I'm curious at what point the population of Fairfax County will max out.

Most of the county now seems developed in some way, with very few spaces left to add subdivisions of any significant size.
Obviously there are some spots to add pockets of houses/streets, but relative to the total developed space in the county, it's pretty small at this point.

So how long can the County keep 'growing' ? Will they look to rezone and add density (e.g. convert several multi-acre lots to subdivisions, or add more high-density 'town-center' type areas that are mixed-use residential/commercial in places that are currently solely commercial)?

What % growth of the current population do you think is left? 5%, 10%, 25% ?
Will there be any more new high schools for developing areas, or just renovations?

LOL Eventually Fairfax will look just like Arlington. A completely urbanized county.

We have land but no elementary school.

Oh and only for those who can afford it. :)

PS We can build more private schools but land is land.

Tysons and Reston sheduled for milions and millions more sq. footage as afe other areas of county but perhaps not same extent


developers and govt. officials don't give shit about reaching a saturation point only about garnering more money for themselves fuck the rest of populace

are you kidding me? Y'all really need to get out more if you SERIOUSLY think Fairfax is all urbaned out

Fairfax has more greenery than some counties have square footage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfax_County_Park_Authority

that's about 50-60 square miles of parkland

Arlington County is only 26 square miles

City AND County of San Fransicso is like 45-50 sq miles

All of Manhattan is less than 40 sq miles

Huntley Meadows, Great Falls, and Gunston are HUGE tracts of undeveloped land that y'all probably dont even notice

Lots and lots of open space. Outside the Beltway, things are very open in places like Fairfax Station, Reston, Oakton, etc.

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"...your suffering will be legendary even in Hell!"

Are you kidding? Have you ever seen what that "parkland" looks like?

When we first moved to Fairfax County, we honestly believed that was parkland. We took a map that showed all the "parkland" and went visiting this "parkland" (because we love parks). Guess what? Lots of it is land that floods with ponds or is too low to ever be developed. Some of it is just gullies between developments (LOL). Anything that can't be developed is called "parkland". It's a joke. Fairfax County does not have enough recreational (actual parkland) for the populace as it is. If we get more crowded, there will be even fewer places to "escape" the ratrace---fewer fields to play on, fewer places to relax. The quality of living will go down, down, down.

When you say "Huntley Meadows, Great Falls, and Gunston---are you talking about parklands in those areas or just private land that has not been sold for development? Huntley Meadows Park is a swamp and cannot be developed. You would be destroying wetland if you developed that.

@maxedout - that wetland helped to bring back the Bald Eagle off the endagered species list - sorry you see it as worthless, somehow o_0

Guess Great Falls (you know, the National Park that overtook the developed towns of the past) is just all crappy to you cause it has that river next to it, ruining the park.

And those birds and animals that screw up Burke Lake Park - how DARE they!

Lake Fairfax is just RUINED by those fish, y'know............

LoLz

p.s. Gunston area is a State Park and National Wildlife Reserve, just to let you know

http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/mas.shtml

When Clifton resembles Reston or Tysons, then we're all screwed.

==================================================================================================
"And if any women or children get their legs torn off, or faces caved in, well, it's tough shit for them." -2LT. Bert Stiles, 505th, 339th (On Berlin Bombardier Mission, 1944).

Also, many older neighborhoods are being *re-developed*; older (40's and 50's-era) homes on quarter-acre and larger lots are being razed and new homes built in their place. Several examples come to mind; Pimmitt Hills, central McLean and Vienna Woods and environs.

The re-development is often controversial, but I'd argue that for the most part, the newer homes are an improvement and command new-home prices - bolstering our tax base and perhaps attracting younger families to established (read: old) neighborhoods and keeping older school populations thriving.

You bet the county loves it. Shit. You turn a brick and aluminum siding rambler with 1700 square feet of space into a 3500 square foot custom built home.

You increase the available taxable value from $525000 to $1125000. Plus, there is a chance that the prior owner qualified for a property tax reduction owing to age.

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"...your suffering will be legendary even in Hell!"

Reston will be like Columbia Pike and Glebe Road in Arlington. Old neighborhood clusters untouched sitting next to skyscrapers. The roads will be crowded during rush hour and the concrete canyons will be empty on weekends.

