Development
Turn Richmond Highway back into a string of distinct places
The 9-mile stretch of Richmond Highway between the Beltway and Fairfax County Parkway traverses an extraordinarily diverse swath of Fairfax County. There are many informal names that locals use to describe the various sections of the corridor, such as Penn Daw, Beacon Hill, Groveton, Hybla Valley, Gum Springs, Mount Zephyr, Woodlawn, and Accotink.
Photo by DEV58 on Flickr.
While some of these names go back hundreds of years, their identities have largely become lost amidst the corridor's swirl of suburban sprawl. The Postal Service further obscures these identities by using mailing addresses of "Alexandria, VA," despite their location well outside the City of Alexandria's boundaries.
A revitalizing Richmond Highway will benefit from people seeing a set of individual, distinct places instead of one undifferentiated stretch of sprawl. Arlington achieved this along the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, but had Metro stations to help. Can Fairfax achieve this without Metro?
The corridor's north end is directly adjacent to Old Town Alexandria and includes high-rise office, apartment, and condo buildings, several hotels and the Huntington Metro station. The next segment of the corridor largely consists of large-scale retail centers anchored by national big-box tenants.
Richmond Highway then narrows and becomes an uneven amalgamation of low-density commercial, residential, and retail uses, culminating with the historic area around Woodlawn plantation and the rough mix of commercial uses just outside Fort Belvoir.
Revitalization depends on making many places again
Photo by DEV58 on Flickr.
Efforts to revitalize Richmond Highway emphasize remaking the corridor as "pearls on a string," with several central nodes along the way, instead of a homogenous corridor. Recent changes to the Comprehensive Plan around several key nodes have increased the allowable uses, heights, and densities to open the door to higher scaled, mixed-use developments.
Fairfax is installing a series of gateway and wayfinding signs along the corridor. When these signs are installed later this year, travelers will be more aware that they are arriving in Penn Daw, Groveton, Hybla Valley, and other locations.
Will these attempts to restore local identities actually get people to refer to them as anything other than "Richmond Highway," "the Fairfax section of Alexandria," or the "Alexandria section of Fairfax"? The best example of this effect in the region is the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, where a generic Wilson Boulevard differentiated into distinct names like Clarendon, Virginia Square, and Ballston.
The key ingredient in this case was the Metro, which used these names on stations. It restored historic names and created some new ones that hadn't existed before.
Can Penn Daw become a distinct place?
As Richmond Highway evolves into a string of urban nodes, it is possible that people could eventually think of it as several distinct places. The best chance is at Penn Daw, the historical name of the intersection of Richmond Highway with North and South Kings Highways.
Recent and ongoing changes to the Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan envision about 2,000 multifamily housing units with ground level retail around this intersection, giving it the scale and density of a distinct urban place.
It will be interesting to see what names developers of mixed-use projects in Penn Daw choose. The buildings themselves may shape what future residents call the area. The preliminary name of one of the proposed projects is "The Grande at Huntington," suggesting that the developer wants to trade on the site's proximity to the Metro station located more than ½ mile away.
Given this, Penn Daw might never be considered a distinct place apart from Huntington, until and unless the Yellow Line gets an extension that includes a Penn Daw Metro station. Barring that, Fairfax will have to work to create a sense of place for each community.
 | David Versel is the Executive Director of the Southeast Fairfax Development Corporation (SFDC), a nonprofit organization that promotes economic development and revitalization along the Richmond Highway corridor. David has a B.A. in Architecture from Washington University in Saint Louis, and a Master of City Planning degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has worked for the past 15 years as a planner and real estate consultant.   |
Comments
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Transit is the way to define a place, and in NoVa it's more likely to be a bus line than a rail line that serves a given community. In my mind, that means a network of (relatively) high-frequency bus lines connecting together hubs around the county without the ridiculous loops and curlicues WMATA does now.
