Own Offices Mock Plan For 'Green' Fairfax

Actually, Fairfax has 170, excluding schools -- spread across the county. Consider these numbers:

· Of about 11,000 county employees, only 135 are known to use bus, rail or vanpools to get to work, according to county data. The ratio is even smaller at the 2,900-parking-spot government center, where about 1,700 county workers are based.

· The campus is about six miles west of the nearest Metrorail station -- in Vienna (the entire county is served by only five stations, compared with much-smaller Arlington County's 11). When the government center opened 15 years ago, it was surrounded by undeveloped land. Now, condominiums, townhouses and strip malls are within view, but they are not readily accessible by foot.

· The main building sits at the headwaters of Difficult Run, the largest watershed in the county. Years before Fairfax imposed rigorous regulations for storm-water management on new development, its own headquarters began pouring millions of gallons of runoff into the watershed. Unmanaged storm water can cause damaging erosion and pour roadway pollutants, such as oil, into waterways.

"It's so very, horrifyingly ironic," said Stella Koch, the Virginia conservation associate of the Audubon Naturalist Society. "If you had to pick the very worst place to develop, it would be at the headwaters of Difficult Run. What we know now is not what we knew then."

Koch, Connolly and others argue, however, that the contrast between the government center's form and Cool Counties' vision underscores Fairfax's continuing evolution into a more urban community. Its residents are demanding more action from government to improve transit, conserve land and energy, and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide believed to contribute to global warming.

The county has taken measurable steps to conserve. Wind power accounts for 5 percent of its energy consumption; under Cool Counties, it would rise to 10 percent. Last year, the county replaced thousands of light fixtures, lighting control software and fan motors at a cost of nearly $1 million and with an estimated annual energy savings of more than $100,000. It has opened two "green" fire stations, built largely with recycled materials and energy-efficient systems. It has adopted a far-reaching policy to encourage transit-oriented development.

"We would be the first civilization in history that doesn't rebuild its communities," Schwartz said, arguing that it is not too late for Fairfax to change course. "Think how many times Rome has been rebuilt over the centuries. Or London."

Connolly envisions a future in which the government center is surrounded by a more urban feel: affordable housing for county workers, more commerce and jobs -- and even an extension of Metrorail along Interstate 66.

But Rome was neither built nor rebuilt in a day. And even county officials acknowledge that the government center has a long way to go. On a recent weekday, an empty Fairfax Connector bus rumbled through the massive parking lot, creeping from shelter to shelter in a vain search for a rider. Not a single pedestrian was in view on the sidewalks and trails leading away from the building.

The county's spokeswoman, Merni Fitzgerald, said the complex is "pedestrian-friendly" and within reach, on foot, of restaurants, shops and a grocery store. But Fitzgerald also allowed that she had never actually walked to any of them from the main building.

"That's the challenge," Connolly said. "That's why I'm launching the initiative. We start from a low base, and we've got to get crackin' on serious measures that change the way we've done business in the past.

"If we don't start somewhere, where will we start?"