Pedestrian Plaza: Why Old Town Needs Some Love

By Anthony Amos

Old Town Fairfax – the central draw that defines our city. It is distinguished by its restaurants, coffee shops, escape room, and retail scene. It captures a slice of history through its brick architecture and low-density environment, providing a taste of Old School America. In recent years, despite its charm and vibrancy, it has yet to thrive economically like many of our peer jurisdictions – like Alexandria or Manassas or Herndon. There are multiple reasons for this; however, the main issues often cited are the lack of foot traffic and our lack of pedestrian infrastructure. If this remains the status quo, we will likely see more of what defines us lost over time due to a shifting cultural economy in the post-pandemic era. 

Presently, I sit on the Move Fairfax City Steering Committee, which is dedicated to addressing traffic circulation in Old Town Fairfax and improving pedestrian safety across the City of Fairfax. This committee was formed last year and is working to provide recommendations for the city council to consider by the end of the year. It includes many of our staple partners like Old Town Fairfax Business Association and the Central Fairfax Chamber of Commerce, providing a small business outlook on what is currently going on. Multiple issues were cited in analyses that were conducted for this group to review: high amounts of stress for pedestrians, limited crossing ability, narrow roads and sidewalks, and more. You can see those results here. 

Today’s economy is less focused on standard business practices and assumed cultural norms. For example, analyses highlight that millennials and Gen Z are largely spending money on experiences over products. I touched on this with an article I wrote a couple of years ago regarding pop-up shops and the “experience economy”. People are looking for memorable opportunities, largely driven by unique marketing strategies and infrastructure design. With this in mind, Fairfax City – Old Town in particular – is not presently constructed to allow for this level of creativity. Addressing this requires a coordinated and consistent effort to attract investments into this central hub. A first step at this vision was the Old Town Small Area Plan, focusing greatly on pedestrian infrastructure and turning Old Town into more of a welcoming neighborway. Opportunities like the construction of a greenway, housing, and – one of my main focuses – the creation of a pedestrian precinct at University and Main.

The act of turning an automobile-centric street into one that specifically focuses on pedestrians and their needs is called pedestrianization. There are two main types of pedestrianization in policymaking, both of which have been used in Virginia to varying extents: permanent and temporary/semi-permanent. We can already see the value that pedestrianization brings to Fairfax through its monthly Rock the Block concerts, the Independence Day parade, and Fall or Winter special events, which each create fun and engaging opportunities for the community as a whole. 

Permanent pedestrianization can seem like a daunting prospect, but it has proven successful as a policy in Virginia, as evidenced by the recent decision to pedestrianize the 200 block of King St. in Alexandria. This decision was seen as one that the whole community supported after a pilot program, as the prior pedestrianization of the adjacent 100 block was well received, and a community survey about this change drew about 1,800 respondents, with an 87% approval rate for pedestrianization. One can also find in the fifth attachment to this memo the results of this public feedback survey, which included a letter of support from the CEO of Visit Alexandria, citing the “remarkable success” of the previous pedestrianization project and expressing a desire to see further pedestrianization implemented for that reason. 

The more common type of pedestrianization in Fairfax is the temporary or semi-permanent kind, used mostly for events and holidays. When you go to Rock the Block, the Asian Festival, or the Fall Festival, you are drawn deeper into the community, and we all strengthen our bonds among neighbors, business owners, and others. The ability of Fairfax to provide this opportunity for us all is here. We can transform just part of our roads from the social distancing they force us to have in cars into a pleasurable space for the whole community to enjoy. We can even test these programs and explore how different forms of pedestrianization might work with our temporary versions enacted during events.

Making this process more regular, holding more events, and so on will only increase the positive impacts of pedestrianization and the benefits associated with the events that accompany the road closures. The fun, community engagement, business growth, and transit connections associated with an event within the road-closure area can all feel the benefits of permanent pedestrianization. Cushman and Wakefield conducted an analysis for larger cities when discussing the “urban doom loop” – focusing on how to mix up real estate mixes for optimal economic and experiential outcomes. One of their key findings was how “WalkUPs (regionally significant, Walkable Urban Places) are the most powerful economic engines of the city, occupying just 3% of the land but contributing 57% of city GDP.” These large areas, already designated for pedestrians to hang around and enjoy things like food carts and pop-ups, are primed to be made into bus stations as well, which serve as large pickup stops for people within Fairfax. This is because the various available benefits can keep people occupied while they wait for their bus to arrive. 

What is great is that you don’t have to be fully accepting of ideas like this from the get-go; you can actually test policies like this to both prepare for further pedestrianization and ensure that it is a viable transition for local transit. Luckily, areas like Old Town Fairfax, which already host events that require road closures for some time, are primed for these types of infrastructure changes, as they have been set up by the regular transition from a fully pedestrianized to an automobile-centric road. Then, to test how the community would react to this change, the city could follow a plan similar to one of its temporary road-closure plans to create a pilot period, such as the one for the block in Alexandria mentioned earlier. I re-introduced this idea to the council and have continued to advocate for it as a part of the steering committee.

We in Fairfax already have a really strong system in place for the transition of part of the city’s roads from car-focused to pedestrian-focused. If we focus on the Old Town Square and its surrounding area, we find that the area is actually better prepared for a shift to full pedestrianization than most people think. Change can be scary, and so often, you want to start preparing for it long before it happens if you can. Luckily, we have in this case, so if the community came together and supported this change, enacting it may actually end up easier than we think because of our regular practice of closing and opening roads. 

The alternative is bleak. I fear that if we do nothing and do not increase our investments in this community, we will lose a lot more of our staple businesses and key industries. Right now, Old Town is becoming more expensive and does not have the foot traffic to keep up because we are a throughput city – meaning the majority of our traffic is simply passing by instead of stopping in. Its vitality will be dependent on the experiential economy, attracting more George Mason students, catering more to families, and becoming a staple tourist destination that cannot be experienced fully from a car ride. We can responsibly adapt and project healthy growth to stimulate our economy. 

There is a cost to doing nothing and we will likely see it sooner than we think.