The Washington Post reports on a major development for Tysons Corner and northern Virginia more broadly:
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors today approved a sweeping vision for transforming Tysons Corner from a sprawling suburban destination on the fringes of the Washington area to a cutting edge urban center at the heart of Northern Virginia's evolving economy.Supervisors unanimously approved an ambitious blueprint that has been more than three years in the making and is envisioned to unfold during the next several decades. It hinges on giving landowners broad new permission to build city-style high-rises with urban-scale streets, sidewalks, restaurants and shops. And it rests on the expected construction of four Metrorail stations in Tysons.
Here is a link (PDF file) to a summary of the plan, appropriately called "Overview of Tysons Land Use Task Force Recommendations."
I contacted Scott Monett, President of TysonsTunnel.org (and a member of the Tysons Task Force), and asked for his reaction. Overall, Monett says that it's a good plan, although obviously effective implementation (e.g., impact on surrounding communities) will be crucial to its long-term success. As part of that implementation, Monett strongly prefers the tunnel option for Tysons Corner, and is pleased to see that the Task Force was "positive on rail but neutral on tunnel vs. aerial" options. Monett believes that many Tysons Task Force members would agree that a tunnel would make their plan "1,000 times better." But the bottom line, according to Monett, is that "everybody wants to make [the Task Force plan] work."
My view, at first glance, is that this is an excellent plan. I agree with Scott Monett, of course, that a tunnel would make this whole thing work much better than the silly "aerial option." The goal here is to transform Tysons Corner from a car-choked, sprawling mess into a model "edge city" for the nation. With a Metro tunnel and with the Task Force's blueprint, that is now a distinct possibility.