Statement: Update on TWG for Reston Task Force, May 11, 2010

Progress of RCA Reston 2020’ Transportation Work Group
In Creating a Statement of Reston Transportation Needs

May 11, 2010

Terry Maynard, Chairman
Transportation Work Group


Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the Reston Task Force. I am Terry Maynard, Chairman of the RCA Reston 2020 Transportation Work Group. With the County providing a briefing on Reston transportation conditions this evening, I thought it would be useful to give you a brief update on the progress of our work group.

First, however, I would like to thank you for your valuable time and effort in helping shape Reston’s future. It is an unbelievably important task to all Restonians—residents, businesses, developers, and others—both current and future. I appreciate the complexities you face in balancing all the important interests in planning a better Reston and wish you the wisdom and foresight to accomplish that challenging task.

As for our the Transportation Work Group, we have been meeting over the last two months to develop a reasonable statement of Reston’s transportation needs over the next three decades. We are building our work on the excellent foundation laid by the Reston Metrorail Access Group, expanding it beyond the two Metro station areas it examined to the entirety of Reston. In so doing, we have researched “best practices” in urban transportation planning elsewhere, including Arlington and Montgomery TOD efforts. We have walked the Herndon-Monroe TOD area to understand its special transportation challenges, solicited inputs from local transportation experts, and we have discussed our effort with County transportation staff.

Although our work on Reston’s transportation needs is not yet complete, the following are the key transportation planning principles that are driving it:
• We need a rich mix of transportation options to serve the TOD areas and the Reston Town Center to sustain their economic viability and livability.
• We need to expand the connectivity between north and south Reston across the Dulles Toll Road corridor to preserve our community and better serve Reston Town Center and the TOD areas.
• We must provide robust transportation alternatives for residents and workers beyond TOD areas and Reston Town Center to reduce dependence on personal vehicles given the substantial percentage of Restonians who work, shop, and play here.
• We must develop and expand programs that reduce the demand for peak period work-related driving to limit added congestion.
• We must discourage driving to and from TOD areas, especially during peak periods, to prevent gridlock on Reston’s thoroughfares.

We look forward to sharing the results of our work with you in the weeks ahead as well as discussing it with you at the June 8th public input session or another appropriate time.

Letter: Traffic study and recommendations still need work, Rob Whitfield, Fairfax Times, May 11, 2010

Fairfax County has again delayed the public hearing on the proposed Comstock Reston Station Holdings LLC project at Wiehle Avenue Metro station.

The county has so far failed to design or identify funding for local transportation improvements which will be needed adjacent to planned Dulles Rail project stations to accommodate Transit Oriented Developments. Upgrades will be needed to various intersections in Reston. Worrying about design defects and limiting vehicular access to the plaza at the proposed Comstock Wiehle development during peak periods is akin to trying to deal with fleas when a herd of elephants is crashing around the house.

The Planning Commission, in overruling county staff who recommended rejection of the Comstock Wiehle proposal, has done nothing to address the fundamental problem involved -- increased traffic. At full build-out of the proposed 1.3 million square foot mixed use Comstock project, some 1,200 to 1,800 peak hour vehicle trips will be added to the local road network.

Certain transportation improvements in the Wiehle Avenue vicinity were required by the Dulles Rail Federal Transit Administration's Record of Decision of March 2005 and are being paid for from Phase 1 Dulles Rail funds. The county is spending $4 million on building sidewalks in the local area. However, it appears that little is being proffered by Comstock for local road improvements in its project proposal.

At Comstock Wiehle, 2,300 spaces for Metro riders would be built in an underground garage plus an additional 3,000-plus spaces for the proposed 1.3 million square foot mixed use Comstock development. (The county staff report omits the total number of parking spaces). The total number of parking spaces at Comstock Wiehle will be similar to the total parking provided at Vienna and Springfield Metro stations for which exclusive access ramps to and from I-66 and I-95 are provided to limit traffic impacts on the street system.

Currently, a total of 5,840 parking spaces exist at Vienna Metro. Tax records indicate that Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority owns approximately 30 acres there. By contrast, the county owned site at Wiehle Avenue contains only 9 acres which, together with 3.5 acres owned by the applicant nearby, total 12.5 acres for development. However, no direct ingress or egress to the Dulles Toll Road will be provided.

Citing budget constraints, the Reston Master Plan update "Task Force" leadership and county staff have stated that they do not intend to study traffic problems in Reston or the far worse conditions that will be created by additional traffic generated by developments around proposed Metro stations and the Town Center area.

It is complete lunacy to not evaluate comprehensively the potential parking and road improvements required to accommodate new traffic demand to be generated by future developments of Comstock, JBG, Boston Properties, Vornado Realty Trust and other landowners whose property abuts the Dulles Toll Road at or near Wiehle Avenue. The same is true for other stations proposed on the Dulles Corridor in Herndon and Reston.

