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Tysons, take two
If all goes according to plan, the Tysons Corner of 2030 will be everything it isn't today: A great place to live, work and play; a place friendly to pedestrians and cyclists that is easy to navigate by car.
But critics of the Tysons Land Use Task Force fear an alternate future, one in which the streets of Tysons and surrounding communities become choked with traffic and taxpayers are forced to pay for pricey infrastructure projects to accommodate the high rises sprouting up in Fairfax County's new "downtown."
After 3-1/2 years of study and more than a million dollars in consulting fees, the task force has generated a clear vision for Tysons and a plan to execute that vision. The group will present its report to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Sept. 22, launching a process that all say will be critical toward determining this county's future.
"This is the last shot," said Clark Tyler, a resident of McLean's Hallcrest Heights and chairman of the task force. "You either manage the growth that's coming with Metro, or you let it develop the way that it has."
With the advent of four Metro stations in Tysons Corner, now expected to open in 2013, the Board of Supervisors in 2005 tasked a group of citizens, landowners and other Tysons stakeholders with re-envisioning the future of an area best known for sprawling office parks, one of the nation's largest shopping malls and traffic. Tysons Corner is the 12th largest employment center in the nation, is home to three Fortune 500 companies and generates $300 million a year in real estate and sales taxes.
Just 17,000 people live in Tysons, compared to the 110,000 people who work there, and the area has has 167,000 parking spaces – more than one for every person living and working there. The task force's aim is to improve the imbalance between commercial and residential development, reduce auto use and transform 40 years of sprawl into a walkable, urban downtown.
However, that vision includes development densities around the planned Metro stations that do not exist in Fairfax County today, and it remains to be seen if such numbers will survive the remaining public process.
To the tapped-in public that is used to looking at development as a numbers game, it was shocking when the task force abandoned the density numbers it and its consultants had been working with, instead plugging in much higher figures into the final report.
In April, following a series of community meetings, consultants PB PlaceMaking, a division of the international planning firm PB, outlined densities that it said would result in about 114 million square feet of development in Tysons. In late May, the task force voted to allow even higher densities – conditions that county staff later said could result in as much as 220 million square feet of development, about five times what Tysons is today.
For Charlie Hall and other members of the Greater Tysons Citizens Coalition, an activist group consisting primarily of McLean, Vienna and Providence District residents, this amounts to throwing out a well-researched plan for one figuratively "scratched out on the back of an envelope" that was never presented to the public. Hall said there is community support for the vision, but not the numbers.
"They want us to have confidence in this plan as if it has actually been studied," Hall said. "When, literally, you ask the question 'Will this work?' The answer is, 'We have no way of knowing.' "
Landowners with development interests "were allowed to dominate," leading the task force to overreach its proposed densities, said McLean resident Mark Zetts, who has been following the task force for the the McLean Citizens Association and the coalition.
Task force leaders contend that they are trying to turn the development process on its head – starting with a clear vision of what the community wants Tysons to become and using density as a means to get there.
"We want to start with the kind of Tysons we want it to be," said Bill Lecos, president of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce and a task force member, comparing the process to the planned community of Reston, which started with a vision and has used a massive homeowners association to achieve its goals.
At the same time, he said it is important to create the economic conditions to make that vision a reality.
"The economics have to work because if the economics don't work, it won't happen," Lecos said.
To ensure that Tysons redevelopment happens in the right way, the task force recommends creating a development authority that would require builders to contribute to the grid of streets and the bus circulator system, use low-impact development techniques and provide housing affordable to low- and moderate-income individuals.
"To really change, you're going to need a different process and a different type of entity," Tyler said.
After looking at other cases of redevelopment in the region and around the country, Tyler said, "absolutely nothing gets built out to the maximum"; a reasonable expectation would be 80 percent build-out over the course of several decades, he said. It has taken 40 years for Arlington County's urban core to reach such levels.
Stephen Fuller, of George Mason University's Center for Regional Analysis, said that if growth happens quickly, commercial development in Tysons could be built out by 2030 with a longer time period needed to reach its full residential growth, but it could take as long as 2050. Fuller's department analyzed the task force's projected densities for a report to supplement Monday's presentation to the board.
"Tysons will likely get less growth because of other kinds of growth in the county," Fuller said, such as Westfields, the Route 28 and Dulles corridors and Merrifield. "In a way, Tysons will compete for growth within the county."
Vienna and McLean residents fear that development at the levels the task force is discussing will crowd roads, parks and schools within their communities and overwhelm water and sewer systems. Without pricey upgrades, the county does not have sufficient sewage treatment facilities to handle a bigger Tysons and growth in other areas of the county, according to Hall's coalition, citing county staff.
"We have plans to keep people out of their cars, but I don't think anybody has devised a plan to keep people off their toilets," Hall quipped.
To this point, Tyler and Lecos again say that they are trying to shed Fairfax's past development habits. The task force plan calls for using tax-increment financing (issuing bonds based on anticipated growth in tax revenues), developer contributions and other tools to ensure that infrastructure is not chasing development.
The proposed development authority would also ensure that adequate infrastructure is in place.
"No one's going to approve a project that doesn't have sewer," Tyler said.
Zetts said neighboring communities would be much less concerned about adverse effects if development was required to follow infrastructure, particularly road improvements.
Traffic is indeed the biggest concern for many Tysons-area residents, like Sandy Perrin, a retired teacher who lives about 5 miles from the core of Tysons but still avoids going there.
While she doesn't think that it is impossible for redevelopment to work, Perrin said, "I don't necessarily see the need to have a downtown there."
Zetts believes that the task force goal of getting people out of their cars is unreachable.
"The allure of Tysons is that it is very accessible by car," he said.
Perrin, who is looking forward to the Tysons Metro stations, is also concerned about a reduction in parking.
"Just because they put a Metro in Tysons doesn't mean I will be able to take Metro there," she said.
On Monday, the Board of Supervisors will decide whether and how the task force's vision will move forward. It is anticipated that the plan will go to county staff to draft detailed comprehensive plan language and to a consultant who will conduct additional traffic studies before the plan goes through the normal public hearing process with the planning commission and the board.
Zetts predicts that staff and the planning commission will, after months of additional review, recommend lower densities than the task force.
"I hope that the process will not be unduly stretched out," Lecos said, "so that when the first riders walk off the first Metro train, they are greeted by something other than a parking lot."
Vision highlights
A dramatic increase in housing at different income levels to create a balance of residents and workers.
Eight pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods of mixed-use development.
Taller buildings and higher densities near Metrorail, tapering to lower densities at the borders with surrounding neighborhoods.
Extensive venues and opportunities for arts, culture and recreation.
Less overall parking, with much of it placed underground.
More local streets, which invite and protect pedestrians with sidewalks, trees, street-level retail and facilities for bicycles.
Efficient and frequent transit to rapidly move people throughout Tysons.
Route 7 and Route 123 serving as tree-lined boulevards to calm traffic while still allowing it to move through Tysons.
New buildings constructed to green standards.
New open spaces and parks connecting people and neighborhoods.
Source: "Transforming Tysons: Overview of Tysons Land Use Task Force Recommendations," Sept. 8 draft
Times Executive Editor Paul Smith contributed to this report.
Great article. We're 12th in the Nation for workforce?! Wow, who knew!
I'm hoping you'll follow up with information about whether Metro coming through Tysons will be above or below ground, and if unresolved (still!), what is the timetable and vexing issues.
Posted by ewh410
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