In Richmond Highway's case, they have the great branding, and transit, of the REX bus route, but beyond that people just can't get anywhere in under half an hour. If Penn Daw had a bus hub located at the intersection but integrated into the development, it might drive a kind of low-intensity transit-oriented development that would define the place.
by OctaviusIII on Jun 26, 2012 1:01 pm • link • report
by Steve on Jun 26, 2012 1:12 pm • link • report
How about extending the Yellow Line along US-1? Make stops at Beacon Hill, Hybla Valley, Mt Vernon, Ft Belvoir North & Main Gates, Gunston (not Lorton), Colchester, Woodbridge, Potomac Mills and further along the PW Parkway.
by Jasper on Jun 26, 2012 1:24 pm • link • report
@Steve the REX (Richmond Highway Express) pretty much does that today.
by movement on Jun 26, 2012 1:28 pm • link • report
@movement: Well, Dulles has the international airport, so getting that into the system is important. Otherwise, I agree - it's high time Metro considers doing something significant to the Route 1 corridor. (I know, I know, capacity issues...doesn't change the fact that Route 1 NEEDS work.)
Incidentally, I hope Accotink is one of the places that gets redefined - I've always loved that name. :-)
by Ser Amantio di Nicolao on Jun 26, 2012 1:45 pm • link • report
Walkscore's Commute calculator shows that Accotink is very, very transit accessible. Take an hour and you can get anywhere in DC and a whole lot of NoVa. Granted, that might just be commute lines but STILL, color me impressed.
by OctaviusIII on Jun 26, 2012 1:54 pm • link • report
Because it's actually hard to get a metro line of off US-1. I don't know how you'd get a line from Ft Belvoir/US-1 to the Lorton VRE station. Pohick Rd is too narrow. Also, Lorton Station is itself a terrible location, hidden behind a terrible semi-TOD place.
I'd just stick to US-1 and put the "Gunston" stop at Gunston Plaza, which has plenty of TOD opportunity as well as an untouched patch east of US-1. Most buses that now go to Lorton Station could be easily rerouted to include Gunston Plaza as a stop.
So a stop at the Kingman Gate (where the new Army Museum) will be going;
Where's that?
one at Lorton station; one at Ox Road, by the Workhouse;
Problem is that nobody lives at the Workhouse. Also, none of the old prison ground can be used for residential development. Also not sure that Occoquan would want another attack on its quaintness with a metrostop.
and then bring it around north down to Woodbridge. Maybe a terminus at Potomac Mills? Any farther out would be a bit much.
Not if PW County realizes that all their sprawl is a disaster. They should, looking at their property values. They need to increase their density. Which they can't do without mass transit, because the Potomac Mills area already is a traffic mess.
[I generally refer to the area as Potomac Hell and avoid it as much as I can. I save up shopping trips until I really, really, really needs something from there.]
by Jasper on Jun 26, 2012 2:04 pm • link • report
by Jasper on Jun 26, 2012 2:06 pm • link • report
by monkeyrotica on Jun 26, 2012 2:08 pm • link • report
by Bill Cook on Jun 26, 2012 2:11 pm • link • report
by monkeyrotica on Jun 26, 2012 2:13 pm • link • report
I applaud Fairfax county for keeping Mount Vernon district Costco shoppers in Fairfax county and not clogging Alexandria and Arlington streets to get to Pentagon City. Traffic in that area isnt' all generated by people outside that area, its generated by residents leaving the area because they either refuse to shop there, or they perceive that the retail doesn't meet their needs.
by spookiness on Jun 26, 2012 2:29 pm • link • report
Kingman Gate, if it's the place I'm thinking of, is right off of the Fairfax County Parkway about midway between Route 1 and the Telegraph Rd. interchange. It's been announced that the museum's going there - it's actually a pretty good location, nearly completely devoid of anything save a few low-rise Army buildings. With the number of projected visitors, a Metro station would be key.
