Seven Corners was one of the earliest success stories of Fairfax development in the 1950s and its very existence is owed to the construction of Route 50 through the central County which spurred new commercial development. The rise of Bailey’s Crossroads showed a promise of a true urban center to the growing county, but in 1973 the collapse of the partially constructed Skyline Towers added a city stigma to a region that was polarizing towards suburban planning. In the past 25 years several regions of Fairfax County have received attention towards creating sustainable and attractive settings for urban families including the planned Reston Town Center and the new Tysons Corner comprehensive plan, but the region with the most assets and longest history of urban sustainability, Baileys Cross Roads and East Falls Church, has remained largely out of the picture.
The return of commercial viability at Seven Corners has been a grass roots story with much of the heritage attributed to a large influx of immigrants that have created a cultural diverse corridor of restaurants and shops. Anyone who has been to Eden Center on a Saturday can attest to the success of the region to attract customers and retail leasers, but the past 5 years has seen a dramatic increase in congestion traffic through the corridor which is beginning to worry shop owners and residents.
Enter the Seven Corners Visioning Workshop hosted by Fairfax County Office of Community Revitalization, where residents and business owners voiced their concerns over the lack of walkability, diverse land use, and beautification projects. For years the priority has been how to transfer people from Arlington and Baileys Crossroads to Route 50 west and 495. This prioritization has come at the expense of residents who could leave the car behind if a safe walk path was available to metro, grocery stores, shops, and offices. At the heart of the congestion and safety concerns is Seven Corners intersection itself, where the intricate dance of signal timing means a 3 second delay from someone not paying attention can incite a full on traffic jam. For anyone who has ever tried to walk across the web that is weaved over Route 50, it is nearly impossible to tell when it is safe to actually cross… frankly it might never be an appropriate time to cross. The detriment from this gash is of course the populated region is segregated from the economic region forcing more people on roads.
One might think I would make my typical high density pitch, saying some massive project is needed to turn Route 50 into a decked tunnel… not a bad idea actually, but no in the case of Seven Corners the history of the region demands a unique solution. A condo canyon is simply not an acceptable answer to this particular areas needs. The good news is the answer is far simpler. Make the area safer to walk. This is simple because for the most part the expensive portions are done, the intersection is nearly completely decked over Route 50 where most of the traffic exists and the roads come to a near perfect radius. If this doesn’t scream roundabout, then I don’t know what ever will (this dictates the need for one far more than Gilberts Corner ever did atleast). The traffic circle will not solve load times onto Route 50 from Route 7, those are issues that are due to the general congestion on Route 50 and outside of the solution process of Seven Corners. However what creating a traffic circle will do is fairly distribute traffic between through users and local vehicular users and more importantly create a central pedestrian gateway between the current separation of land uses. This creates a clear and orderly path from one side of Route 50 to the other side of Route 50 for pedestrians.
What it also does is take a wastefully spaced random assortment of road lanes and creates more order from them, giving more space for new developments which do not have to be massive high rises. Why don’t they have to be? Because the cost to create a round about at this intersection will be far less than in most cases. With the structural decking already in place over Route 50, the key will be finishing the gaps and including minor realignments of the entering road ways. Therefore the developers won’t have to provide massive infrastructure contributions which would need to be mitigated with density concessions. What the developers can instead provide is a central town design by focusing on the pedestrian instead of vehicles. Parking can be situated in a central structural location thereby relieving developers of parking minimums and allowing buildings to be located adjacent to walkways. The cost of the facility would be shared by the properties which would not have retail parking, but provided on an independent proffered parcel owned by the County. Revenues attained from the parking garage would go towards beautification projects including landscaping and streetscape for the new Seven Corners, and parking prices would be determined by a newly founded Seven Corners Chamber of Commerce to ensure a price structure which is not prohibitively expensive towards customers.
The intersection could be transformed from a mess of interweaving vehicular pathways, to a unified central point for the next steps in the history of this important region. Most importantly the mixing of land uses will remove the separation between the resident side of Seven Corner’s and the business side of the Seven Corner’s, providing easier access to residents. The developments would be sensitive to the height and architecture of the adjacent and existing region in order to retain the cultural and historical importance for long time residents but will be inviting to younger or prospective residents who want the urban amenities and central location that Seven Corner’s can provide. The proper location of a few mid-rise mixed use developments could turn the 5,000 resident region into a 10,000 resident region within a decade and more importantly provide affordable housing by addressing the demand that is tolling the relatively small supply of units without the need for subsidization.
Much of Seven Corner’s is within 1 to 2 miles of the existing East Falls Church metro which makes it an excellent candidate for improving pedestrian and bike access to the existing metro asset. For once Fairfax can be the initiator of an urban improvement project by proposing new bike lanes TOWARDS Arlington along Wilson Boulevard to help residents reach the commercial business district of Ballston, 2 miles east of the Corner. The new Seven Corners transit center has also added to the regions ability to encourage multiple modes of transportation. All of this will begin to de-prioritize the vehicle and encourage human scale development that spurs retail growth and residential value. With 10,000 residents by 2020 this 1-mile radius will have an inherent customer base to support new and existing retail. These smaller modifications can strengthen the community identity and economic viability of Seven Corners, create a revenue source for community projects, and be developed without new infrastructure investments from public funding.
In our next article we will provide a concept of how the intersection can be converted to be more pedestrian friendly, and show where amenities such as the public parking structure and new developments would make the most sense.