So where do the old people go when re-development comes in? Do not say soylent green.

Blessed are the murderous.

I'm not arguing that the County doesn't have plenty of green/park/open space. And I definitely agree re-development is happening in that old, small homes are being torn down and replaced by bigger new ones.

But how many PEOPLE does that add? Replacing homes doesn't affect population that much, and I seriously doubt the county is going to rezone parks into subdivisions (you never know though...)

So where will increases in population come from? Does Tyson's plan to add a lot of high-rise apartments and condos ala Ballston?


If/when we hit that population plateau, will our tax dollars just be spent on renovations and gradually swapping out traffic lights for overpasses?

What are the next big projects after the current Megaprojects? (Tysons, Silver Line, HOT Lanes, I-95 widening)? I-66 widening? Revamp of the Parkway?

great falls, reston, burke, clifton, parts of centreville are quite forested and yet to be developed. other parts in the west like pleasant valley (near south riding) are in a state of industrial-backwater with remnants of its rural past (houses, churches, etc) all over the place. give it a decade and South Riding/Dulles South will eat all that right up.

Give it 30 years and this place will look like Arlington. Give it a century and Loudoun will go with it. Also, Dulles was built with spaceport plans in mind. And I bet by 2100, the entire east coast'll be linked by Mag-Lev. (if not, i'll be damn disappointed- assuming longevity increases and maybe ill be alive.)

bafbdb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> great falls, reston, burke, clifton, parts of
> centreville are quite forested and yet to be
> developed. other parts in the west like pleasant
> valley (near south riding) are in a state of
> industrial-backwater with remnants of its rural
> past (houses, churches, etc) all over the place.
> give it a decade and South Riding/Dulles South
> will eat all that right up.
>
> Give it 30 years and this place will look like
> Arlington. Give it a century and Loudoun will go
> with it. Also, Dulles was built with spaceport
> plans in mind. And I bet by 2100, the entire east
> coast'll be linked by Mag-Lev. (if not, i'll be
> damn disappointed- assuming longevity increases
> and maybe ill be alive.)


The build-up at South Riding is horrendous to an extent. Ashburn, South Riding, it's all hodgepodge as hell, with shopping centers stuck in the middle of random neighborhoods, houses smackdab right next to each other with no trees or yards, etc. That small village (Arcola) on Gum Spring north of 50 is now being torn up by those POS houses that all lookalike. In it's original state it's still partly rural and somewhat rundown, but at least it has some character. This new build-up all looks the same, like a nightmare.

==================================================================================================
"And if any women or children get their legs torn off, or faces caved in, well, it's tough shit for them." -2LT. Bert Stiles, 505th, 339th (On Berlin Bombardier Mission, 1944).

sounds like some of y'all need to move to the sticks LoLz

that being said, yr VERY right, Packleader - the "lookalike houses" really do tend to make a shitty looking no-character neighborhood

but ok, snowden.......I mean, what are you wanting to do here? Close off the county to development? Forbid any more population growth? No more families and sterilization of current residents?


LoLz - ok, so I'm just playing with ya - but seriously, OP - what's yr idea of a solution to this? Cause yeah, it is coming - more population!

In Clifton each new home must be on 5 acres. I also like that all the houses do not look the same.

The cute little town does not hurt either.

The school closing in now moot.

Reston is mostly developed out. The redevelopment is being applied to mostly commercial properties and old garden apartments. The problem is the developers and their cronies won't to stick to a reasonable distance from the Metro platform. High-rises are being planned well beyond the 1/4-mile radius from Wiehle and RTC stops. In addition, every area around the shopping centers is being targeted for clusters of 10-20 sotry high-rises.

No, I'm not trying to stop anything - I'm just curious.

Well, I suppose I'd like to see the zoning in areas like Clifton preserved, so I wonder what will remain indefinitely with all multi-acre lots.

My only point is the amount of unused land left to develop neighborhoods is about out. So do existing places go upward, or do we rezone others? Or does that County say "that's it; that's all we can hold - better move out to neighboring counties".

