Board Backs Retail Center On Route 50

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors has approved Dulles Landing, the latest in a handful of development projects proposed along Route 50 that promise to remake the stretch west of South Riding into a major shopping destination.
The 800,000-square-foot retail center, which will go up in the northwest quadrant of the Route 50 and Loudoun County Parkway intersection, will be anchored by the county's third Wal-Mart.



It is the kind of suburban shopping center that county officials have shunned in recent years in favor of walkable, Main Street-style development. Boxy buildings housing Old Navy, Best Buy and Bed Bath and Beyond will rise up from a vast parking lot.
Critics of the project, which is being developed by McLean-based Beatty Cos., say it will overwhelm the intersection with traffic. They say county officials have approved too much retail in an area without enough residents to support it. And they say it's not the kind of shopping center they want in their neighborhood.
Sandra Chaloux, founder of the Gum Spring Regional Citizens Network, said she would prefer office buildings instead of big-box stores in that area.
"We'd prefer to see businesses with higher-paying jobs rather than a bunch of retail," Chaloux said. "Then maybe people who live in Loudoun County could actually work in Loudoun County, too."
But Supervisor Stephen J. Snow (R-Dulles), who represents the area, disagrees. He was in the majority that voted June 19 to rezone the property to make way for the project, despite misgivings among county staff members about the design and effect on traffic. Last week, the same five supervisors voted against reconsidering their action, rejecting a request by two supervisors who were absent from the earlier meeting.
Snow said Dulles Landing would fill a shopping void that is sending Dulles area residents to Fairfax and Prince William counties, costing Loudoun millions in tax revenue.
The increase in traffic would be offset by more than $3 million in road improvements the developer has promised, Snow said, and the design has been altered to give the project a "Loudoun look," with brick and stone paving and landscaping.
But in the end, Snow said, a Wal-Mart can't be disguised as a quaint, little shop.
"There is a difficulty in dressing up, so to speak, a larger retail center that tends to have larger square footage," he said. "It's a large building any way you look at it. But when all is said and done, I think you'll see a well laid-out, well landscaped, well thought-out shopping area."
Other stores that have signed on to the project are Toys R Us, Babies R Us, Borders, PetSmart, Michaels, Ross, Kohls and DSW. The developer hopes to open the shopping center by spring 2009.
More than a half-dozen development projects are planned for the Route 50 corridor, some of which have yet to gain approval from the Board of Supervisors.
At its meeting June 19, the board also approved the Shops at Arcola just west of Dulles Landing. It will be part of the Arcola Center, which will include shops, restaurants and homes. The Arcola Center requires a rezoning, which the board has not considered yet.