As to the Lorton interchange, I didn't mean there should be a stop at Occoquan, but if the line were to be built as I suggest, that would be the logical way to bring it around south - cross the Occoquan River up there. They COULD have a station on the fringes of town, if they wanted - my suggestion would be to create the option of a commuter-friendly stop away from downtown, with some transit access to the shops if people want it.
Regarding Lorton proper: I see what you're saying, but I still think Lorton needs the stations more than Gunston. The Gunston area (speaking of - "Pohick" is another name I'd like to see come into more use) is one of the few in the Route 1 corridor that actually kind of works, to me. Lorton does not, and a train line would help change that. I'm sure a location for it could be found with enough thought. It's not going to be convenient to built ANY Yellow Line extension, at this point.
I'd still consider something for Ox Road - it looks to me that there's plenty of development potential near the Workhouse, even if not on its grounds.
And I agree - it's nice to see Southeastern Fairfax get some love on GGW. The more input we have on what should happen, the better.
by Ser Amantio di Nicolao on Jun 26, 2012 2:30 pm • link • report
by Ser Amantio di Nicolao on Jun 26, 2012 2:31 pm • link • report
by monkeyrotica on Jun 26, 2012 2:41 pm • link • report
True. But Lorton itself is suburban and done. It will be very hard to increase density there. I say this with regret because I'd love a metro station next door.
However, we're only talking here about an imaginary extension of the Yellow Line. I'd extend the Blue Line not along the railroad tracks, like most, but along the Franconia-Springfield Parkway (VA-7900, almost VA-289), the Fairfax County Parkway (VA-286, old VA-7100) to VA-123, GMU, Fairfax City and the (extended) Orange Line at Oakton.
That way, Lorton would be nicely squeezed between the extended Yellow and Blue Lines, and very accessible through short bus routes (much better than the very circuitous 305 and 371).
by Jasper on Jun 26, 2012 2:48 pm • link • report
Is transit the only way to create a strong "place identity"? Maybe. After all, there are a lot of neighborhoods that were "rebranded" after their Metro stations, like Van Ness or White Flint (which, in turn, was named after the mall). But there are also other local landmarks that can be just as powerful, like Clarendon Circle in Arlington, which predated the Clarendon Metro station.
A better example for the "Alexandria section of Fairfax" might be Silver Spring. It may not have definite municipal boundaries like Alexandria, but Silver Spring has a downtown that everyone recognizes and a whole mess of other areas, some of which are 15 miles away, that all have Silver Spring addresses. I would say that many of these places, like Four Corners or White Oak, have a pretty strong identity. They don't have Metro stations, but they have recognizable landmarks, active community groups, or in the case of Kemp Mill, a a substantial religious affliation.
I don't know this part of Fairfax County very well, but in the near term, perhaps the best ways to improve the "place identity" of neighborhoods along Richmond Highway are a) taking advantage of existing landmarks, like major intersections, schools, or shopping centers and b) having engaged community associations who serve as brand ambassadors for their particular area. Transit can help, but its primary job is to move people around, not placemaking.
by dan reed! on Jun 26, 2012 2:50 pm • link • report
@Jasper-You're kidding right? I was going to say exactly the opposite. I think it get's far more attention than say PG.
by thump on Jun 26, 2012 2:59 pm • link • report
@dan reed!: Landmarks? What landmarks? (Seriously - there are a couple of old houses, but other than that it's a pretty featureless area if you don't know it.)
by Ser Amantio di Nicolao on Jun 26, 2012 3:26 pm • link • report
No.
I was going to say exactly the opposite. I think it get's far more attention than say PG.
No. GGW has long been very DC-centric. It still is in a certain way. Thanks to a few contributors, the northern suburbs in Md got more and more attention. There was a hole in VA coverage. In the last few weeks, I see more attention for NoVa. That makes me happy. I guess David found a few writers. Good work. It's not easy setting up a quality volunteer site.
