CSG and allies support transformation of the old AT&T office building and its acres of parking. CSG is joined by the Sierra Club, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling, Fairfax Families for Safe Streets, Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions, Nature Forward, Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance, and YIMBYs of NoVA.
Category: Virginia
VA Testimony: Support for AT&T Oakton plan amendment by Fairfax Healthy Communities
February 25, 2025
Fairfax County Planning Commission
12000 Government Center Parkway
Fairfax, VA 22035
RE: Comments in Support of AT&T Oakton plan amendment – PA 2023-00009 (SSPA 2023-II-1F)
Chairman Niedzielski-Eichner and Commissioners,
The above nine organizations, as part of the Fairfax Healthy Communities Network, are
providing the comments below to express our strong support for the redevelopment of the AT&T Oakton site and ask that you vote in favor of Plan Amendment – PA 2023-00009 (SSPA 2023-II-1F).
Our organizations assess proposed development projects in accordance with our shared principles that they provide more homes for a mix of incomes, are accessible to transit with safe walking and biking options, and provide good environmental sustainability and design.
Providing more housing for a mix of incomes in walkable, high amenity areas near transit and jobs is essential to ensuring an inclusive and economically prosperous Fairfax County where people are able to live near their work, reducing long commutes and our climate impact.
The proposed redevelopment of the AT&T site is a great opportunity to do just that on 33 acres in the heart of Oakton, transforming acres of underutilized office space and parking lots into an inclusive, vibrant community. It offers new homes, including affordable units, with access to transit, improved bike/ped connections, enhanced stormwater management, parks, and tree preservation.The redevelopment provides the opportunity for much-needed placemaking within Oakton that will enhance residents’ sense of community.
The proposed plan amendment is the first step in making way for this redevelopment proposal to become a reality. The plan calls for an appropriate increase in intensity and balanced mix of uses, including grocery and retail, that will support a walkable, vibrant community as the core of the Flint Hill Suburban Center. Appropriate transitions to existing neighborhoods support compatibility and integration with the surrounding area. It includes good urban design with a grid of streets, wide walkways, activated street level activity, parks and open spaces.
Transportation
The AT&T site is in a prime location near transit services, including the Vienna Metro, local bus service, and express buses running in the I-66 High-Occupancy Toll lanes. It is also served by two major regional multi-use trails, the Gerry Connolly Cross County Trail and the 66 Parallel Trail.
While the site benefits from proximity to these sustainable transportation options, the area today is not comfortable or inviting for people trying to get around without driving. The proposed redevelopment is an opportunity to help turn that around, improving safety and accessibility for residents and visitors of the site itself, and catalyzing, through the planned area transportation study, improvements for the surrounding community as well.
We are grateful the draft language includes the needed transportation improvements that will help improve mobility in the area. The plan calls for optimizing transit and enhancing bus stop amenities, improving pedestrian and bicycle connections, adding safer crossing options, including a traffic signal for families to safely cross to Oakton Elementary School.
The innovative approach to the Chain Bridge and Jermantown intersection will improve driver travel time and provide better infrastructure and safer crossings for people walking and biking without destructive widening with more lanes.
Housing
More housing in the county is desperately needed. The shortage of homes and high prices mean more and more people cannot afford to live in Fairfax. The proposal to redevelop the AT&T site will deliver 850 new homes in multi-family buildings and townhomes. It includes 18 percent affordable and workplace units, an increase over the policy recommendation of 8 percent. This supports the county’s housing goal of providing 10,000 units by 2034.
Environment & Parks
We are grateful the draft plan calls for open space, a well-designed and connected urban park, and the preservation of established trees along the perimeter of the property and new native plantings. This supports the redevelopment proposal that includes the addition of a 2-acre park complementing the existing Borge Street Park, a central green common, and a 1-mile shared use path that provides a linear park around the perimeter of the site. Redevelopment will provide updated and enhanced stormwater management, green infrastructure, and stream protection.
In Summary
This plan amendment supports redevelopment of the AT&T Oakton site, which will provide much needed housing in a walkable community with access to transit and enhanced environmental design and open space. We ask that you approve the plan amendment.
Thank you for your consideration of our comments.
Ting Waymouth
Chesapeake Climate Action Network NoVA
Sonya Breehey
Coalition for Smarter Growth
Joy Faunce
Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling
Chris Topoleski
Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions
Chris French
Fairfax Families for Safe Streets
Renee Grebe
Nature Forward
Jill Norcross & Anika Rahman
Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance
Kevin O’Brien
Washington Area Bicyclist Association
Naveed Easton, Joshua Booth, Mostafa ElNahass & Evan Ramee
YIMBYs of NOVA
Annual Northern Virginia Joint Transportation Meeting (Comments)
Re: NoVA transportation needs to prioritize transit funding and service enhancement, roadway safety, alternatives to road capacity expansion, and climate action
Chairs and directors of Northern Virginia transportation agencies:
The Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG) appreciates your gathering together to hear from the public and stakeholders and share information on current projects and programs. CSG has worked on Northern Virginia transportation and land use for the past 27 years, advocating for walkable, bikeable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, as the most sustainable and equitable way for the region to grow and provide opportunities for all. Please accept these written comments on behalf of CSG, as unfortunately we cannot attend in person.
