As war rages over new subdivisions paving Loudoun County's verdant valleys, next door in Fairfax the county supervisors see a shrinking docket of new development cases.
Looks can be deceiving. While the sight of disappearing farmland rankles many, suburban dwellers in Fairfax face an equally chafing prospect when new homes pop up on slivers of land next to their back yards, development some of them didn't know was possible when they moved in. To planners, it's in-fill. To the homeowners, it's urban and too dense, far from the calm suburban life they envisioned.
Washington's biggest suburb may already be built to its limits. But as a gathering of more than 500 frustrated homeowners last week made clear, development battles in Fairfax are far from over.
"People feel there's no predictability anywhere when they choose to live in Fairfax County," said Adrienne Whyte, a land-use activist from McLean. "They've chosen their perfect home and now what do they see: A consolidation down the road that's going to turn 60 houses into 3,600."
Participants say the unusually high turnout at the April 19 town hall meeting in Oakton, sponsored by a half-dozen civic groups focusing on development issues, signaled a new era in homeowner politics. As developers submit plans to the county to tear down old homes and redevelop at higher densities or shoehorn new projects onto small tracts, residents who were there first don't like what they see -- more traffic, more pollution, overcrowded Metro trains, more children stuffed into overcrowded schools.
"That whole room was angry," Linda Hansen of Vienna said of the two-hour forum at Oakton High School, which drew a bipartisan crowd of School Board members, state lawmakers and congressmen.
Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth described the tension this way: "What Fairfax is wrestling with now is 1 million people and more coming. Some people have the feeling, 'Let's just stop' developing. But that's simply not possible."
Over and over, speakers complained that as the county tweaks land-use plans to accommodate more homes, officials are overlooking the effect on services, from storm water management to parks. Many said the "overdevelopment" they perceive has been sanctioned by a county board that takes campaign contributions from deep-pocketed developers.
The animosity toward the supervisors boiled over when several speakers said the absence of nine of 10 board members -- only T. Dana Kauffman (D-Lee) attended -- meant that no one in government is listening.
As it happens, several supervisors were attending another land-use meeting the same night: a meet-and-greet to launch a new plan to increase the development potential in Tysons Corner beyond existing limits, creating a more traditional downtown now that Metro is on its way.
For now though, the real battle is unfolding in residential neighborhoods, where homeowners complain of builders who promised to save trees but didn't, and water pipelines they fear will lead to more development.
But there is a reality many people don't want to acknowledge: Fairfax created 25,000 jobs last year, the largest number in the Washington area. Technology firms and government contractors keep hiring, and a service economy to fill their needs keeps expanding.
"We remind people that this is a property-rights state," said Supervisor Linda Q. Smyth (D-Providence), whose district includes Tysons and several neighborhoods with controversial land-use cases.
She acknowledges that the remaining land that can be developed in her district "usually has some kind of issue," whether the builder wants to build near a stream or a stone's throw from existing homes.
"When citizens say you're not listening, they sometimes mean you don't agree with them," she said. "I find it difficult to say the board is not making every effort to meet with people and talk to them about the issues they have."
Kauffman, chairman of Metro's board of directors, took umbrage when he addressed the crowd last week at a negative term some speakers used to describe the changing face of Route 1 as a "condo canyon." He said he has worked hard to erase the corridor's unsavory image by encouraging upscale retail development and high-end homes.
"People are literally bidding against each other for the chance to live in a neighborhood that was once a neighborhood to be avoided," he later said.
Organizers of the Oakton meeting said they are galvanized to demand a bigger voice in land-use decisions. A huge test will come later this year, when the case that brought many homeowners to the microphone will come before the county board: A 2,300-unit mini-city of townhouses, condos, offices and stores next to the Vienna Metro station.
The board changed the county's land-use plan last year to open the door to a rezoning application from Pulte Homes. It's the kind of transit-oriented project county leaders say Fairfax needs more of. Existing neighborhoods around the project, dubbed MetroWest, seem split down the middle, with supporters applauding the idea of a walkable community and detractors calling it too dense. Public hearings are tentatively scheduled for the fall.