I don't know if PG gets enough attention. I don't know PG country very well, so I pay less attention to what happens there. However, there was an article a few days ago about stormwater stuff in PG. And there have been some about TOD about the southern Green Line stations. And many, many articles about College Park, UMD and the Purple Line. Is that enough? Don't know. I was just expressing happiness over increased VA coverage.
by Jasper on Jun 26, 2012 3:26 pm • link • report
by David Alpert on Jun 26, 2012 3:29 pm • link • report
I've not forgotten Newington in my fantasy map. That would be served by the Pink Line from the Pentagon on top of the HOT-lanes down to the Springfield Mall, Newington, Lorton and then merging with my fantasy extended Yellow Line.
by Jasper on Jun 26, 2012 3:30 pm • link • report
@thump: I have to agree with Jasper here. At least as it relates to Southeast Fairfax, I've ssen a woeful dearth of coverage of our troubles in anything but the hyperlocal press. (Think neighborhood weeklies, that sort of thing.) It's good to see that changing, because the more people know about what's wrong with the Route 1 corridor, the better they can be about fixing it. And this is a well-trafficked blog, to boot.
by Ser Amantio di Nicolao on Jun 26, 2012 3:34 pm • link • report
Yep. Pink Line: Pentagon, Air Force HQ, Shirlington, VA-7 (crossing the extended Purple Line), Mark Center, Landmark, Edsall, Springfield Mall, Franconia-Springfield, Newington, Lorton, Colchester, Woodbridge, begin of PW Parkway, Caton Hill, Potomac Mills and further along my extended Yellow Line.
David, can we do some Google Maps fantasy map thing?
by Jasper on Jun 26, 2012 3:47 pm • link • report
What was the Clarendon Circle brand? "Home of the most confusing intersection in Greater Washington"? Thank goodness they're improving that junction.
That said, I agree with Dan Reed that local landmarks can be a powerful form of identity. But better examples of that are the Big Chair and the Shrimp Boat EOTR.
by Falls Church on Jun 26, 2012 3:49 pm • link • report
@Jasper: I thought I felt a tear beginning to form in the corner of my eye when I saw there was a post about the Route 1 Corridor. Thank you Davids...
by selxic on Jun 26, 2012 4:21 pm • link • report
Extending the Metro all the way to Lorton approx 12 miles from Huntington is problematical because Lorton has the VRE/CSX tracks. Far cheaper for Lorton, Woodbridge transit service to upgrade the CSX ROW to a 7 day a week regional rail system with service to Alexandria, Crystal City, Union Station. Have to replace/supplement the Long Bridge, add dedicated tracks down to Woodbridge or Fredericksburg, but a billion plus would probably cover it. And be paid for as a critical part of the SouthEast HSR corridor. Regional rail was not a viable option for service to Dulles by any reasonable path, so the Silver Line is going to Dulles.
Extending the Yellow Line partway down Rt. 1 a few miles might be feasible. What would be an acceptable new terminal station that would be a target (see Dulles) that would garner enough public support: Hybla Valley?, Mt Vernon?, Ft. Belvoir/Rt. 286?. My guess would be Ft. Belvoir or Rt. 286 with a big parking garage. A Ft. Belvoir station provides the opportunity to tap into DOD funds and support for a Metro extension. But an ~8 mile extension down Rt. 1 to the Rt. 286 intersection would cost 2?, 3?, 4? billion?
by AlanF on Jun 26, 2012 4:45 pm • link • report
The goal for the extended Yellow Line would be to move people to and from Ft Belvoir as well as to redevelop US-1 between Alexandria and Woodbridge. If Ft Belvoir is the destination, then Potomac Mills is a useful endpoint.
Extending the Metro all the way to Lorton approx 12 miles from Huntington is problematical because Lorton has the VRE/CSX tracks.
Which is why I'd ignore those. Too much trouble with CSX and future HSR to Richmond and the Tidewater.
by Jasper on Jun 26, 2012 4:54 pm • link • report
@Jasper: David, can we do some Google Maps fantasy map thing?
