"The place we need to focus redevelopment is in our central city and areas within a half-mile of transit stops," said Stewart Schwartz, director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.
Schwartz has supported similar developments, including one in the nearby Fairlee neighborhood. But he said he sympathizes with the concerns of residents in the surrounding areas.
"Like it or not, this is the way the free market system works," says Pete Young, 62, a leader in the neighborhood association. "It's about progress."
(James A. Parcell -- The Washington Post)
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"If the market is starting to create these kinds of pressures, it argues even more for careful planning to locate where these changes should occur," he said. "This has to be of great concern to many neighborhoods."
"It makes sense," said Bruce Christman, a lawyer who represented the Poplar Terrace neighbors and has worked on similar residential assemblages, including ones in Centreville and Arlington. "It makes sense from the standpoint of smart growth and from the standpoint of the homeowners, in terms of maximizing the value of their property."
The proposal to redevelop Poplar Terrace has stirred controversy inside and outside the neighborhood.
Five of the 70 owners have not signed the deal with Centex, with some saying simply that they do not want to leave. Young, who plans to move to Florida, said that only three owners will probably continue to resist the deal and that those holdouts are not enough to quash the project.
"Centex can just build around them," he said.
Centex and its attorney, Mary Theresa Flynn, declined to answer questions about their proposal.
James Fahs, one of the holdouts, said he doesn't think building densely in his neighborhood constitutes smart growth because he believes it is farther than most people would be willing to walk to Metro. As for his own resistance, the retired physicist said: "I really like my home, and I'd like to stay here. It's where I raised my two kids, and there's no reason to go anywhere else."
Outside the neighborhood, too, many residents fear that their leafy surroundings will be overwhelmed by traffic created by smart growth developments. A similar project in Fairlee, just east of Poplar Terrace, calls for office mid-rises, shops and multifamily buildings. Many of the houses that once stood there have been knocked down.
The Centex plan, which the Fairfax County Planning Commission is considering, would bring a few thousand more residents to the area. County planners reviewing the application have not calculated its effects on schools and roads, though some neighbors suspect that they would be overwhelmed.
"Given everything going in around us, it's pretty alarming," said William S. Elliott, a member of Fairfax Citizens for Responsible Growth, a group formed recently to address development issues. "Adding another 1,326 units is a bit more than the schools and roads can bear."
Not surprisingly, the Poplar Terrace residents look more favorably on the redevelopment proposals than other neighborhood groups who lack a financial stake in the outcome.
Even as suburban communities across the country protest change to their surroundings, about a dozen of the Poplar Terrace residents took a bus to a July county planning board meeting to register their support for more development within the county land plan.
"It's time for us now to embrace smart growth," neighbor Tim Bradshaw said he told the planning commission.
"High-density developments belong here," Charles Ashmore said.
One opponent of such projects shot back that such testimony by residents was "very offensive" given their arrangement with Centex.
"Those homeowners will not be here when this development is complete," Peter Slivka said. "The densities [proposed] are way overboard."
Echoing the long-standing rebuttals of developers, Young asserted that no matter what you do, there will be opponents.
"It's just sour grapes -- NIMBY," Young said. "This is something that is good for the county. You can't stop progress."
