By Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 13, 2003; Page F01

People ambling down wide sidewalks, window-shopping, stopping to dine at outdoor restaurants. Streets lined with stores -- big chains as well as mom-and-pop shops -- with apartments and offices upstairs. Outdoor plazas where neighbors bump into each other by accident on evening strolls.

Bethesda? Clarendon?

Nope. Try South Arlington's 31/2 mile stretch of Columbia Pike, from the Pentagon to the Fairfax County line.

If wishes really do come true, that is.

Arlington County officials would like to transform sections of Columbia Pike, a busy traffic corridor, from a rundown hodgepodge of dilapidated commercial buildings and strip malls into a spiffy pedestrian-friendly new-style Main Street. And they are heaping county resources and energy into trying to make that dream come true.

It is still a fantasy, and even if it does happen, it could be decades in the making.

And development à la Clarendon could also have a serious side effect. It could threaten the identity of the area around Columbia Pike as an affordable, close-in group of neighborhoods with a highly ethnically diverse population. A 2001 report by the Brookings Institution called the Columbia Pike area, Zip code 22204, one of the "most diverse areas in the metropolitan region," with about 130 nationalities represented. Over the past few decades, Arlington County planners have concentrated their attention around the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor in the wake of the construction of the Metro's Orange line there. Now, as Rosslyn, Ballston, Clarendon and Courthouse have been largely built out, the planners are turning their attention to Columbia Pike, a major Arlington thoroughfare bypassed in the transit-oriented development of the past.

"Columbia Pike has been neglected," said Chris Zimmerman (D), a member of the Arlington County Board and a long-time resident of the Columbia Pike area who is in favor of changes.

"Hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure and planning went into the areas around the Metro stations while other areas didn't get attention," he said. "Columbia Pike is a major commercial corridor that's become more and more of a strip where traffic just races through. Not much has changed in retail availability there and it's become less and less walkable."

For decades, county officials have looked and talked about ways to spruce up the area with better housing and more attractive streetscapes. But little ever changed beyond burying some power lines under the road. Now, though, they have come up with a multi-pronged approach that includes transportation initiatives, a new streamlined development design and approval process, and tax and other incentives to spur development along the Pike.

To make transportation as fast and frequent as the subway, bus service along Columbia Pike was increased this week. Funded by Arlington County and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, more routes and more frequent buses were added -- weekday bus trips have increased 45 percent, Saturday service is up 64 percent and Sunday service has been almost doubled.

Columbia Pike already has the heaviest bus ridership in the state, with 10,000 people a day traveling through the corridor, but county officials are hoping that the more convenient service would persuade an additional 1,000 people a day to switch from their cars to public transportation.

To ease congestion in neighborhoods, big Metro buses have been moved to routes on the Pike while smaller Arlington Transit buses have been moved away from Columbua Pike and into residential areas.

Last year, to come up with a development plan backed by residents, the county ran scores of meetings with people living near Columbia Pike, asking for input into what kind of development they would like to see. Architects from Florida-based Dover Kohl & Partners, a company with experience in designing new urban-style towns, designed a Main Street-style plan after the meetings.

To encourage that type of development, the county adopted in February a "form-based code" for the area -- that is, a zoning code based largely on building form and design, with broad guidelines for building use. It is an alternate, but voluntary, zoning classification for the Pike and nearby blocks that lays out architectural and streetscape standards that, if used, will transform the area into what planners envision as a walkable town center.

The purpose of the code is to encourage the development of a higher-density, pedestrian-friendly street more along the lines of Old Town Alexandria or Dupont Circle in the District.

Under the code, buildings in four areas along the Pike should generally be from three to six stories high with retail on the ground floor and offices or residential units above. (Historic buildings can be higher.) Buildings should be right up to the sidewalk rather than set back from the road. The code also dictates the size and placement of windows, calling for large windows in the ground floor retail spaces with upper story windows of proportionate size.

The code says parking should be behind the building rather than in front. It allows for flexible parking plans, permitting developers to provide less parking than usual by using shared or off-site parking.

"This is a '50s era drive-through town now," said Timothy Lynch, executive director of the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization, a nonprofit group that has spurred much of the talk of change in the area. "We're trying to repair what was done over the past 50 years and turn it into a real living, working town center. Now, during the day, you could shoot a cannon down the street, nobody is here."

The county offers various rewards to developers who choose to abide by the code. It guarantees them a speedier approval process and allows greater flexibility in how much parking a developer must provide. There is also a rehabilitation tax credit that lets developers pay a lower tax rate for five years after rehabbing a commercial property, and a tax increment financing scheme, where the county redirects tax revenues generated by a project into public infrastructure that supports the project, such as parking or streetscapes.

"Because of the benefits, a developer may as well go the form-based code route," said Richard Tucker, Columbia Pike coordinator for the Arlington County Planning Department. "If they don't, their project may take longer to approve and they may not get any breaks."

So far, no projects have been submitted to the county using the form-based code, Tucker said, but private developers are working on at least five separate projects that are expected to be submitted, he said.

Gary Garczynski, president of National Capital Land and Development Co., said he used elements of the form-based code when planning the site for 22 high-end townhouses he is developing near the corner of George Mason Drive and Columbia Pike. Garczynski's site is just outside the four designated areas of the code, but he said the county approved his project quickly.

