Fairfax County next week will lay out to the public its plan to mold new development around transit stations.
The “transit-oriented development” proposal goes before planning commission on Feb. 8. It would cement language in the county’s comprehensive plan on a policy linking growth and transit.
The comprehensive plan is an often-updated document that sets guidelines for future development andland use in the county.
It’s unclear how the plan will be received by Fairfax County residents. Growth is a highly charged topic in the national capital region’s largest suburb, which has swelled in recent years with new homes and traffic.
The county already allows higher building densities around rail stations. Walter Alcorn, a planning commissioner who chairs the committee drafting the policy change, said the change would not allow developers to build more.
Development projects, he said, still would be addressed individually.
“This plan does not add a single square foot of density to the Fairfax County comprehensive plan,” Alcorn said.
Among the many new guidelines of the transit-oriented development policy, the plan calls on the county to focus growth near planned and existing rail transit stations and allows more flexibility in the radius of high-density development due to existing neighborhoods and geography.
The committee says it already has held 12 public meetings on the subject, but next week’s would be the first official public hearing in front of the commission.
The proposal then goes to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for final approval on March 12.
