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I'm just curious as to how other NOVAnians ( i was going to say NOVAginians , but..well...) feel about the Rt. 1 corridor area in Fairfax county. I've heard a number of mixed reviews about the area between Fort Belvoir and the city of Alexandria (the 22309 zip area) and was curious about how the forum felt.
What do you think would have to happen for the area to experience a turn around?
Connecting roads between rt 1 and old telegraph? If you look at it on a map it's rather isolated from other areas. More retail stores?
With BRAC going on, do you think it will experience some revitalization? I know a lot of the relocations are from nearby Crystal City but what the new hires that probably can't afford pricier Kingstowne.
How about the talks (very preliminary at this point) about extending the yellow line through the area to Woodbridge to relieve soem pressure on 95 and rt 1? What do you think that would do in the area?
Anyone know of programs that help with revitalization or blight reversal? What are some indicators that an area may be turning around?
Anyone interested in starting a converstation about some of these topics posts away!
Funny you mention that. Here's a recent article about the topic:
ROUTE 1 EXPANSION
The Board of Supervisors has allocated $3 million to design a Route 1 expansion from four lanes to six lanes, anticipated to be completed by 2014-15. The work includes expanding a 2-mile section of the highway beginning at Route 235 south to the Fairfax County Parkway along with a median and turn around lane. This section of the road runs through Ft. Belvoir and will be designed to handle the increased traffic created by the construction of a new comprehensive health facility in Fort Belvoir which is scheduled to be fully operational in 2011.
What's Ahead for Mount Vernon? (http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=333422&paper=69&cat=104 - broken link)
I lived in the Route 1 corridor for two years and left about a year and a half ago. So while the area isn't "perfect", I missed the really "rough" years that I've heard about.
One thing I enjoyed was the midscale retail and restaurant options available there, with a nod towards some international eateries. I also enjoyed having various buses going to the nearby Metro as well as access to the Beltway and, of course, nearby Old Town Alexandria.
The one thing I didn't like was that a disproportionate number of my fellow apartment dwellers had attitudes and a level of courtesy that left a lot to be desired. Whether that necessary improves with rental range, I don't know; I would imagine things get pretty rowdy among the post-college crowd in the Clarendon/Ballston area.
I've said here before that I felt that the Route 1 corridor is due for a major overhaul as the people reassigned by BRAC start to arrive. Based on present reputation, a lot of those people may move to Kingstowne first. Once Kingstowne prices get overheated, then people will take a chance on the areas between Fort Belvoir and the Beltway.
As things stand, I find that generally speaking, homes to the east of Route 1 are more sought after than those to the west. But that's not exclusive; you can find some gems on the west side as well, especially further away. If you just want to rent, I'd look at the high-rises near the Beltway before the low-rises further down. However, if you want/need to go to the low-rise route, the complex next to Safeway would be the best of a not-so-attractive bunch.
For someone with a little patience and faith, I feel buying a home in the Route 1 corridor may be a worthy investment. But I'm definitely not a realtor so please consult one before taking my advice.
Widening Route 1 is just a short-term band-aid fix though. I was down there on a Saturday morning about a month ago to have breakfast at IHOP with a few friends from PA who were vacationing in Alexandria, and there was very heavy traffic then, so I can only imagine how congested that must get during a weekday rush hour.
I really don't understand why Metrorail expansion is so "taboo" to discuss here in Virginia. Ideally we need the Silver Line to be FUNDED (i.e. silence the toll road whiners threatening Reston's rail section, which would send me and many others packing our bags to another city if not completed) and completed from Tyson's Corner on out to Leesburg. The Yellow Line needs to be extended to Woodbridge. The Purple Line needs to become a reality in Maryland. Metro DC is essentially "L.A. Lite." We both have our horrible congestion issues because we don't have a major centralized employment center---everyone commutes suburb to suburb. Ideally we need to entice employers to relocate to a few high-density employment nodes (with Tyson's Corner being one) and then concentrate mass transit on getting people there as quickly and efficiently as possible from where they live. The "Science City" proposal in Montgomery County is quite intriguing---tens of thousands of well-paying white-collar jobs all in one location serviced by mass transit.
I find it amusing actually that several questioned my insinuation in another thread that NoVA needs to work on INFILL first before sacrificing more of our special and increasingly scarce open space for low-density sprawl. They said there weren't any areas in need of redevelopment. Route 1 is a prime example. Route 50 is a prime example. I can think of several more as well. Think of how many tens of thousands more people these currently horribly underutilized and relatively unattractive low-density commercial sprawl corridors could house if properly planned and developed.
Here is what Corey Stewart says about Metro coming to Pr. Wm. County so chances are slim to none it will ever reach Pr. Wm.
<<Two important things about the people of Prince William County: they want the truth, and they want the whole story. They want the good, they’ll accept the bad, and they’ll tolerate the ugly, as long as it’s all true. Elected officials have a responsibility to speak the truth—the whole truth.
