Top posts of 2021: The Fair Oaks Mall could be converted into a walkable mixed-use community, if Fairfax County can reimagine its streets

This was one of GGWash’s most popular articles in 2021. We’re sharing some of our hits again over the holiday season. This article was originally posted on February 9.

Fairfax County has an opportunity to transform one of its largest shopping malls and the area around it into a walkable community with access to regional transit. Success depends in large part on whether the county changes how it designs its streets.

Since opening in 1980, Fair Oaks Mall has been one of the county’s signature shopping destinations. Located right off I-66, the mall has attracted shoppers from all over the Washington region for decades. Like many other self-enclosed shopping centers, Fair Oaks has seen its profits decline in recent years, and the economic fall-out from the pandemic has exacerbated its problems. Two of its five anchor stores are bankrupt, and vacancies have increased.

In November 2020, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a plan amendment to redevelop Fair Oaks as a mixed-use community with about 2,000 housing units. The plan recommends converting surface parking to a grid of streets and balancing retail with a mix of residential, office, and hotel uses.

The mall owner, Taubman Centers Inc., had sought the plan amendment and worked with county staff to develop it. The previous plan for the property made significant increases in density contingent on a Metrorail Orange Line extension to Fair Oaks. The amended plan lowers the bar for added density, attaching it instead to improvements in bus transit.

Fair Oaks is located across I-66 from the Fairfax Government Center area. Expanded bus service is coming to Fair Oaks and the Government Center area through commitments secured from the I-66 HOT lanes public-private partnership to run express bus service connecting Fair Oaks, Tysons, Washington DC and other commercial centers.

At the same November 2020 Board of Supervisors meeting, the county also approved plans for a bus transit center on the Government Center side of I-66. The transit center will be less than a 15-minute from Fair Oaks Mall, the Government Center, and many apartments, townhouses and condominium complexes on both sides of the highway.

However, the roads in the Fair Oaks and Government Center area are not conducive to walking, rolling or bicycling. They are designed for high vehicle speeds and are difficult to cross, with wide curb radii that lengthen crossing distances and make pedestrians more vulnerable to turning vehicles.

Fairfax is already committed to widening the Monument Drive path fronting the future transit center, which will make walking and bicycling easier up to the I-66 bridge.

However, intersection design has long been an Achilles Heel in the county’s transportation planning. As you approach the intersections, major roads almost invariably become wider to accommodate turning vehicles.

Denser, mixed-use, transit-oriented development should be an impetus to improve intersection crossings for pedestrians and bicyclists. But often the opposite occurs in Fairfax. Roads are widened as new development occurs, in order to accommodate an anticipated increase in motorized traffic.

This is largely a result of how the county and the state Department of Transportation conduct Traffic Impact Assessments. These studies, required by state law for major developments, are focused on Level of Service standards that are entirely tied to motor vehicle travel.

It will likely be a while before plans for Fair Oaks take firmer shape and rezoning applications start to come in. When they do, Fairfax needs to be prepared to change how it assesses transportation improvements. If it conducts its traffic assessments the same way it has for areas such as Merrifield and Tysons, we will get even wider roads and less rather than more access to transit.

Fair Oaks Mall could be transformed to a vibrant community – but only if Fairfax County commits to retrofitting the roads around Fair Oaks so that the people who work and live there can walk and bike to transit and other nearby destinations. Redevelopment at Fair Oaks will be a test of whether Fairfax County has learned from previous experiences and can do transit-oriented development effectively.