The likely death of Dulles Rail could drag down with it millions of dollars worth of expected development and years of planning.
Hopes for a redeveloped Tysons Corner, especially, could be dashed now that the project is in serious jeopardy. Federal transportation officials on Thursday said it is too expensive to win government funding, among other problems.
Officials, developers and businessmen hope to mold Tysons, a bland, car-choked retail hub, into a second Arlington. Fairfax County last year crafted new development policies to coincide with dense, rail-side growth, and the Tysons Land Use Task Force spent hundreds of hours formulating how to put that growth into place. Task force member Bill Lecos denied the group’s work was a waste in light of Thursday’s bad news for Dulles Rail. It’s clear, however, that many of the assumptions the group was working under could soon be erroneous.
“No meeting on [Capitol Hill] today is going to deter the task force,” Lecos said, referring to a meeting Thursday among Gov. Tim Kaine, the Federal Transit Administration and other officials.
About 12 million square feet of development is tied to the rail expansion in Loudoun County, said Lawrence Rosenstrauch, the county’s director of economic development. Without a first leg of Dulles Rail, the second phase from Reston to the airport itself seems impossible.
