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Residents on edge about Tysons
Three years of public outreach seem to have done little to assuage McLean residents' fears about the future development of Tysons Corner, as evidenced by the inquisition a Tysons Land Use Task Force representative faced at a March 6 meeting.
Although the McLean Citizens Association organized the meeting to allow the audience to ask questions of a multi-member panel composed of community leaders, the event was effectively turned into a mass grilling of Fairfax County planner Sterling Wheeler, the lone representative of the task force present. Former Dranesville District supervisor and current task force member Stu Mendelsohn canceled at the last minute.
“It's a long-range plan, it's a plan that says this is what should happen if rail goes through Tysons,” said Wheeler, defending the task force's planning process to about 250 people.
“They're trying to stuff a 10-pound melon in a five-pound sack,” said Ed Stabler, a Vienna resident who works in McLean.
Although a majority of the people in the room said they had participated in some aspect of the task force's long planning process, it was clear that the group's work is largely mistrusted and misunderstood by the residents of the surrounding communities.
This problem is best illustrated by the current doubt about the future of the Dulles rail project.
Task force chairman Clark Tyler has repeatedly said that the task force plan is entirely dependent on and useless without the creation of four rail stations in Tysons Corner.
“ Without Metro, our plan doesn't apply. It's just a dusty book on a shelf,” Tyler said last week. The task force's own charter links its work to the rail project.
Despite this, citizens from communities surrounding Tysons recently formed the Greater Tysons Citizens Coalition, dedicated to making sure that the densities described in the task force plan aren't applied to Tysons without rail. Questions from the crowd on Tuesday repeatedly brought up this point.
A particular point of contention for McLean residents is how the high densities planned for Tysons will affect residents of the “edge communities,” a consideration they don't believe the task force's work has adequately addressed. All of the surrounding communities have representatives serving on the task force.
“We're this non-described area outside the boundaries. ... Those lines on a map aren't going to keep that traffic from overwhelming Vienna,” said Laurie Cole, a panelist and member of the Vienna Town Council.
“We should be careful. Every bad decision that came in our lives came because we didn't ask the right questions,” said Charlie Hall, another panelist and head of the Providence District Council.
The other panelists were Dranesville School Board member Janie Strauss and MCA Planning and Zoning chair Mark Zetts.
By Monty Tayloe
mtayloe@timespapers.com
Three years of public outreach seem to have done little to assuage McLean residents' fears about the future development of Tysons Corner, as evidenced by the inquisition a Tysons Land Use Task Force representative faced at a March 6 meeting.
Although the McLean Citizens Association organized the meeting to allow the audience to ask questions of a multi-member panel composed of community leaders, the event was effectively turned into a mass grilling of Fairfax County planner Sterling Wheeler, the lone representative of the task force present. Former Dranesville District supervisor and current task force member Stu Mendelsohn canceled at the last minute.
“It's a long-range plan, it's a plan that says this is what should happen if rail goes through Tysons,” said Wheeler, defending the task force's planning process to about 250 people.
“They're trying to stuff a 10-pound melon in a five-pound sack,” said Ed Stabler, a Vienna resident who works in McLean.
Although a majority of the people in the room said they had participated in some aspect of the task force's long planning process, it was clear that the group's work is largely mistrusted and misunderstood by the residents of the surrounding communities.
This problem is best illustrated by the current doubt about the future of the Dulles rail project.
Task force chairman Clark Tyler has repeatedly said that the task force plan is entirely dependent on and useless without the creation of four rail stations in Tysons Corner.
“ Without Metro, our plan doesn't apply. It's just a dusty book on a shelf,” Tyler said last week. The task force's own charter links its work to the rail project.
Despite this, citizens from communities surrounding Tysons recently formed the Greater Tysons Citizens Coalition, dedicated to making sure that the densities described in the task force plan aren't applied to Tysons without rail. Questions from the crowd on Tuesday repeatedly brought up this point.
A particular point of contention for McLean residents is how the high densities planned for Tysons will affect residents of the “edge communities,” a consideration they don't believe the task force's work has adequately addressed. All of the surrounding communities have representatives serving on the task force.
“We're this non-described area outside the boundaries. ... Those lines on a map aren't going to keep that traffic from overwhelming Vienna,” said Laurie Cole, a panelist and member of the Vienna Town Council.
“We should be careful. Every bad decision that came in our lives came because we didn't ask the right questions,” said Charlie Hall, another panelist and head of the Providence District Council.
The other panelists were Dranesville School Board member Janie Strauss and MCA Planning and Zoning chair Mark Zetts.
Email the reporter at mtayloe@timespapers.com
Tyson's corner has never been pedestrian friendly. There are few contiguous sidewalks, and there are too many entrances for the service road. A person cannot walk from Marshall HS to the Toll Road via Rt. 7 without risking life and limb. If the metro to Dulles is meant to reduce road use, it should probably just go straight out the toll road from Falls Church. Leave Tysons out of it.
Posted by Snatchl
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