The following editorial was published by
the
Times Community Newspapers
(Fairfax & Vienna Times) on March 9, 2006.
Reprinted with permission.
MetroWest
County
should limit housing until more retail, offices in place
The Planning Commission is scheduled to render its decision on the
proposed MetroWest community at the Vienna Metro station next week. Its
decision is likely to have a far-reaching impact as the county prepares
for the arrival of Metro in the Dulles corridor and, in some cases,
rethinks development around its existing Metro stops.
Supporters of MetroWest tout it as "smart growth," a dense community
next to an existing major transit facility where people can live, work
and shop-the type of development that Fairfax County will need to
cultivate to accommodate the thousands of residents who are still
moving here year after year.
The question for the county is not whether the proposed development is
desirable, since a comprehensive plan amendment was approved in late
2004 allowing for just this type of mixed-used density. The issue is
how to best integrate, or phase, it into the existing community.
Pulte says 80 percent of the residences at MetroWest will be within a
five-minute walk of the Metro station. That is why some are puzzled by
Pulte's plan to start building the other 20 percent, those farthest
away, first. Would it not make sense in a "transit-oriented
development" to start with the units more oriented to the transit
station?
Part of the problem is Pulte needs a staging area to perform the
millions of dollars in road and infrastructure upgrades it has agreed
to make to better connect its community with the Metro station. It
cannot begin the high-rise condos and offices near the station until
that work is done.
Pulte and the county ought to agree to limit the number of homes that
can be built until a more significant portion of the buildings closest
to the Metro station are in place or nearly finished.
Right now, Pulte has committed to having just one and a half of the
dozen or so high-rises nearest the station in place by the time it has
1,000 units, or nearly half of all residences, built elsewhere on the
property.
The close-by retail services that will get people out of their cars,
like the coffee shop, dry cleaner and grocery store, need to be built
simultaneously with the residences if Pulte is to have any hope of
making its ambitious traffic demand management plan successful.
Striking the right balance will not be easy. Tensions are running high
on both sides of this case and rightly so given the economic, traffic
and school impact, just to name a few.
The history of the Vienna Metro station is filled with missed or failed
opportunities, and Fairfax County leaders owe it to the rest of the
community to get it right this time if transit-oriented development is
to be our answer to coping with continued growth.