Fairfax Considers Urban Centers by Deborah Katz, WRN Coordinator Known more for its low-density sprawl and auto-dependent lifestyle, Fairfax County is considering a special zoning category to direct growth into more walkable neighborhoods around Metro stations and current and future town centers. Planners are also examining ways to improve the design of these areas to make them more attractive and pedestrian-friendly. The new zoning category would encourage builders to provide compact mixed-use development. "This policy is an important step towards making more efficient use of our transit system and the land adjacent to it instead of continuing to lose open space, create worse traffic, and build places that aren’t safe for our kids to walk," said Laura Olsen of the Coalition For Smarter Growth at a November 2nd hearing. "With 300,000 people projected to be moving to Fairfax County in the next 20 years, the county cannot afford to continue current patterns of sprawling development." Specifically, the proposal calls for an increase in housing, a greater mix of uses (to include office, retail, and services such as daycare), and an improved pedestrian environment around Metro stations and in town centers. Drive-thrus, one of the staples of suburbia, would be banned in the new, pedestrian-oriented zones. Fairfax is already moving forward with a higher-density, mixed-use development around the Huntington Metro station and has begun working on improving the pedestrian environment in Tyson’s Corner. WRN concurs with the Coalition For Smarter Growth and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation that the zoning category is a welcome idea but that it needs to be improved. First, to maximize Metro as a transportation alternative, WRN recommends that the zoning focus higher density mixed-use development and pedestrian environment improvements around a half-mile radius of transit station platforms, allocating the greatest density at or immediately adjacent to the transit station. Permitting well-designed higher density residential and mixed uses is an important step in making these centers better places to focus the County's growth. These centers should not be wasted on surface parking lots and low density uses. Maximum densities should be designed in a way that creates incentives for providing more amenities such as public plazas, ground floor retail, and more affordable housing. Second, WRN recommends the development of more detailed urban design guidelines as an update to current Comprehensive Plan. In particular, the design of the pedestrian environment and the provision of urban parks and public plazas need to be fully addressed. Poorly designed pedestrian environments that create unattractive automobile-dependent areas and that have no open space will likely fail to sustain citizen support. Citizen support is also more likely if Fairfax becomes more proactive in preserving rural resource lands and creating regional parks, the flip side to focusing growth in town centers. Third, WRN recommends that the new zoning districts be created only where high capacity transit services to and from urban/suburban centers are planned or currently provided. Urban centers should establish aggressive travel demand management (TDM) strategies to reduce parking demand and automobile traffic, and extensive pedestrian and bicycle facilities should be incorporated into the design. In considering the new zoning category, Fairfax joins a number of jurisdictions across the country looking for alternatives to single-use, sprawl-inducing zoning. For example, Kendall, Florida, a suburb of Miami with regional activity center status due to its two transit stops and access to nearby expressways, has adopted an overlay zoning ordinance that moves buildings up to the street (helping to create pedestrian-friendly boulevards), gets rid of surface parking lots, and aggregates open space into meaningful squares and parks. Projects that meet the plan’s guidelines are put on a fast-track review. The Fairfax Planning Commission has approved the new zoning category but chose a lower density option among four presented by planning staff. It is important going forward that Fairfax County reserve the right to increase density in selected buildings in return for securing important amenities. These actions will create the kind of urban village transit centers that will enable Fairfax and the region to accommodate growth gracefully: maximizing the region’s investment in transit and commuter rail, building walkable neighborhoods, reducing traffic congestion, and preserving open space. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing on the Planning Commission’s recommendation on Monday, Jan. 8th at 3 pm. WRN encourages Fairfax residents to participate in the discussion and to support the new zoning category and the ability to increase density at certain locations. For more information, contact Maggie Stehman, Fairfax Zoning Administration Branch, (703) 324-1314. To sign up to speak at the hearing, call the Clerk of the Board’s office at (703) 324-3151, or send a letter c/o Clerk, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Suite 533, Fairfax, VA 22035. The hearing will be held at the Government Center Building at 12000 Government Center Parkway. For more on the Kendall, Florida plan, visit http://www.doverkohl.com/kendall.htm.