By Brian Trompeter
Leaders of the newly formed nonprofit Tysons Community Alliance have ambitious plans for helping the area reach its potential.
The TCA’s main objectives so far have been communications and branding, place-making to “activate the public realm through events and pop-up spaces,” transportation and mobility, and research and business support to “catalyze inclusive economic growth,” board chairman Josh White told the Board of Supervisors’ Economic Initiatives Committee on June 13.
While TCA officially launched in February, its leaders over the past eight months have formed a board of directors, appointed an executive committee, hired a permanent CEO and negotiated a memorandum of understanding with Fairfax County officials.
The organization, which morphed out of the previous nonprofit Tysons Partnership, also benefited from a $2.5 million start-up budget from the Board of Supervisors.
“It is your staunch support . . . that has allowed this organization to thrive since its founding,” White told supervisors.
TCA’s collaboration with Fairfax County is “unique for the depth of partnership between public and private sectors,” said Katie Cristol, who is leaving after nearly eight years on the Arlington County Board to become TCA’s CEO on July 5.
“The innovation, the risk-taking that members and representatives of Fairfax County government are bringing to this work, the trust and spirit of collaboration that the private sector brings, are incredible assets for the TCA to build on,” she said.
Acknowledging different priorities competing for Fairfax County’s budget dollars, Cristol said the supervisors’ investment will allow TCA to pursue a “sophisticated, data-driven work plan” and start delivering real quality-of-life improvements in Tysons.
The county’s Tysons comprehensive plan, which supervisors approved in 2010, is generating results, White said. Tysons is diversifying its assets and becoming a community-based urban hub, he said.
With 116,000 employees, Tysons has the region’s second-largest workforce and represents 17 percent of Fairfax County’s jobs. The urban center provides 10 percent of the jurisdiction’s overall retail revenue and 8 percent of its tax revenue ($268 million annually), despite occupying just 1 percent of the county’s land.
“Given its footprint, Tysons has the capacity to continue growing over the next several decades,” White said.
Acknowledging that Tysons now has a 20-percent office-vacancy rate, Richard Bradley, interim CEO of TCA, said other communities have shown that creating a livable residential environment helps the office market.
County planners long have sought to increase the number of Tysons residents. Tysons’ population since passage of the comprehensive plan has increased 96 percent from 15,390 residents in 2010 to 30,124 in 2022. The number of Tysons households rose 19 percent from 2018 to 2021 – a rate four times faster than the county average.
Some supervisors expressed surprise that about 38 percent of households in Tysons earn $100,000 per year or less, which is 4 percent more than the county average.
Supervisor Walter Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill) favored more affordable housing in Tysons and said he envisioned there eventually would be one or two such developments near all four of the urban center’s Metrorail stations.
TCA starting the week of June 19 will convene a series of strategic-planning and work groups, guided by the county’s comprehensive plan, and facilitate a community-engagement process focused on diversity, equity, inclusion and sustainability.
The groups hope to produce a final report by late fall that will “chart a future direction for Tysons and help shape an action agenda,” White said.
TCA also has analyzed Tysons’ 24-mile sidewalk network and found 4.62 miles of gaps. In April, the group put out a bid request for a comprehensive conditions assessment and market study for Tysons.
“This foundational understanding and benchmark will allow us to monitor our success, identify challenges [and use] our marketing efforts to bring people to Tysons to live, work and play,” White said.
Supervisor John Foust (D-Dranesville), who chairs the Economic Initiatives Committee, said TCA leaders had accomplished much in a short time.
“It’s obvious that people are not only putting in the time, but putting in the passion,” he said. “You truly care about what’s happening in Tysons . . . You were looking at how other people did it, but in my opinion, you did it better.”
Pieces of the TCA’s efforts can be replicated elsewhere in the county, said Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay (D).
The county has “aggressive opportunities” to repurpose some vacant office space in Tysons, McKay said. Some pockets of Tysons have had vacancy issues for years and officials do not want those vacant, antiquated, suburban-scale buildings to hinder the county’s efforts to redevelop the area, he said.
“I really hope a big focus is on that,” McKay said.
