A California-based developer seeking to overhaul one of the region’s largest malls has added new homes and agreed to delay roughly one-third of the project, all in the hopes of seeing approval for the gargantuan plan.
The Macerich Company resubmitted plans last week for the new Tysons Corner Center, which many in the area hope will turn what is now a major shopping center into an urbanized community a stone’s throw from a new Metrorail track.
Critics have warned that Macerich’s proposal doesn’t go far enough to manage additional traffic in already car-clogged Tysons Corner. They’ve also questioned Macerich for moving forward with the overhaul while the Tysons Land Use Task Force conducts a broad planning effort that would lay out a concrete vision for the area. As many as 20 land-use proposals have been delayed pending the completion of that work.
Suchconcerns raised by the McLean Citizens Association and others forestalled a vote by the county’s Planning Commission on the project last month.
While they’ve offered little in substantive changes to their transportation plan, Macerich has agreed to put some 1 million square feet in the later phases of the development to additional review that would likely be conducted after the task force’s recommendations are finished — a move that represents at least a partial compromise.
“It is a response to requests from the county and the public to give due consideration to that task force,” said Antonio Calabrese, an attorney with Cooley Godward who represents Macerich. “To us, we think this is a very legitimate and important coordination with the recommendations of that group.”
The developer has also agreed to adding some 43,000 square feet of residential space, which would accompany the 1,350 planned homes, a 300-room hotel and retail space, in addition to an array of public amenities.
