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Tunnel Loses Backers as Landowners Unite for Growth
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But there is little debate that the rail line will also serve the private interests of a few landowners, including commercial giants Lerner Enterprises and Macerich Corp. (which own the two malls in Tysons Corner) and mom-and-pop owners of smaller parcels scattered across the area.
"People forget that a lot of the land in Tysons has been held by families and family trusts for 50 or 60 years," Lecos said. "It's two acres here, two acres there. It isn't 50 or 200 acres."
Tysons Tomorrow's membership will feature the smaller landowners, said Lecos, who has been a strong booster for rail and is helping to organize the new group. He and others said that if the project dies, many of those owners would develop their land in keeping with the current Tysons pattern: suburban, car-dominated and unfriendly to pedestrians.
"You can expect that Tysons will not change," said Aaron Georgelas of the Georgelas Group, which owns or controls about 25 acres and plans to redevelop with or without rail. "It will be a suburban office park just like it is today. There will be no interconnectivity, no walkability. Both of those things would change with rail."
Irvin, of the FTA, said that the status of the project hasn't changed. The agency is reviewing the state's application for federal funding and is working with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which will oversee construction, to bring the cost within federal efficiency guidelines, he said. Final design approval, if it comes, is possible in the next few weeks, Irvin said.
After that looms another battle: how densely the Tysons landowners will be permitted to build. The Tysons Land Use Task Force has been working for three years to determine the balance of housing, retail and office space.
The task force is expected to deliver its recommendations to the county Planning Commission by April. The final decision will fall to the county Board of Supervisors.
