Connolly Poised To Revive Task Force on Tysons

With "rail to Dulles" on track, a Metro expansion plan that will include four new Metro stops in Tysons Corner, Fairfax County is poised to reconstitute a task force to explore ways the Tysons area can be better integrated, County Board Chair Gerry Connolly reported in a special interview with the News-Press this week.

The grouping, that will include County Supervisors Linda Smyth, Joan DuBois and Kathy Hutchins, will revisit a plan hammered out in 1994 to encourage residential development, streetscapes, public gathering places and pedestrian traffic in the still-booming area that is home to 150,000 day workers and already has more square feet of office space than all but nine cities in the U.S. It is the third largest retail center on the East Coast of the U.S.

Connolly said that the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce is also planning a "vision charette" next month to explore the same subject.

With four new Metro stations in Tysons, two on Route 7 and two on Route 123, planned for Phase I of the Rail to Dulles plan, likely to be finished with seven years, it is hoped that a major residential component can be added to the area, Connolly said. Currently, only 17,000 live in the immediate environs of Tysons Corner.

"It is projected by the Council of Governments here that in the next 25 years, two million more people are going to be living in the Metropolitan Washington D.C. area with 1.6 million new jobs," Connolly remarked. "Much of the new growth is going to be in Northern Virginia, and we are going to have to figure out where we're going to put everybody."

He said that allowing greater density at the Metro stations is key, enabling the population growth to occur adjacent public transportation and "multi-modal transportation centers." Also, bringing workers to live closer to where they work will be key, and that means that the huge imbalance between the residential population and workforce population in Tysons Corner needs to be addressed.

The problem is acute throughout Fairfax County, which currently has only five Metro stations to cover 400 square miles, compared to Arlington, which has 11 Metro stations covering 29 square miles.

While a major expansion of the Tysons I shopping mall has been announced, requests for rezoning to residential development has also been granted two major landowners in Tysons Corner, Connolly noted, while still awaiting specific plans.

County moves to allow greater density at its Metro stations will also prove critical, although the densities will remain far below those permitted in urban centers. It is relevant, however, Connolly said, that there is one undeveloped property adjacent the Vienna Metro station that covers 16 acres, the same size plot that was able to accommodate both the World Trade Center towers in New York City.

Combined with projected robust economic and population growth, the other biggest challenges facing the region have to do with demographic shifts, as well, Connolly said.

The first is the growing demographic diversity of the area. Only 33 years ago, 82% of the population of Fairfax County was white Caucasian and 85% worked in Washington, D.C. Now, with the population doubled to almost 1.2 million, 61% is white Caucasian and 55% work in the county, not D.C., while 25% are foreign born and speak a language other than English at home.

The second is the aging of the population. Over the same 33 year period, the median age in the county has gone from 25 to 39 years, and the percentage of the population over age 65 has doubled to 14% of the total population, and over a larger total population base.

This will create special challenges for the types of housing that needs to be developed, Connolly indicated. He said that efforts toward affordable housing in the county have focused on preservation of existing affordable housing units, while a task force recently recommended that one cent on the tax rate be dedicated to affordable housing preservation and development.

In office for one year, Connolly issued his annual State of the County statement last week, where he outlined progress in all the six areas that he had focused on during his campaign and in his inaugural address.

On the issues of gang prevention, affordable housing, the environment, education, transportation and taxes and revenue diversification, real gains have been achieved, he said, and the entire Board of Supervisors has weighed in supporting his priority list.

He also cited benchmark indicators showing the county's efficiency in government, effective crime prevention and educational excellence.

The county has been identified as one of the nation's top 10 most desirable jurisdictions in which to live, with one of the highest median income levels and a 1.6% unemployment rate (compared to 5.2% nationally and 3.2% statewide) with 25,000 new jobs created last year. Two years ago, it was proclaimed the "Best Managed County" in the U.S. It has the lowest crime rate among the 50 largest jurisdictions in the U.S., and was 30th out of the 30 largest jurisdictions in homicides, while having the smallest police force (as a percentage of population) among the 50 largest jurisdictions. It has one of the top library and park systems in the nation, and is one of the few jurisdictions to enjoy a AAA bond rating. In its 24 high schools, at 46%, it has the highest percentage of students passing Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate-level classes in the U.S. All 24 of its high schools made the Newsweek list of best in the nation.

Further, the population is eager to support transportation, park and environmental improvements, with bond referenda passing by a whopping 78% to 22% margins last November.

With this kind of brag sheet and prospects for further growth, along with a recent pattern of unprecedented consensus on a Board of Supervisors that is composed of seven Democrats and three Republicans, "This is a golden moment of opportunity in Fairfax County," Connolly said.