Fairfax County officials are scrambling to find the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to fund the transportation improvements needed to transform Tysons Corner.
The Board of Supervisors voted lateTuesday night to approve a comprehensive 20-year plan to transform Tysons Corner.But that plan does not explain how the county will pay the more than $800 million tab for needed transportation improvements, which county staff estimates will come due during the next three years.
“Everyone’s going to need to start looking at funding in more creative ways,” Supervisor Linda Smyth, D-Providence, told The Washington Examiner Wednesday. “What we have to figure out is the right balance between what the private sector pays and what the public sector pays.”
Smyth and several other supervisors said the addition of four planned Metrorail stations bolstered by local road improvements would be the “biggest pieces” needed to solve the transportation puzzle in Tysons.
But county planning staff say the Dulles rail project alone will cost the county more than $600 million during the next three years, along with another $230 million needed for road improvements during the period.
County transportation officials estimate the county will face a $5 billion hole by fiscal 2020.
Fairfax officials are considering a number of funding options, including a countywide property tax increase, new commercial and industrial taxes, and the creation of new tax districts within Tysons Corner.
Supervisor John Cook, R-Braddock, said he did not support a countywide property tax, but said new tax districts would be essential to paying the transportation tab.
Cook also suggested “congestion tolling” — or road tolls operating only during rush hours — as a solution that would both “raise funds and encourage traffic dispersion.”
To make matters more difficult, county officials say a more populous Tysons will need more transportation options.
“The new challenge we’re going to have is how do you move people around when you’re already in Tysons,” said Supervisor Jeff McKay, D-Lee, who stressed the need for new bus or trolley lines.
McKay called the current situation “disastrous,” but said the comprehensive plan was a first step toward combating the area’s transportation problems, which he said could spiral out of control as Tysons continues to grow.
“There are going to be headaches, but when you’re in a hole you have to stop digging,” McKay said.
