Category: Transit-Oriented Development

Fairfax board to vote on Seven Corners plan that has sparked heated debate

Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to move forward with an ambitious redevelopment plan for the traffic-choked Seven Corners area.

The plan to create three villages in the area would add several thousand new homes to the neighborhood, along with restaurants and shops and a new grid of streets that could draw local traffic away from the confusing Seven Corners intersection that is often backed up with cars and trucks.

Tuesday’s vote would addresses changes to county planning guidelines for Seven Corners that would allow the redevelopment to happen.

Residents from the neighborhoods of single-family homes that surround Seven Corners have opposed some aspects of the plan, arguing that it would bring in too much density and worsen traffic in the area, which is home to the Seven Corners Shopping Center.

Earlier this month, the county planning commission passed an amended version of the original plan that attempted to address community concerns. Though the plan’s new version reduced by several hundred units the overall number of new homes and apartments to be created – bringing the total closer to 5,000 — it still faces some opposition.

“It’s trending in the right direction, but if you talk to people and say it’s 5,000 units . . . in the Seven Corners area, they go: Whoa,” said Marty Machowsky, a local homeowner who who plans to testify during a public hearing scheduled Tuesday before the vote.

“How many total people does that mean and how many more cars will that generate?” Machowsky said. “We can hardly get through the Seven Corners area on a Saturday now.”

County officials say the plan’s latest version makes several compromises in response to community concerns. Among them are worries about school overcrowding that would result from adding more residents.

County executive Edward L. Long and Fairfax schools superintendent Karen Garza have agreed to work toward building a new school on the site of a former elementary school in the area that is now home to a multicultural center serving low-income immigrants who live nearby, officials said.

The site of the former Willston Elementary School would also feature a second building that would house a day care, social services for school families and the multicultural center, said Supervisor Penelope A. Gross (D-Mason,) who represents the area.

“That is going to be many years in the future because there is no money right now,” Gross said, about the idea of a new “urban-style school” inside a high-rise building. “But we are committed.”

Gross said the overall redevelopment plan is an attempt to bring new life to an area of Fairfax County that has been worn down since the Seven Corners mall was a regional draw for shoppers during the 1950s and ‘60s. She called it a road map for what Fairfax County will look like in the next 50 years.

“We need to make that whole area is ready for all the newcomers who are going to be coming here,” Gross said. “We need to make sure that the community that is being developed is what they would like to live in.”

Urban planning groups say the kind of walkable, transit-friendly communities envisioned for Seven Corners are needed in aging suburbs that have become homes to mostly vacant office buildings and discount stores with little commercial traffic.

“The future of Fairfax lies in these aging commercial corridors,” said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smart Growth. “It certainly can be a win-win and enhance Fairfax’s competitiveness.”

Michelle Krocker, who heads the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance, said there aren’t enough guarantees in the plan to keep lower-income families from being pushed out, which could have long-term repercussions for the Washington region.

“If there’s no place for them to live affordably, we potentially lose them as employees in the area or they move far out into the hinterlands,” Krocker said. “And, then they’d have to commute in, and that’s problematic for everybody.”

Read original article here.

Testimony in Support with Recommendations for the Prince George’s County Regional Medical Center

We want to express our strong support for this proposal. We applaud Prince George’s County and its partners for locating a state-of-the-art new Regional Medical Center at the Largo Metro station. We agree that this new healthcare facility at this Metro location is a game-changing investment for the county. To ensure the full potential of this investment, we need to create pedestrian-oriented designs for buildings, streets, and public spaces.

StreetsCamp 2015

StreetsCamp 2015

Advocacy knowledge + technical knowledge = power!

StreetsCamp was a one day summit held on June 20th, 2015 to provide participants with the tools to make our streets better: safer for walking and bicycling, transit-friendly, and more.

StreetsCamp includes both subject matter and advocacy skills workshops on everything from how to plan a neighborhood campaign, to safe street design for walking and cycling, to the ins and outs of zoning codes. 

How does it work?

You will hear from leaders in sustainable transportation and urban planning, but StreetsCamp is more than just workshops. Every attendee is a part of shaping and leading the day. Be prepared to get involved and meet people!

In the morning, local advocates and experts lead sessions on topics like campaign strategy, organizing, messaging and media, telling your story, safe street design, and more.

In the afternoon, StreetsCamp turns into an ‘unconference’ . That means session topics and activities will be suggested and organized by YOU and everyone attending!

Presentation materials

Not every session at StreetsCamp incorporated a PowerPoint presentation or handouts, but for those that did, we have compiled the materials here.

Telling Better Stories About Public Transportation, Paul Mackie, Mobility Lab

So You Think You Can Blog (Blogging 101), Aimee Custis & Abigail Zenner, Greater Greater Washington

Street Design Secrets Revealed, Dan Emerine, CNU-DC

Transit Today, Tomorrow, and the Future: There’s More to It Than Metrorail, Kristin Haldeman & Allison Davis, WMATA

How Safe Routes to School Are Driving Change in the Greater Washington DC Region, Matt Colvin & Keith Benjamin, Safe Routes to School

How Could We Get a Majority of People to Bike? Bike Infrastructure Best Practices, Jess Zdeb, Toole Design Group

Blogging 102, Dan Malouff & Aimee Custis, Greater Greater Washington

StreetsCamp 2015 was made possible by these partners:

Greater Greater Washington

Coalition for Smarter Growth

Georgetown University School of Urban and Regional Planning

Congress for New Urbanism, DC Chapter

Safe Routes to School National Partnership

Mobility Lab

Smart Growth America

National Complete Streets Coalition

Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling

Washington Area Bicyclists Association

All Walks DC

Sierra Club

Letter of Support to US DOT for Potomac Yard Metro

I am writing to express our strongest possible support for the City of Alexandria’s application under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s FY 2015 National Infrastructure Investments discretionary grant program (formerly “TIGER”) for the Potomac Yard Metrorail Station. The project involves construction of an infill station on the Blue and Yellow Metrorail lines in the City of Alexandria, which is one of the core jurisdictions in the Metropolitan Washington region. The station would serve a major redevelopment site within five miles of downtown Washington, DC.

Purple Line: How to grow without leaving folks behind

“The discussion is about how to ensure that the Purple Line is doing what it should to bring people together with jobs and services and still protect those who might not earn a lot of money, but want to benefit from the transit without being unable to afford it,” adds Cheryl Cort, policy director at the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

Testimony: DC Zoning Update on alternative language September 2014

We support most of the proposed changes in the hearing notice for subtitle C, but specifically want to express opposition to the DC Office of Planning proposal to: “Remove the Priority Bus Corridor from the areas within which required parking may be reduced by up to 50% as a matter of right as originally advertised.” Instead, we support the alternative language: “In the Alternative: Retain the Priority Bus Corridor as an area within which required parking may be reduced by up to 50% as a matter of right, as originally setdown on September 9, 2013.”

Tour program: The Silver Line, Reston, & Tysons: A New Chapter

[PDF] Decades in the making, Phase 1 of the Silver Line has arrived in Fairfax County and new buildings are appearing at the Wiehle-Reston East and Tysons Metro stations. We have a rare opportunity to witness a new phase of the county and the region as old suburbs are retrofitted and new walkable, urban, and sustainable destinations emerge.