I think it's an interesting question for the next 10-50 years.

you would be suprised, when you fly over fairfax, much of the county is covered by trees. there is much more land to develop but not enough room for the additional roads it would require. if fairfax was planned correctly in the first place we could get from centreville to falls church in less that the hour and 30 mins it takes during rush hour. it think it is only 15-20 miles.

Lots of trees. If those trees get taken down and more houses put up, more highways, how will that affect the Chesapeake Bay? The whole watershed? Runoff and flooding issues? :-(

Please no more new homes or townhouses.

The traffic is bad enough. Plus our home values would go back up.

Plus the environment of course.

We can always build narrow high-rise condos on the median strips
on the FFx Co. Pkwy. Whoops! Maybe I shouldn't have said that.
Connolly's developer buddies might take it seriously.

They were supposed to sell air rights over the Toll Rd to developers to build high rises, but that idea has been shelved after they realized how much it would cost to build concrete platforms to support the developments.

There might be plenty of trees, but it's not like there's huge parcels of land ready to be turned into subdivisions.

Go to google maps satellite view. Almost all the green areas you see are either
a) County/State parks
b) immersed throughout existing older neighborhoods that don't have too much room for new streets and houses
c) In low-density areas of the county (e.g. Fairfax Station, Clifton, Fox Mill/Lawyers, Great Falls).

The only decent blocks of land that seems relatively unused are just east of Twin Lakes golf course (and there's a little space southwest).

The 'green' satellite view of the County is VERY different from that of say, the Western half of Loudoun

This newly published report answers portions of the original quiestion. The report is based upon the recent census figures, the current land zoning regulations (Comprehensive Plan), and other county demographic trends and statistics. For example:


"...Fairfax County has the capacity to add more than 300,000 additional residents, and 63,000 of these additional persons are expected to be added to
Fairfax County over the next ten years..."

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/demogrph/pdf/behind_the_headline.pdf

Thanks for the info.

I hope we do not add 63,000 residents to Nova. The traffic is rotten now.

Let's hope Fairfax stops building condos too and works on the problems we have now.

@ To:Land - oh, we are gonna get more than that..........and prolly quicker than you can believe!

@Snowden - you know something I hate is how the county allowed development on the bluffs above Clifton. I agree with you that everything southwest of 123 to Parkway to Braddock to 29 should be preserved as rural/suburban and a complete limit/halt to development (however, a new bridge will be needed somewhere at that point sometime- I suggest Union Mill)

@ Moleasses - SHUT UP!!! They might hear you!!!!!! Bad enough I'm seeing For Sale signs on the Parkway in Blevinstown (@ Braddock for all you newcomers LoLz) and development signs out near Burke Centre near the library

snowdenscold Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> What are the next big projects after the current
> Megaprojects? (Tysons, Silver Line, HOT Lanes,
> I-95 widening)? I-66 widening? Revamp of the
> Parkway?

Light rail on Leesburg Pike, Chain Bridge Road, Arlington Blvd, Lee Highway, Little River Turnpike, Route 1, Route 28, etc.

Fegelein Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> snowdenscold Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > What are the next big projects after the
> current
> > Megaprojects? (Tysons, Silver Line, HOT Lanes,
> > I-95 widening)? I-66 widening? Revamp of the
> > Parkway?
>
> Light rail on Leesburg Pike, Chain Bridge Road,
> Arlington Blvd, Lee Highway, Little River
> Turnpike, Route 1, Route 28, etc.

Upgrade Fairfax County Parkway to interstate highway standards.

To: Land Development Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for the info.
>
> I hope we do not add 63,000 residents to Nova. The
> traffic is rotten now.
>
> Let's hope Fairfax stops building condos too and
> works on the problems we have now.

I've always wondered; how to real estate developera determine if their proposed development will get occupants? The demand can't be that high, right?

the issue is WHAT FOR WHO (it's also called economic)

some peopel in fairfax are given tons of dollars (LITERALLY) to develop anything, anywhere, by themselves or by hiring illegals

OTHERS ARE TOLD THERE IS NO MONEY AND TO FUCK OFF, AND ARE THREATENED

illegals are being given luxury homes via gov jobs democrats secured for them - for a price no doubt

many democrats taking dives are living richly in fairfax

the RENT AND JOB STRUCTURE it not at all what it had been, working no longer even pays rent