Ooh, yes please.
by Ser Amantio di Nicolao on Jun 26, 2012 4:54 pm • link • report
by jim on Jun 26, 2012 5:27 pm • link • report
Probably best to put much of the route underground from Huntington to Ft. Belvoir. More expensive? Yes. But around 50 miles of the current system is underground if I remember my stats correctly. So it could be done.
by AlanF on Jun 26, 2012 6:25 pm • link • report
Nonetheless, this is exciting. Metro will hopefully be the next step.
by Neil Flanagan on Jun 26, 2012 7:53 pm • link • report
A metro line like so many around the world?
Normal metro style: Underground. If the whole corridor gets TOD rebuilding, a but more digging is barely gonna be noticed.
El-cheapo option: Elevated. You could sell that as "Chicago-style". We could call it the Obama-line.
by Jasper on Jun 26, 2012 8:32 pm • link • report
Take inspiration from Caltrain, a commuter rail system south of SF. They do at-grade tracks and take crossings as they come. It doesn't run often, but the tracks will be shared with California High Speed Rail and already accommodate two levels of service.
As for fantasy maps: y'all do it up. Trust me, it's not that hard - Google's custom mapping tools are really easy.
by OctaviusIII on Jun 26, 2012 8:40 pm • link • report
As for Metro extension, our current local State Representative is very keen on trying to get a Yellow line extension to Ft Belvoir, which he is often reminding us is larger than the Pentagon in terms of staff. He favors Metro rails in the median of Rt 1, once it comes up from the tunnels at Huntington. It would also improve access to the Fairfax South County Center. Getting a Metro line with named stations would do a lot for the neighborhood identities. Sure, you've got Beacon Mall and whatever they're calling the Penn Daw shops, but mostly people call those the center with the Walmart or the Lowes.
I've also heard some thoughts on a Blue line extension to the West side of Ft Belvoir, which I understood had the advantage of some existing right-of-way that could be used.
Several years back I lived just North of Ft Belvoir and commuted via the REX bus and Metro into DC. About the only thing the REX bus has going for it is that it's limited stop, otherwise it's subject to schedule slippage and bunching that is often the problem with buses. And I never quite figured out why it goes to the North side of Huntington instead of the South, even though it's last stop before the station is Penn Daw.
I'd just like to see some updating to the area. At the moment it is very car-centric (I sometimes bike to Huntington, and it can be nerve-wracking). The Penn Daw area could use a clever solution to the traffic where Kings Hwy and Rt 1 meet, which I have seen some discussion of. Right now it's a jumble, and you can almost see the confusion when a car is not familiar with the intersection and trying to figure out which way to go.
I've done just a bit of looking for some of the history of these neighborhoods, but haven't gotten too far into it. I've been trying to find out how Penn Daw got it's name with no luck thus far. I did meet someone who knew the Quander family, who have a road named after them now. And searching for the street name where I live now seems to turn up the boring story that it was named after the developer that built it.
by Another Josh on Jun 26, 2012 9:24 pm • link • report
surely not. Metro rail uses 3rd rail power and is long trains at high speeds - not designed for at grade crossings with intersecting streets. Either he is really thinking light rail, not metro rail, or hes thinking elevated, or he simply hasn't though it through.
by AWalkerInTheCity on Jun 27, 2012 9:53 am • link • report
Penn Daw got its name from a motel that used to be there, which itself was named after the proprietors, who I think were named Penn and Dawson.
