Fairfax County leaders are in the final leg of a half-decade’s worth of plans to transform Tysons Corner — Virginia’s textbook case for urban sprawl — into a multilayered transit mecca.
Fairfax residents sounded off on the most recent Tysons Corner plan at a planning commission meeting Wednesday night, initiating what planners hope will be adopted this summer.
The county is facing a ticking clock — the 2013 completion of the first phase of the Metrorail extension to Washington Dulles International Airport — with four stations planned for Tysons. Eight urban neighborhoods are slated for the area.
The latest draft of the plan calls for greater density surrounding Metro stations and increased maximum building heights. According to county projections, however, that would produce 60 million square feet of development in addition to the proposed 113 million square feet.
Walter Alcorn, chairman of the planning commission’s Tysons Corner Committee, said some local residents are concerned development will outpace infrastructure. But he said they are most worried about the funding for transportation projects needed to spur the development.
“It’s the hot potato,” he said. “Who’s going to pay for all of this? We’ve got to make sure there’s a viable path to financing those transportation improvements.”
Coming up
Feb. 11: Citizen suggestions at planning commission meeting
Feb. 24: Staff comments on resident comments
Feb. 25 to March 9: Revised draft based on planning commission changes
March 11: Planning commission workshop
March 24: Planning commission public hearing
Late April/Early May: Planning commission markup
May 25: Board of Supervisors public hearing
The mishmash of mixed-used development and injection of transit is necessary for the economic and environmental sustainability of the suburban office park, county officials say. Architects of the plan say 75 percent of development will be within a half-mile of Metro access, with office space filtering into more residential areas farther away from the stations.
Dubbed the “economic engine of Fairfax,” the country’s 12th-largest business district is expected to double its total employees to 200,000 by 2050.
