Quiet narrow streets end in a roundabout. Raised red-brick pedestrian crosswalks stand out against the pavement, alerting drivers to slow down. A few couples walk down the sidewalk, holding hands, making their way to large newly-built houses with postage-stamp front yards, discreet backyards and two car garages on the side.
This is Farrcroft, one of the first residential developments in the area built according to "smart growth" principles. While it is located just off Route 236 in the City of Fairfax, it seems to be self-consciously harking back to the suburbs of a generation ago, with its quiet cul-de-sacs and immaculate front lawns.
"I think it's kind of the old Southern flavor," said Diane Cox Basheer, the president of Diane Cox Basheer communities, which built the development. "It is creating a lifestyle for people so that they don't have to use their car."
A CAR-FREE lifestyle is just what an increasing segment of the real estate market is after, according to smart growth advocates.
"The market is really demanding this stuff," said Stewart Schwartz, the executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Coalition for Smarter Growth. Schwartz predicted a bright future for developments built according to this model.
"We don't think the United States has much choice," he said. "Right now, we're wasting a lot of land and forcing a lot of driving trips."
To earn the "smart growth" cachet, according to Schwartz, a development must offer a mix of residential and retail uses, must be pedestrian and bicycle friendly, and must be centered around a public building, such as a school or a post office. Access to public transit is "critical," he added.
"The national example for transit-oriented development is still Arlington," said Schwartz, citing the Clarendon Marketplace as a prime example. At the Clarendon Marketplace, the ground floor is reserved for retail with apartments on top and townhouses nearby. A web of paths connects the whole thing to the Clarendon Metro station. On any given day, people can be seen browsing from store to store, sitting on benches or resting at the cafe inside the bookstore. This, to Schwartz, reflects a desire to recreate old-fashioned community centers.
But one of the first things a visitor notices when walking around the Clarendon Marketplace is not so much an evocation of times past as much as the ubiquitous R&B music. A few minutes of searching reveals that the music is piped in through speakers, hidden under bushes.
"On the way to rediscovering our traditional small-town culture we do have some hybrid things that we're borrowing from the shopping-mall era," Schwartz noted.
"THAT KIND OF development is evolving," said Peter Murphy, the chairman of the Fairfax County Planning Commission, who represents the Springfield District.
"A lot of it's been on the books," he added. "We just didn't do it. There was a lot of community pressure not to do it."
Murphy noted that a new zoning category, Planned Residential Mix, would make smart growth developments easier to apply for. But he warned that the kind of expansive development more customary to Fairfax County was not going to disappear overnight because of the high incomes in the county.
"People who make that kind of money do two things," he said. "They buy nice houses and they buy lots of motor vehicles that they like to drive individually."
"Citizens have to buy off on [smart growth]," he said. "You can't have it both ways."
Basheer agreed, noting that 75 percent of homebuyers still want single-family homes.
"We can't just say we'll build high rises along the Metro," she said.
The answer, she added, lies partly in developments like Farrcroft, which apply smart growth principles but allow people to live in single-family homes.
The clustering of homes, the hidden garages, the raised crosswalks and the presence of CUE bus stops at the entrances to the developments make Farrcroft a smart growth community that fits into an older suburban area, she said. She also said that a shopping center on Main Street allows people to walk to restaurants or stores.
"On the whole, I think it probably is much better than your average development," said Paul Hughes, the president of the Fairfax County Coalition for Smarter Growth. But Hughes said he thought the developer could have focused more on transit.
"I didn't see anything in terms of a nicer, upgraded bus stop on the side of the road," he said. "I would give it a B+ in terms of smart growth.
"Our standards are pretty high."