Right now, Northern Virginia has four main needs in transportation. Residents and workers need you to:
- Expand transit, and Increase Metro and local transit funding, both capital and operating. The region and the state’s prosperity depend on officials securing a dedicated funding source for this critical service and infrastructure. Our continued prosperity also depends on funding the necessary improvements that regional leaders are planning, such as the Metrobus visionary network, the DMV Moves action plans that are underway, VRE, and bus priority corridors.
- Prioritize making arterial roads safer for Northern Virginia residents and workers walking, riding bikes and scooters, and accessing transit stops. The region has the funds, it just needs to shift money planned for hundreds of miles of new highway and arterial lanes to instead address safety. A secure transportation network must also fund climate resilience investments to deal with increased flooding, sea level rise, and heat, and to prioritize safer, less polluting modes of travel like transit.
- Ensure that major corridor improvement projects – such as I-495 Southside – have objective studies that fully evaluate alternatives rather than starting with a conclusions-first approach. We should not be making multibillion dollar, 50-year decisions via poorly structured studies. We are disappointed that VDOT has decided – yet again – to only evaluate build alternatives for widening and HOT lanes, and not meaningfully consider a comprehensive transit, travel demand management and land use solution.
- Follow through on your climate change commitments. Virginia transportation agencies oversee the largest source of planet-warming pollution in the state, yet residents do not see accountability in plans and policies – and little urgency in agency actions. VDOT’s Carbon Reduction Strategy, for example, sets no targets or performance measures. Statewide funding decisions have used the additional federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law money to worsen the climate change impact of Virginia’s transportation system.
Recent analysis by the organization Transportation for America shows that Virginia will pollute 1.3 million more tons of carbon dioxide through 2040 as a result of state, local and MPO-level decisions to prioritize even more money for highway expansion. Meanwhile, a number of other states instead used this additional funding to address maintenance backlogs, fund cleaner affordable travel modes, and reduce emissions.
Numerous analyses show that electric vehicles – while essential – will not be enough to slash greenhouse gas pollution to safe levels. Northern Virginia localities and agencies must ensure that communities can meet their daily needs with less driving and more affordable, convenient and sustainable options. If Virginia did this statewide (e.g., a 20% decrease in per capita vehicle miles traveled due to more accessible communities and travel options), it would save households $1,280 per year in transportation costs, avoid 105 crash deaths, save 761 lives due to better health outcomes, reduce load on the electric grid, and slash GHG emissions.
CSG recently prepared a brief for regional officials of actions that you can take now, which we attach.
With the incoming federal administration, even more responsibility will rest on your shoulders to fund transit, provide safe streets, and reduce climate pollution. We ask you to act quickly on these four priorities.
Thank you,
Bill Pugh, AICP CTP
Senior Policy Fellow
CSG in the News: County board split over possible I-495 toll lanes from Springfield into Maryland
“That the additional capacity of the HOT lanes would generate more traffic trying to travel to and from the lanes via connecting roads like Route 1, Telegraph and Van Dorn wouldn’t be surprising,” Bill Pugh, a senior policy fellow at the organization, said in a statement released by CSG after the committee meeting.
RELEASE: VDOT briefs flawed I-495 Southside Study to Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
“In addition to ignoring induced demand and relying on flawed traffic models, VDOT’s study is compromised at the outset by its ‘conclusions-first’ approach,” said Pugh. “The agency’s stated project purpose is ‘to extend and provide continuity of the Express Lanes system’ and their evaluation criteria reinforce this predetermined conclusion. They have also excluded viable alternatives from study.”
Letter: 495 Southside (Oppose, Regional/Fairfax County)
The Coalition for Smarter Growth respectfully asks Transportation Planning board officials to: 1) Vote to exclude the 495 Southside Project from the Visualize 2050 plan and air quality conformity analysis due to the strong concerns of multiple local jurisdictions that have not been adequately addressed by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), and 2) Ensure that VDOT fixes its flawed 495 Southside Study to fully evaluate other alternatives, address local jurisdiction concerns, and identify the best long-term solution for the region and communities along 495.
CSG Recommendations for NVTA’s FY24-29 Six-Year Program
The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) is deciding among a range of projects competing for its six-year program of regional funding. CSG provides recommendations and information below to help you comment via NVTA’s feedback form by the close of public comment Sunday, May 19 at 11:59pm.
TAKE ACTION: Help secure funding for good transit, walk, bike & safe streets projects in Northern Virginia
The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) is deciding among a range of projects competing for its six-year program of regional funding. Please comment to support good projects – and oppose using limited public funds on wasteful oversized road projects.
PRESS STATEMENT: Restore Virginia Metro Funding!
The groups signing onto this press statement urge the General Assembly to reject Governor Youngkin’s budget amendment and restore the funding the General Assembly agreed to.
NVTC Comments: Research Strategic Plan should address role of land use in supporting transit, including Metro
The Coalition for Smarter Growth is glad to see NVTC developing a Strategic Research Plan and applauds the research to date, such as the Climate Benefits of Transit on your agenda tonight. We ask NVTC to include a robust land use and housing component in its Research plan.