Proposed development of 28,000 residential units in the “Dulles South” area of Loudoun County would create regional gridlock for miles around, maintains a Virginia Department of Transportation preliminary analysis of the traffic impact. By 2025, the proposal would generate 300,000 trips per day, creating hours of stop-and-go traffic as far away as Herndon, Fairfax city and into Prince William County.
The Washington Post has the story here. Sayeth the Post:
Investment needed to prevent such gridlock could “easily” reach hundreds of millions of dollars, VDOT spokeswoman Joan Morris said. That’s on top of the billions of dollars already planned to extend Metrorail to Dulles and widen three of the highways in question.
The analysis represents the first application by the Kaine administration of a new law enabling VDOT to conduct detailed traffic impact analyses of local development projects. The Kainiacs picked a good place to start — the tip of the spear of growth… the development frontier of Loudoun County, which has been consistently one of the fastest two or three growing municipalities in the country over the past decade.
Del. Joe May, R-Loudoun, had the best quote:
“This is another excellent example of why we’re going to have to coordinate land use with transportation,” said [May] who believes the Dulles South plan would overwhelm the region. “The plan reminds me of those words on so many toy boxes, ‘Batteries Not Included.’ Only in this case, the words should be: ‘Roads Not Included.'”
But not everyone is panicking. Observed Loudoun Supervisor Stephen J. Snow (R-Dulles): The VDOT project does not include nearly $200 million in road construction and other public improvements that would be financed as part of a proposal by Greenvest, a Fairfax County developer, to build 15,000 housing units and supporting commercial space in the area.
Meanwhile, the Greenvest proposal moved one step closer to approval with an 8-0-1 vote by the Loudoun County planning commission to increase planned residential densities in a “transition” area west of Dulles airport. The transition is designed to segue between the farms and hamlets of western Loudoun and and the suburban-style development spilling from Fairfax County into eastern Loudoun. Leesburg2Day.com has that story.
Update: Here is a copy of VDOT’s letter to the Loudoun County Department of Planning, and the accompanying map showing 2025 traffic volumes and projected levels of service.