It was a year of great change for Fairfax County: 2006 saw the end of the housing boom, the inexorable yet controversial progress of rail to Dulles, road woes at Fort Belvoir, political upheaval in Herndon, the rise of intense mixed-use development — and a day of violence against police that was without precedent in county history.
Virginia’s largest county continued its transition from a bedroom suburb of Washington to a more independent urban center, with a fresh salvo of dense, pedestrian-oriented construction projects proposed and approved. Chief among them was MetroWest, a large, mixed-use development at the Vienna Metro station that saw approval in March after a protracted land-use fight. Following MetroWest were two other major rail-line developments, one approved for the Dunn Loring station and another proposed along a planned rail line through Tysons Corner. The latter, a massive overhaul of the Tysons Corner Center mall, could be approved early next year.
