On September 25th the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved the Capital One rezoning project for the corporation’s headquarters along Route 123. The plan has many good features including hundreds of new residential units, improved pedestrian access to metro, an aesthetic civic plaza which will drastically improve the visual impact of the metro, and funding contribution to the much needed Scotts Run Crossing road link between Jones Branch Drive and Route 123. However, one of the plans original benefits, stream restoration of the badly eroded and damaged Scotts Run Stream, was removed from the approval of the project.
“The natural state of a healthy stream would show very little embankments along the stream edges and substantial natural floodplains and wetlands surrounding the water” said Stella Koch of the Audubon Naturalist Society on a recent Coalition for Smarter Growth walking tour. “We have seen instead in areas like Tysons the streams continue to sink further down”. The importance of healthy streams was evident as we toured the Scotts Run watershed. Without upstream controls the waterways are devoid of life due to excessively warm water draining from hot asphalt pavement, fill with chemicals from vehicle fluids to fertilizer, and take on too much water too fast eroding and silting in a detrimental manner. All of this eventually also ends up in the Chesapeake, a resource that Virginia, Maryland, and DC have fought for over three decades to preserve and improve.
There is really only one way to improve a stream that has taken on years of erosion and that is to “stabilize the stream bed with rocks and raise the stream back to its original depth” says Michael Rolband of Wetland Solutions. The problem becomes that you can not simply raise the stream in one location and not in another because this will create a sudden drop at the end of the stream restoration, which inevitably would create more problems for the downstream system. Therefore Fairfax County acted as a third party arbiter and master planner for the Scotts Run Watershed during the review process between Cityline (which owns the upstream portion of the watershed) and Capital One (which owns the downstream portion for the watershed) to holistically correct the current conditions.
In June of 2011 Capital One, through a justification letter to the county, agreed to work “with other major landowners in Tysons East, Capital One is exploring a plan to restore and revitalize a portion of Scotts Run Stream. This natural resource is a cornerstone of any future development on the campus and will benefit future residents and visitors alike”. This was a great message by Capital One which showed their commitment not just to growing their business presence in Tysons but to being an active steward of the environment and community. However, the current approved proffers have been whittled down to only include restoration within their property, and a land dispute between Capital One and adjacent land owner Cityline has soured any chance of a encompassing design for the system. The problem becomes even with the stream restoration planned on the Capital One site, the net effect on the downstream waterway is diminished in comparison to the original scope of the restoration.
In the absence of significant assistance from Capital One, Cityline has voiced interest in improving downstream regions (as well they should being that they are the largest contributor by land mass to this region of the stream). Unfortunately, as we have seen many times, when one project is deferred of responsibility it often has a sliding effect on other projects which now want the same treatment or atleast some concessions to offset this higher standard.
The Scott’s Run stream is an important asset to Tysons Corner. For decades it has taken the brunt of uncontrolled development acting as a buffer between the concrete jungle and downstream major waterways, but it is now showing its wear. The future for the stream will be better than its current state regardless of who will be funding the restoration as Fairfax County has stated it is an important system to restore.
At risk is the County’s ability to mitigate the cost of such improvements to parties who traditionally would be responsible and the ability to focus on improvements beyond the baseline such as incorporating natural amenities to residents beyond the stream restoration including trails, seating areas, and public gathering space for events. Turning the currently forgotten region into a place where residents can connect to nature and the community can have the added effect of deterring truancy which often occurs in neglected and untraveled areas will be important to future residents of the city. What is currently a displaced corridor riddled with urban sprawl could be returned and enhanced, organized and incorporated into Tysons.