Public services like schools and police would need to double or quadruple their capacity to handle the demands created by the growth plans being considered for Tysons Corner, according to a recent county report.
According to the most recent estimates, 16,112 people live in Tysons and 106,871 people work in the area. Under the most expansive of the three growth scenarios suggested by the Tysons Task Force, 89,975 people would live in the urban center and 246,695 people would work there. That plan would almost quadruple school enrollment in the area and more than double the daily calls to police, among other impacts, the report said.
The task force’s two more modest concepts, which alternatively emphasize housing and employment, easily push the county beyond its existing capacity.
“Talk about putting a tourniquet on the process – if you don’t have the sewer-treatment capacity and all the rest, then you can’t build stuff. It’s as simple as that,” said Clark Tyler, chairman of the task force.
The group was convened to develop a vision for Fairfax County’s downtown that incorporates a new rail line and four new stations.
Although county officials plan to allow developers higher building density closer to those stops, exactly how much, when and where that new construction goes is the subject of intense debate. Also in question is how much the county will seek from developers to counter the burden that such growth will put on government services.
The report doesn’t address the massive job of upgrading the area’s already traffic-choked road network. According to a separate presentation from one of the task force’s consultants, Cambridge Systematics, the daily traffic load in Tysons could expand daily trips to about 2 million under the largest scenario and about 1.5 million under the other two.
If the county doesn’t alter its comprehensive plan to allow new, higher-density growth, Cambridge predicts fewer than 1 million daily trips.
The task force does not yet have a timeline or cost for new development in Tysons.