Already severe peak period traffic congestion (Level F) exists in eastern Reston at intersections between Sunrise Valley Drive and Wiehle Avenue, Sunrise Valley Drive and Hunter Mill Road, Sunset Hills Road and Wiehle Avenue and Sunset Hills Road and Hunter Mill Road. Little has been proposed in the Comstock plan to ameliorate traffic congestion and the county's proposed penalties for not complying with a trip reduction plan are totally inadequate.

As a pre-condition of approving Comstock Wiehle Avenue development and any other Reston transit station project, we should require Fairfax County to create a "Road Club" (preferably to be called a "Public Improvements Club"), as has occurred in similar situations in Tysons Corner and elsewhere in Northern Virginia.

Now is the time for residents and businesses in Reston to insist that the county evaluate and plan for potential traffic congestion resulting from rail and the Master Plan update for station areas and around Town Center on a comprehensive basis. Bob Simon planned Reston as a place where people could live, work and play, and not as a focal point for thousands of commuter vehicles.

Rob Whitfield, Dulles Corridor Users Group

BRAC shift heightens traffic concerns in southern Fairfax, Fairfax Times, May 11, 2010

A possible cautionary tale for Reston, although our growth is not being driven by outside forces.

Only one road to be completed before defense workers are relocated

by Kali Schumitz | Staff Writer

When thousands of Department of Defense workers are relocated to Fort Belvoir next year, only one new road in southern Fairfax County will be ready to accommodate them.

The final section of the Fairfax County Parkway, which provides access to the former Engineer Proving Ground, now known as Fort Belvoir North, will be completed on schedule. That area is set to house about 8,500 employees from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency in a new office complex.

But there is no relief in sight for the already congested Route 1 corridor in the Alexandria section of the county. . . .

Click here for the rest of this article.

Column: Transportation: Creating an Incentive for Slow Growth at Tysons, Robert Jackson, President, MCA, Fairfax Times, May 4, 2010

Transportation and financial realities create strong incentives for Fairfax County to keep growth at Tysons Corner in the slow lane for years to come. Despite the Board of Supervisors' charge to the contrary, transportation planning was an afterthought to the supporters of rapid and intense growth at Tysons. For example, the Tysons Land Use Task Force's "vision" report merely touches upon road improvement needs over a few pages of text. Big landowners and their agents were focused on pushing density as high as possible, instead of trying to size future density to transportation realities.

Fortunately for the rest of us, the Fairfax County Department of Transportation picked up the slack. Indeed, the county prepared what is likely the most complex "527 Traffic Impact Analysis" ever submitted to the Virginia Department of Transportation. But even after superlative work by county engineers, VDOT identified a number of problems with the study. Much more planning and analysis are required. In short, the transportation needs of an urban Tysons are multifaceted and very expensive.

On April 19, Fairfax County released its latest road and transit cost estimates for the next 20 years (which are in addition to the $5.3 billion price tag for bringing the Silver Line just to Wiehle Avenue). The current projection of $1.762 billion, stated in 2010 dollars, is broken into five-year increments. For example, by 2015, the county needs $162 million for two road projects and capital investment in more buses. In addition, the annual operating costs for these new bus routes are estimated to be $18 million.

While these cost totals are daunting in and of themselves, it is critical to note that, even after spending all of this money -- plus the full cost for constructing a rail to Dulles Airport and beyond -- and after taking other actions, such as eliminating free parking throughout most of Tysons, traffic engineers have concluded the transportation network, including the Beltway, the Dulles Toll Road and Routes 7 and 123, would hit the failure stage once Tysons reaches 84 million square feet (going from today's approximately 45 million square feet). This means that, at some point in the future, the more than $1 billion invested in road improvements will no longer perform acceptably.

When will this happen? It depends, of course, on how fast Tysons is permitted to grow. Experts from George Mason University made three growth estimates for Tysons Corner. The "fast growth" estimate projects Tysons will reach more than 82 million square feet by 2030. In other words, by the time all of road improvements needed to grow Tysons to 84 million square feet are finally completed, the entire transportation network will be close to fatal gridlock. More important, since many of these improvements would be funded through bonds, they wouldn't be paid for by the time they reach the point of failure, if Tysons is allowed to grow rapidly. It will be similar to being required to keep making monthly payments for an uninsured car that has been totaled in a wreck.

On the other hand, if the county decides to slow down significantly the pace of growth at Tysons, GMU estimated Tysons would not reach 84 million square feet until close to 2050. Slowing the approval of development at Tysons permits the county to extend the functional life of more than $1 billion of road improvements for almost 20 more years. That is a very strong incentive for Fairfax County to take a very measured pace in Tysons for years to come, despite the likely pleas to the contrary from landowners. The public interest easily trumps private gain in this instance.

The letter writer is an attorney and serves as president of the McLean Citizens Association.