who is urging his colleagues to seriously study the idea, former Fairfax board chair and Congressman Tom Davis, and Leo Schefer, president of the Washington Airports Task Force.

Others say no, including Supervisor Jeff McKay (D-Lee), the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (which owns the land and is building the stations) and even Stewart Schwartz, head of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. They note that the market for such development simply isn't there right now -- there's too much available land and open office space for developers to spend the money on an expensive, speculative project above a Metro station.

But what about the future?

Fairfax County Supervisor Patrick Herrity supports exploring the sale of air rights, and full development, over Silver Line Metro stations as a way to keep tolls down on the Dulles Toll Road. (photo courtesy Patrick Herrity)

Herrity has been badgering his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors to simply authorize a $30,000 study of "what's going to be the marketability and shall we move forward when the time is right." The decision to actually allow developers to build over the Silver Line stations would be up to MWAA, but Herrity said selling air rights could "bring down the tolls and pay down the debt" of Metro construction.

"I think they missed the boat on Phase 1," said Davis, now vice-chair of the MWAA board, about the first part of the Silver Line, which runs through Tysons Corner and then along the toll road out to Reston. He said the economic climate is wrong now, "but do you plan for the future? You've got to be a little visionary on this." He said the issue was "something I'm going to try to continue the dialogue" with other MWAA board members.

But building a fabulous mixed-use development atop a Metro station has many tricky questions, Fairfax Board Chairman Sharon Bulova pointed out. If the federal airports authority owns the strip of land where the Metro is being built, who controls the zoning and permitting? And what about the revenues from the air rights, or the leasing, or the taxing?

"Who gets the money, and how would they use the money?" if the rights were sold to a developer, Bulova wondered. Federal law seems to require any proceeds from the airport property go to "airport purposes." Do the tolls on the toll road qualify? Bulova said

"The bottom line," Bulova added, "is all parties involved should pay close attention to a design for construction that doesn't preclude being able to build something that has a public benefit" in the future.

Bulova and McKay, the chair of the Fairfax board's transportation committee, both said the idea of building the pilings and foundation now would add a large new expense to the project. "What Pat [Herrity] is asking us to do," McKay said, "is spend untold millions of dollars and make it more expensive than it already is." He said no developers have indicated any interest in building over the stations so far, and "I don't think we would want to use additional resources to lay a foundation for something that may be decades away."

McKay said he had asked county staff to prepare a report for the board's next transportation committee meeting, next month.

McKay and Chris Paolino, a spokesman for MWAA, both said that construction of the pilings and platform for development above the station could be built later, when the demand arises. "We could come back in 20 years and build then," Paolino said.

A study done by MWAA's Office of Engineering in February 2011 concluded that "It is feasible for a deck support to be constructed either during the Metrorail station construction or in the future after the station is constructed." But it estimated the cost at $34 million per station if done during initial construction, or $60 million if done after the station is operational.

The study also cited a George Mason University economic study which said that only 4.4 million square feet of additional non-residential space was expected to be needed in the Reston Parkway area over the next 20 years, almost all of which "could be satisfied using land with already approved zoning in that area. The risk of over-speculation and over-supply is very real."

Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, might have been expected to side with Herrity, for once, on this issue. But Schwartz is also a realist, and he didn't think the market would sustain such a project in the next 30 years. "There is already an overwhelming supply of land at existing Metro stations in the region," Schwartz said, "plus Tysons Corner, plus what's available at the Phase 2 Dulles Rail stations, in addition to all of the non-transit accessible land in places like the Route 28 corridor." Higher construction costs over a station and possible security concerns also loom, Schwartz said.

But there remain a number of influential folks who feel like economic conditions can change, and that, particularly in the shadow of the Reston Town Center, in the heart of the Dulles tech corridor, a new development at "Reston Station" could definitely work. And they feel there is urgency to act now, before the stations are designed and built without the giant buried caissons needed to support the platform for a major elevated project.

"There's not much time," said Leo Schefer, president of the Washington Airports Task Force, "but it isn't too late. If it is feasible to put the foundations in now, I feel confident in 10 to 15 years, we would indeed see air rights being very effective. Where else would you put offices and a hotel and restaurants so conveniently located between the airport and the federal center? It's a matter of time before they become marketable."

Schefer sees the Silver Line as a "21st Century Main Street, with the federal center at one end, an international airport at the other, and multi-modal transportation" running between them. "This just provides more land in the most desirable location." Schefer said he thought Congress would be amenable to crafting an exception to the airport revenue law to allow air rights-development money to be used either to keep tolls down or pay off Silver Line debt.

