MWAA December 6, 2011, Dulles Toll Road Open House Presentations

MWAA has posted the presentations it will be displaying at its December 6, 2011, open house at South Lakes High School from 5-8PM.   There are three presentation packages:

1. Dulles Corridor Improvements, Dulles Toll Road Operations, Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project Finance Plan, Toll Rates
2. Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project 
3. Transit Oriented Development in Tysons Corner 

Probably of greatest interest will be the project finance plan in the first presentation.  It provides no new information on future toll increases beyond those already planned through 2013.   In one viewgraph (see below), it does show that toll revenues will need to sextuple or more in the decades ahead to meet debt service and other requirements.  It suggests that tolls will follow along.

Draft Urban Design Guidelines for Tysons Corner, November 30, 2011

Fairfax County has published draft urban design guidelines for Tysons Corner that are open for comment until December 29, 2011, at tysons@fairfaxcounty.gov.   The 235-page printed document discusses at length:

• The Pedestrian Realm
• Site and Building Design
• Urban Parks
• Interim Conditions

I have just discovered this document and so have just barely skimmed it.  Some quick reactions:

• The word "bicycle" appears only seven times, "bicycling" appears once, and the word "biking" not at all in the document.  It suggests that bicycling has been given minimal attention despite the best efforts of our colleagues at Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling (FABB).  
• Although the draft states "Care must be given to the design of safe and frequent pedestrian crossings and bike paths through intersections," grade-separated pedestrian street crossings are not discussed at all.  There are NO transit-oriented pedestrian safety standards so far as I can see, simply generic statements, adherence to state requirements, and some banal "design suggestions."
• The section on Urban Parks begins this way:

 

•  In the Interim Conditions section, it notes that "some parks will be built on structures and could be partially phased with the associated structures."

In general, it appears that the guidelines are written to satisfy developer interests and not to serve the needs of the public, including the people who will live and work there.  

It is quite likely that similar, if not identical, urban design conditions will be imposed on Reston as the Reston planning process proceeds.  It is incumbent on Restonians to read and comment to the county (see e-mail address above).  Reston 2020 would welcome your comments on the  draft urban design guidelines which we will post here if you wish.

Here is a link to the draft Tysons urban design guidelines.