Garczynski said the townhouses, called Alcova Row and to be built by Centex Homes, will be placed closer to the road than he originally had planned, with green space in back rather than in front, because of discussions with Arlington officials.

"They're pushing for a very urban feel right up on Columbia Pike," Garczynski said. "I think buyers will go for it." Construction will start in the spring of next year. The townhouses, which will feature two-car rear-loaded garages, will be priced from the upper $400,000s.

Garczynski said the revitalization plans on Columbia Pike, and the adoption of the form-based code, were a "big incentive" to do more in that area. He said he is looking at three more tracts of land in the vicinity.

Another project, which is in one of the code's designated areas but has yet to be submitted for approval, is being planned behind the Eckerd drug store on Columbia Pike near Walter Reed Drive. The 16 live-work townhouses will be built by Falls Church-based infill builder Capstone Properties.

Dale Steinhauer, chief executive of Capstone, said the three- and four-story townhouses, which will feature retail space on the ground and second floors and living space on the top floors, will range from 2,500 to 5,000 square feet and will be priced starting in the mid-$500,000s.

"I originally was going to build six single family homes there," Steinhauer said. "But I was approached by the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization folks and I decided to do live-work townhouses instead."

Although he has not started building, Steinhauer said he already has buyers interested in all 16 units and that the majority of the interested buyers were planning to live above their shops.

"I like what the county is trying to do there," Steinhaeur said. "I'm going to focus the rest of my career on the Columbia Pike corridor."

People who live near the Pike are adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

"What does everyone think of the redevelopment plans?" Rick Whitson, a long-time resident, asked rhetorically. "What redevelopment, they say? Everyone is just waiting to see if something happens."

Tom Greenfield, a neighborhood activist and member of the Arlington County Planning Commission, said: "There's a lot of tire-kicking going on. But plans are one thing. The results you want to see are shovels in the ground."

A few new retailers have come to the area over the past few years, including Rappahannock Coffee, which opened two and a half years ago on Columbia Pike near the Arlington Village townhouse condominiums.

"We picked this area because there were no other coffee shops here," said Brian Moore, part owner. "It wasn't a neighborhood full of chain stores and it was crying out for something new." Moore said business has been "steadily getting better" since he opened. He said the vast majority of his clients are local and walk to his coffee shop from nearby neighborhoods.

Residential property prices have been climbing in the Columbia Pike area over the past few years, as they have throughout the Washington area.

In the 42-acre Arlington Village development, a one-bedroom condominium has gone from about $87,000 to $200,000 over the past two years, real estate agent Jan Kennemer of Weichert Realtors said. And the average price for a modest three-bedroom house in the Columbia Pike area has increased to about $375,000, she said.

Already, property prices are climbing out of reach for many of the lower-income residents of the area. And prices will only accelerate further with any new development, agents predict.

One of the reasons developers are interested in Columbia Pike now is that prices are still below those of nearby Clarendon or Ballston, areas on the Metro line.

"It's cheaper than some of the other areas in Arlington," developer Garczynski said. "But it's not a Filene's Basement opportunity," he said, adding that prices had also risen along Columbia Pike, but just not as quickly as they had along the Orange Line. "Land owners are becoming more aware of the potential Columbia Pike represents. So it won't be cheaper for long."

So will the Columbia Pike area become too expensive for the people who live and do business there now, as has happened with some neighborhoods in the District and elsewhere?

"People are jumping the gun when they worry about the effects of development already," said Tucker of the Arlington County Planning Department. "Let's see if we can get redevelopment first, before we start saying there's going to be an adverse impact from it."

Fred Saah, owner of Saah's Unfinished Furniture store, which has been operating on Columbia Pike for 53 years, welcomes the redevelopment plans, but says most of his customers are not local.

"Most people drive to the store from other parts of the area," Saah said. "They come from Fredericksburg, Upper Marlboro, Waldorf, all over."

Steinhaeur from Capstone Properties said most of the interest in his live-work townhouses, however, was from retailers already in the area looking for better space.

Retailers already on the Pike there have managed to stay in business. Retail vacancies are rare. Businesses such as Saah's, Lady Hamilton's dress shop and Bob and Edith's Diner have been there for decades. Bob and Edith's recently opened another diner along the Pike. The Arlington Cinema 'N' Drafthouse is also still operating at a time when many other old movie theaters have shut down. There are also plenty of smaller stores that cater to the immigrants who live nearby.

Columbia Pike resident Whitson, a stagehand, mused about how spiffy new commercial centers such as Clarendon's Market Common, which sports chains including Barnes & Noble books and Ben & Jerry's ice cream, might do in the area as he sat at Rappahannock Coffee after work last week.

"I'm not sure you're going to be able to make a lot of money here on the Pike," Whitson said. "There isn't a lot of money here."

As with any plan, some people remain unconvinced. Some, for instance, are skeptical about the idea of turning a road so reliant on the automobile into a walking town center.

"I don't think it's right to put businesses close to the road and create parking spaces behind," said agent Kennemer, who has lived along Columbia Pike her entire life.

"The reason I love Columbia Pike the way it is is that I can drive up to the front of a store, park my car and run in and get my stuff done. If they crunch down the number of parking spaces and make me go to a parking garage where I have to pay, I won't shop there anymore."

She said, "I don't want to see Columbia Pike become Clarendon. I never go to Clarendon anymore. There's nowhere to park."