Fairfax County officials are eyeing Annandale — one of the county’s many nebulous clusters of traffic, homes and strip malls — as their next target for revitalization.
The area, which has no official borders and little cohesive identity, will join the likes of Springfield and Bailey’s Crossroads as the next subject of a broad land-use study by the Urban Land Institute. Officials hope the study will provide a blueprint for redevelopment that would distinguish Annandale from other areas of the county.
“The goal is a lot of things, it’s looking at transportation, the connections, making it a more walkable community,” said Harry Swanson, deputy director for revitalization and real estate finance for the county’s housing agency. “It’s trying to enhance it as a sense of place.”
The review is set to begin today and is expected to cost between $100,000 and $120,000.
Fairfax County Supervisor Penelope Gross, whose district encompasses most of Annandale, expects any change to be commercial.
“I doubt very much that there would be much of a change to any of the residential [land],” Gross said.
She said she wants to see a new town center between Markham Street and John Marr Drive.
Any new vision of Annandale, however, will depend on whether landowners would invest in new development. Traffic concerns also abound. As it now stands, the area is ill-served by mass transit and growth could strain the existing transportation network without major upgrades to Columbia Pike and other roads.