Two politicians, Congressman Gerry Connolly and Delegate Paul Nichols, have told the community that they would bring Metro to Prince William. Unfortunately, Connolly and Nichols have failed to tell the whole truth about Metro, and many residents now mistakenly believe that Metro may soon be extended to our community. But the whole truth is this: even if federal and state officials decided today to bring Metro to Prince William, experts tell us it will take between 20 and 30 years, if ever.
Let me be crystal clear: I want Metro. The Board of County Supervisors wants Metro and has directed the County Department of Transportation study this issue over the years. The benefits are numerous and easy to articulate. Our county is hungry for new options to commute, and we’re eager to take advantage of the economic development and job growth opportunities that have followed Metro in the past. We will continue to work towards Metro as part of our long-term economic development plans.
So, what are the obstacles to bringing Metro to Prince William? The first is money. The approximate construction cost for an extension to Woodbridge would be $2.0-$2.1 billion in FY2007 dollars (double that if we bring it to Gainesville, as some have suggested). The County’s portion would be at least $300 million, in construction costs alone. In addition, Prince William would need to negotiate an entry into the Metro Compact. This would entail the county absorbing part of Metro’s mountain of $6 billion of debt. On top of this, the Metro system is aging and is in need of upgrades and repair, as evidenced by the tragic accident last June. Prince William would be expected to pay its portion of those massive costs.
These costs alone, which do not include the millions in annual maintenance and operational costs, would consume the County’s entire transportation construction budget. Every four years since 1988, Prince William residents have passed road bond referenda to the tune of $600 million. No other county in Virginia has done this, not even wealthier Fairfax County. Fairfax has not invested in its roads for one major reason: it’s transportation budget is gobbled up by Metro costs. Prince William residents will need to ask the question: should we sacrifice our entire County road building program so that we can bring Metro to one spot in the County in 20 to 30 years?
But why will it take between 20 and 30 years? Consider the long-planned extension of Metro to Dulles. Since the 1960s the federal government and the Commonwealth have been working on connecting the nation’s capital with the largest airport serving it. With a less clear benefit to the federal government, Metro to Woodbridge would be subject to even more false starts and cost constraints. Between the planning, environmental impact studies, the engineering, the agreements between multiple jurisdictions and the state and federal government, and the inevitable lawsuits from multiple aggrieved parties, there is no telling how long it would take before a shovel would even be in the ground.
However, the worst case scenario is not that Metro would never come, it would be the consequences of assuming that it will. When the County plans on a longterm transportation improvement, we account for it in our Comprehensive Plan. In the past, this has inevitably led to the construction of new houses years before the transportation improvements were complete. There are many examples of this in Prince William, including the Linton Hall road corridor and the Government Center Sector Plan (at Ridgefield Road and the Parkway). The homes were built, but the roads came much later. Now try to imagine the housing construction that would occur in anticipation of Metro. Thousands of new high-density units would be built all along the Minnieville Road and Route 1 corridors years before Metro arrived. The congestion would be immense and the quality of life degraded.
In short, I am not being a pessimist when I say that Metro to Prince William County is 20 to 30 years away. All great ideas take time to develop, and we will not avoid working on this goal just because it is lofty. But we must be realistic in the way we communicate with the community.
And Prince William Residents do not have 20 to 30 years to wait. The County continues to support Virginia Railway Express. Our time and energy is well spent focusing on expanding VRE to Gainesville and Haymarket. On Tuesday September 15th, the Board of County Supervisors took the next step toward high-speed rail transit from Richmond to Washington D.C. through Prince William. This line would produce fast commuter service to the District of Columbia and to the existing Metro network. The County is even studying 21st century solutions like Bus Rapid Transit, which builds dedicated lanes for buses to travel during peak commuter hours along major thoroughfares. But most importantly, as long as the federal and state governments continue to fail to build the roads necessary for Prince William commuters, the County must continue to focus on road construction.
So when a federal or state official talks about Metro: tell them you don’t want false promises. Tell them you want them to get the job done and fund realistic transit and transportation. We will continue to work hard towards all innovative solutions, but we will also be straight with the citizens that some things will have to wait.>>
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
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I just got out of a job in the Rt. 1 corridor last month. I frankly did not see any visible signs that it was going to change anytime soon.
The problems are the vibe of some of the residents, the schools there are some of the worst in Fairfax County (that's not saying much to most) the lack of eye appeal, and Rt. 1 is a nightmare to navigate. In my opinion it is going to take a lot more than BRAC to turn the area around, even though it will be a good start. Farther from Rt. 1 will probably see improvement first from BRAC, but I'm not a planning expert and I can't tell you what will help the closer-in areas other than bulldozing them and starting over.
I thought there were plans to extend the Yellow line or the Blue line to Ft. Belvoir. What happened with that?
The recession happened. I believe it would have been the Yellow Line that would have been extended. I think the best that we can hope for now are buses with even more limited stops than the current Richmond Highway Express (REX) which stops at Huntingon Metro and terminates southbound in Fort Belvoir.
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so please consult one before taking my advice.
