Mixing Up New Plan for Springfield

Late last year, though, the mall was bought by Vornado Realty Trust, a New Jersey-based retail giant with grand plans to remake the 80-acre site. This summer, the county will consider a proposal for adding a hotel, housing and offices on the mall's vast parking lots. Vornado is planning to keep the existing structure but turn it "inside out" by adding outward-facing stores, including a grocery store.

Shoppers at the mall cheered word of an overhaul. Kate Lluberes , who was at the mall on a recent weekday only for an eye appointment, said she usually shops elsewhere even though she lives close by. "A lot of riffraff hang out here," she said. "No offense, but my husband and I went to a movie here one night and he looked around and said, 'Our kids are never working here.' "

Further fueling local optimism is the likelihood that, as part of the military base realignment process announced last year, at least one major agency will be moved to the Fort Belvoir Engineer Proving Ground, an 800-acre, mostly wooded former test site that now sits vacant.

Consultants are scheduled to provide their recommendations on the Fort Belvoir realignment next month, but Kauffman said a leading candidate to be placed at the proving ground is the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which would bring with it about 8,000 employees and civilian contractors from its current home in Bethesda.

Plenty of hurdles remain for the area, including the limited access to the Metro and commuter rail station, which sits off on the far side of the Franconia-Springfield Parkway, farther from the planned development than is the case in most other urbanizing D.C. suburbs. Residents at the KSI site would rely on shuttle buses to get to Metro. The mall is closer to the station, but it's an unpleasant walk that requires going through the station parking garage and then hurrying across several busy lanes of traffic.

Much of the land near the station is occupied by a million-square-foot federal government warehouse -- a profound waste of space, county officials say, given that the 70 acres could hold 2,000 housing units. They are urging the federal government to sell the site to developers interested in building offices and housing there, but the asking price has been too steep.

Other challenges were spelled out Friday by a nationwide panel of developers and planners from the Urban Land Institute, which is studying the area at the county's request. Daniel Brents, a planner from Houston, said bluntly that Springfield is "not a place," because it has "no boundaries," "no history or authenticity," "no meaningful skyline," "no natural amenities" and is a "civic vacuum" with "a freeway identity" and "architectural disharmony."

The panel suggested creating two distinct areas on either side of I-95 rather than trying to overcome the highway's division to create a unified whole. On the west side, where the KSI project would be, there should be a village center look, complete with a town green and plentiful restaurants, panel members said. On the east side, they suggested adding a civic center-type building near the mall to create a large-scale regional hub for all southern Fairfax.

"You need to have a place that you can take a postcard of and say: 'This is Springfield. This is where I've been,' " Brents said. As some in the audience chuckled, he added, "And it doesn't have to be the Spanish Steps."