SUMMARY:  The high turnout at the Oakton meeting indicates the deep concern about growth on the part of Fairfax County citizens. Congressman Tom Davis should be commended for his willingness to take a position on this issue and for attempting to respond to citizen concerns about the impact of high density development. The County Board of Supervisors is attempting to pour a quart of milk into a pint jar with its willingness to tolerate such development.

On April 19, 2005, over 500 citizens from Fairfax County attended a meeting sponsored by the Fairfax Citizens for Responsible Growth Committee, The Sierra Club, the Providence District Council, the Hunter Mill Defense League, and other civic associations to discuss concerns about development in such locations as Richmond Highway, Tyson's Corner, and the Vienna Metro Station. This was an astounding turnout for such a meeting. Even more astounding was that an elected official showed up for the meeting, actually cared about the concerns expressed by those citizens, and promised to do something about those concerns.

That elected official was Congressman Tom Davis. The concerns he promised to address related to proposals emanating from our County government and from local developers to substantially increase residential-condominium type development at the Vienna Metro Rail stop—regardless of whether there will be any meaningful use of the metro system by the thousands of new residents who will be soon living in what is already a traffic-clogged area of the County.

Congressman Davis agreed to look into the issue of Metro's cooperation with local developers to bring about such a high-density development. Mr. Davis should be commended, not scolded, for taking a position on this issue. The citizens of this area have a right to representation in support of their wish that the area not be overdeveloped, the schools overcrowded, the highways overloaded, the environment overburdened, and surrounding neighborhoods overwhelmed. Davis is using his jurisdiction over Metro to ask the kind of questions that need to be asked. Specifically, Davis said he was going to do his best to see that Metro not be permitted to use three acres of land it owns next to the station site to enable one of the local developers to put up high-rises on that land. Perhaps Davis can succeed in forcing the County Board of Supervisors to scale back this project. We are fortunate that someone is listening to the concerns of the citizens about high density development.

Vienna citizens had been asking the Board of Supervisors to listen to their concerns about the overdevelopment of this site for almost a year, but they were not heard. MetroWest was planned more than a year ago for 1,153 condos. When the plan was actually presented, the 1,153 condos became 2,300 condos plus other development. To make matters worse, a second plan is pending for another development called Poplar Terrace less than a mile away. It calls for 1,400 more condos. The combination of these two developments would increase the population by 9,000 people. Consultants for the developer assert that these new residents will ride Metro, or at least 30% of them will. This would be the same Metro that is constrained in its capacity to carry passengers by a lack of cars for its trains and a lack of tracks in the tunnel under the Potomac.

It seems apparent that the Board of Supervisors is more concerned about enriching developers in Fairfax County than responding to the concerns of County residents. Overdevelopment in the Vienna, Tyson's, and Richmond Highway areas significantly diminishes the quality of life for those who live in Fairfax County. The Board of Supervisors has its priorities wrong. The supervisors are trying to put a quart of milk in a pint jar. It will not fit, and citizens will suffer because of it!

The real irony is that while citizens were meeting at Oakton High School with concerns about overdevelopment, Mr. Connolly and two other members of the Board were at a meeting with developers in Tyson's Corner discussing another overdevelopment project which will create "Manhattan South" in Tyson's Corner.

Copyright Forward Fairfax and Jack Herrity, 2005

An earlier version of this paper appeared as a letter in the Fairfax Times