New Nearby: Sully Highlands Park in Herndon

Fairfax County has a new athletic complex that features a dedicated synthetic turf cricket field.

County officials officially opened Sully Highlands Park at 13808 Wall Rd. on Saturday. The park is located off of Centreville Road in unincorporated Herndon.

This park was established through a partnership between the Fairfax County government, athletic organizations and local developer proffers.

Developers Timber Ridge at Discovery Square, Inc. provided $6 million, which covered most of the cost of the 17-acre park, county officials said.

The facilities at Sully Highlands were developed in part to replace multiple diamond and rectangular fields that Chantilly Youth Association (CYA) had developed and maintained for several years on private property close to the park.

New features at Sully Highlands: two side-by-side lighted synthetic rectangular fields with a cricket pitch between them; two lighted and irrigated 60-foot baseball diamonds; one lighted and irrigated 90-foot ball diamond; a trail system, and a 270-space parking lot.

Sully District Fairfax County Park Authority Board rep Harold Strickland said Sully Supervisor Michael Frey played a key role in obtaining the necessary proffers.

“To begin with, Supervisor Michael Frey insisted that proffers be used to ensure replacement of the fields that development took away,” Strickland said in a release. “The folks at Timber Ridge, especially manager Stan Settle and partner Rick Dibella, really worked closely with us.”

Strickland also said that CYA contributed significant money to the project.

More facilities will be built at Sully Highlands. CYA contributed $120,000 and is partnering with the park authority to build two batting cages for the 60-foot diamonds, a fenced pitcher’s warm up area for the 90-foot diamond, a playground, and picnic tables with concrete pads.

The Park Authority Board also approved a $20,000 Mastenbrook matching grant and approximately $35,000 in park proffers for the batting cages and other new amenities.The total project budget for these additions is $174,490.65, the county says.

Sully Highlands is the second Fairfax County park to feature a synthetic cricket field to accommodate the growing sport. The other one is at Oak Marr Rec Center. There is a natural grass cricket field at Lake Fairfax Park in Reston.

Photo: Sully Highlands Park/Credit: Fairfax County Park Authority