TOD times five: How the subway revived a VA suburb

New Urban News Article with images and sidebar, 9/1/2003

Arlington County’s Rosslyn-Ballston corridor has sprouted nearly 18,000 dwellings and almost 14 million square feet of offices, thanks largely to commuter rail.

Transit-oriented development is paying off big in northern Virginia. A three-mile corridor in Arlington County, across the Potomac from the nation’s capital, boasts some of the most impressive development generated by any US rail transit system in the past 25 years.

The corridor running along Wilson Boulevard from Rosslyn to Ballston had slipped by the early 1960s. It was an aging, low-density commercial stretch that was beginning to lose population and retail business. Consequently, when planning got under way for the region’s Metro commuter rail system, Arlington County decided to place the rail line and five suburban stations beneath that corridor rather than in the center of Interstate 66 or on existing railroad tracks that would not be well-situated to support future commercial development. By making that choice, the county hoped to spur office, retail, and residential investment close to the stations, and hoped to bolster the surrounding neighborhoods.

The decision has proved to be a masterstroke. The corridor, which ranges from a third of a mile to a mile in width, has become “the economic engine of Arlington County,” according to James B. Snyder, supervisor of the county’s Planning Section. In December 1979 Metro opened its orange line serving the corridor. Nearly 18,000 houses and apartments, almost 14 million square feet of offices, approximately 1.5 million square feet of retail, and 1,218 hotel rooms have been built since January 1980 in the area served by the Rosslyn, Court House, Clarendon, Virginia Square, and Ballston stations.