by Bill Cook on Jun 27, 2012 9:53 am • link • report
by Ser Amantio di Nicolao on Jun 27, 2012 10:30 am • link • report
by AWalkerInTheCity on Jun 27, 2012 10:36 am • link • report
It's entirely possible that I have the details wrong, and he (Scott Surovell) just wants the median reserved for elevated tracks, or something different entirely. I really shouldn't speak for him, especially when he has his own blog. His Metro related posts are here: http://scottsurovell.blogspot.com/search/label/Metro
Bill Cook,
Thanks! I was thinking that Daw might be a local name for small stream or other land formation, but I couldn't find any evidence for that. I'll keep this new info in mind as I go by the Penn Daw fire station (which is more up the hill in Beacon Hill these days).
by Another Josh on Jun 27, 2012 10:59 am • link • report
by msandydogg on Jun 27, 2012 11:28 am • link • report
It's possible, I suppose - and actually a transfer at Huntington might not be the worst idea. But whatever it is needs to be independent of the traffic. As I say, I don't think there's currently enough room.
by Ser Amantio di Nicolao on Jun 27, 2012 11:54 am • link • report
As I mentioned in the article (and many of you reinforced) there has been no better placemaking tool in this region than the names of Metro stations. Something about seeing the iconic vertical white letters on the square bronze column lends permanence to the place name. I suppose that's why the effort to name the Silver Line stations drew so much attention on GGW and why I, for one, am pleased to see the final list of names be less corporate/political and more focused on creating places than the preliminary list.
The more I write about Richmond Highway issues (and the more people respond to my thoughts) the more I realize that the transit network has to improve in order for the corridor to experience more than incremental change. As a point of information, Fairfax County and VDOT have long been working off of the planning assumption that Richmond Highway will eventually have a 146-foot wide right-of-way along its entire length, allowing for three travel lanes and a transit lane in each direction, plus bike/ped facilities and landscaping. The idea is to assume that transit will be at grade for now (either BRT or LRT) so it will need a dedicated lane in each direction. I am not convinced of the wisdom of having such an enormous ROW. In fact, the ongoing battle over widening the segment of Route 1 through Fort Belvoir has pretty much come about due to the extra-wide ROW being acquired.
If the powers that be decide to extend the current heavy rail system down Richmond Highway, an underground tunnel is obviously the best way to promote high-density, nodal development. While the construction would certainly be far more expensive than at-grade tracks, there would be no need for the potentially even more expensive (and politically messy) acquisition of miles of right-of-way along an increasingly valuable corridor.
Regardless of what happens transit-wise, SFDC is encouraged by the vocal commitment from Del. Surovell, Sen. Puller and county Supervisors Hyland and McKay to expanding transit service. SFDC fully supports their efforts, and we look forward to the day when Penn Daw, Hybla Valley, Woodlawn, and Accotink can take their places on the Metro map.
by David Versel on Jun 27, 2012 12:05 pm • link • report
You can promote nodal development by zoning for it and encouraging it by making each crossroads a hub for the bus system, not to mention spider maps for each of the nodes or areas. The columns don't designate the place; the fact that its a crossroads designates the place. That's why Penn Daw got its name originally, and the corridor could do it again with transit improvements of even a small scale.
by OctaviusIII on Jun 27, 2012 2:39 pm • link • report
Jumping in way late here...what I get for being out to sea...but I'd like to point out that the Mt Vernon Transportation Committee's long-standing preference for transit along Route 1 is elevated monorail. Now to be fair, it isn't much of a stretch (or cost/ROW reqiurement either for that matter) to convert that preference to elevated Metrorail. The question (besides how to fund it, of course) is where to bring it back to grade. The existing Metrorail tunnel goes 3/4mi south of Huntington, almost to Penn Daw, so a Penn Daw underground station could fairly easily be done. But how much farther south to go before you bring it out of tunnel? From a topography perspective, on the downhill towards Hybla Valley makes sense, but then you'd have to tunnel through Beacon Hill.
As for how to tie it into VRE on the other hand, my thought has long been to bring it thru aft Belvoir, then follow the old rail spur up to Newington. There's adequate open space for a new station at Newington off Loisdale Rd, which you can make out on my map.
by Froggie on Jun 30, 2012 10:13 am • link • report
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