Doug Carter, a Tysons Corner architect and longtime Reston resident, has been studying this issue for more than a decade, in part because of his interest in environmentally sound development. Part of Robert Simon's original concept for Reston was to concentrate population density around a series of mixed-use village centers or plazas, to reduce the need for cars and allow space elsewhere for recreation and nature.

Carter, also a member of the airports task force, studied both the engineering and the economics of building above a station, first at Wiehle Avenue, then at Reston Parkway. He said the cost of the caissons, or pilings, was estimated at $8 million, not $34 million, supporting a platform that would be 1,200 feet long and 300 feet wide. Above the platform would be two levels of parking, then a plaza of different buildings, including 2.5 million square feet of office and retail. He said the ultimate cost would be cheaper than constructing new space on land near the Reston Town Center, and that for a time in the 2000s, MWAA's board was interested.

Then, "the economics of the times changed," Carter said. "But we're not necessarily going to have the same market in the next five to 10 years." And he acknowledged, "Now the issue is, who's going to pay for it?"

Carter disagreed with the idea of installing the pilings and platform years down the road. "You need to do it now," he said, "you don't get the opportunity to do it at a later date."

Herrity said the economic issue hasn't been studied in depth. MWAA's 2011 study only spent one paragraph of a three-page report on the issue.

"There seem to be a lot of unsupported opinions (on air rights) but I have yet to find any real analysis," Herrity said. "What we need is a thorough review and analysis. We owe at least that to the businesses and residents in the corridor that will be facing skyrocketing tolls".

One proposed idea of how a Silver Line Metro station might work with development directly above: two levels of parking, then a main plaza level of shops, restaurants and offices. (Davis Carter Scott Ltd.)

The sun rises behind the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington. Hopefully trash will not begin rising below. (Mark Wilson -- Getty Images)

It may seem counterintuitive to some, but in order to keep the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington less cluttered with trash, the National Park Service has removed the trash cans.

The ever-vigilant folks at ARLNow.Com reported this the other day, and said cans had also been removed from the Netherlands Carillon, Roosevelt Island, the LBJ Memorial Grove and the Roaches Run waterfowl sanctuary. And according to a memo explaining the "Trash Free Park" concept, the park service said cans are going to be removed this year from Great Falls Park, Turkey Run Park, two George Washington Memorial Parkway Overlooks, Fort Marcy and Daingerfield Island.

The cans are being removed, the park service said, because "visitors are expected to carry out the refuse they generate and dispose of it properly at home or at another appropriate destination." The goal is "fostering a partnership between visitors and the parks by encouraging all visitors to help maintain clean parks, reduce solid waste within the park, and embrace the ideas of reduce, reuse, and recycle."

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park, Prince William Forest Park, Catoctin Mountain Park and Monocacy National Battlefield apparently already have trash-free programs. Statistics show between an 80 and 95 percent rate of people responsibly removing their own refuse, the park service says, which means the park generates less trash, spends less energy on trash and spends less employee time dealing with trash.

The most popular comment by far on ARLNow.com's article came from Tower Man, who said: "Oh yes, this strategy will work perfectly. Nobody will just throw their trash on the ground because they can't find a trash can. No sir. Not a chance of that."

Author Pete Earley is calling for tax relief for the non-profit Brain Foundation. But would this open the floodgates for other non-profits? (courtesy Pete Earley)

The Brain Foundation is one of the many great non-profit groups in our area who provide a valuable service, in this case housing for the mentally ill, and we've featured it in this space before. But now it needs more than $14,000 to pay property taxes on four houses in Fairfax County, and foundation officials raise the interesting issue: Should a non-profit group, providing a service which saves the county money, receive a waiver from property tax?

Author and journalist Pete Earley, who has also become an activist on mental health issues, posted a hard-hitting blog item this morning saying that The Brain Foundation now houses 28 people who would otherwise be in publicly funded institutions or on the street. Also, there's an 18-year wait in some cases for housing for the mentally ill, and Fairfax City has actually waived property taxes on the three Brain Foundation houses there (those compassionate fiends!).

No one denies the value of the Brain Foundation. But the bigger issue here is this: If you grant one non-profit a break, will the thousands of others in Fairfax County demand one too? And will this encourage many more organizations (or individuals) to obtain non-profit status simply to avoid property taxes? Fairfax used to grant such waivers in the past, and was given the authority to do so by the General Assembly, but stopped in the early 2000s 2002 because A) they didn't want to pick and choose among worthy applicants, and B) they needed the money.

Pete's blog post is compelling, as always. (But what about a photo credit, Pete?) Read it and tell us what you think the answer is in the comments.