Supervisors Promise New Building Rules for Tysons

Fairfax County's top elected officials pledged yesterday to move swiftly with the dramatic redevelopment of Tysons Corner after property owners and local leaders complained that bureaucracy was slowing down the effort to transform the sprawling suburb into a modern urban center.

The Board of Supervisors pledged to enact new regulations for builders as early as October. Supervisors also promised transparency and public participation, particularly to neighbors in McLean and Vienna who view the prospect of a more-populated Tysons with trepidation and even alarm.

But foremost, county leaders said, they will not botch the chance to alleviate congestion, decrease pollution and thus secure the future of the state's greatest concentration of jobs. It was an important message to send, several said, at the final board meeting of Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D), who will move to Congress in January.

"I am going to really push this," said Supervisor Jeff C. McKay (D-Lee), whose district includes aging downtown Springfield. "It is the engine of the county. More importantly to me, it sets the tone for what we do in other parts of the county."

Tysons Corner is a gigantic suburban crossroads in the northeastern corner of Fairfax County, where routes 7 and 123, the Capital Beltway and the Dulles Toll Road converge. With 120,000 employees and plans for four Metrorail stations on the way to Dulles International Airport, developers and environmentalists see a big opportunity for change.

Under the instruction of County Executive Anthony H. Griffin, planners presented a timeline yesterday that sets the October deadline for regulations and also calls for review of individual rezoning applications for property owners who are ready to begin redevelopment more quickly.

Griffin said he has been asking for a timeline from his staff for weeks. He said the one distributed yesterday is "realistic," and "we'll stick to it."

Supervisors acted yesterday primarily in response to concerns expressed in recent days by developers and members of the Tysons Land Use Task Force. Both said federal regulators' approval last week of the Dulles rail line has brought a new urgency to the county's efforts to redesign Tysons. In particular, boosters said the county government is not moving quickly enough to write the rules for construction of high-rise buildings and for the infrastructure that builders must pay for -- such as streets, parks and storm water systems -- in exchange for the right to build.

"This needs to be moving forward with all deliberate speed," said Supervisor Penelope A. Gross (D-Mason).

Connolly, who will assume the congressional seat of Tom Davis (R) on Jan. 3, urged supervisors to keep pushing the effort forward, not only to secure the future of Tysons but also to create a model for other areas of the county, including McLean, Springfield and Reston, where redevelopment is planned.

"Stay vigilant about Tysons," Connolly said. "It's the single most important opportunity for doing it differently, for creating a new, green model. Don't give up the faith on what is such an important endeavor."

Connolly and other supervisors said that, before yesterday, they had not been satisfied that county government planners were moving quickly enough to turn the recommendations of the task force into real-world regulations for property owners and developers to follow.

Tysons was not supervisors' only opportunity yesterday to address a land-use concern. With a unanimous vote, the board ordered a revision to county regulations to allow a farm winery to open on a 35-acre parcel in Clifton. The winery, a venture of mother-son entrepreneurial team Jane and Kirk Wiles, ran afoul of county zoning authorities earlier this year. They ruled that the winery was illegal on agricultural land because of plans to truck in some of the grapes to be used in the winemaking process.

Yesterday, supervisors expressed chagrin that county regulations were so narrowly construed to effectively bar a winery, even though the plan would protect the property from residential development, save 20 acres of forest and minimize pollution runoff from roads into the nearby Occoquan Reservoir.

"The board sets the priorities and the policies of this county," Connolly said. "Clearly the details of that story run counter to long-standing policies of the board to protect the environment and business climate."