The word “density” means different things to different people. To some, it conjures images of a dystopic, skyscraper-ridden Manhattan. To others it evokes a crowded, jostling K Street in Washington, D.C. To developer Ted Smart, it means a few blocks of three- and four-story buildings clustered around a Virginia Railway Express station in Stafford County.
For many Stafford residents, it appears, Smart’s vision for a walkable, mixed-use community in the middle of the ‘burbs is frightening. As Bob Burke documents in his story, “The Curse of the ‘D’ Word,” Smart is running into a lot of local resistance to the proposal on the grounds that the density would create too much congestion.
It is imperative that people learn to distinguish between impact of density on local traffic patterns and its impact on regional congestion. Yes, Smart’s Leeland Station would create more localized congestion than would exist on the 626-space parking lot that sits there now. But it would create less congestion regionally than the alternative: sprawling, by-right development. People living in Leeland Station would take fewer, shorter car trips, putting less strain on Stafford County’s road network, than would a comparable number of households living in cul-de-sac subdivisions and five-acre farmettes.
How do we know this? First of all, the community would be designed to provide maximum access to the VRE train station — taking commuters off Stafford’s traffic-clogged roads during rush hour, the time that matters most. Secondly, Leeland Station residents would find that many of their daily needs — drug stores, restaurants, dry cleaners, child care, video stores, whatever — would be located within a very short distance. Even if they were too lazy to walk, the drive would be extremely short. Such trips would not stress the county’s secondary road network. Thirdly, Smart’s plan would efficiently accommodate bus service, which cul de sac and farmettes cannot.
A second point: Smart is willing to provide the county $37 million in proffers and make $17 million in local road improvements on his own. How much proffer money will the county get from by-right development, which, by definition, requires no zoning approvals and no negotiation?
A third point: If Smart provides 1,673 dwelling units, that’s 1,673 fewer households living in scattered, disconnected, low-density locations where it’s impossible to walk anywhere, bicycle anywhere or serve by bus or light rail. Here’s the irony, Leeland residents will be OK with the “congestion” created in Leeland Station itself (a) because the community is designed to handle it, and (b) they want the urban-style amenities the project offers.
If other Stafford residents don’t like the “congested” atmosphere of Leeland station, with all those cars and people, guess what: They don’t have to go there! It’s not as if Leeland would transform the character of the entire county! No one will be taking away their precious cul de sacs and strip shopping centers. I just don’t see how anyone loses by approving Leeland Station. But I see everyone losing if it gets turned down.
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