Map of one proposed planning scenario focused on connectivity and green spaces.
Fairfax County continues to develop a new vision for the Franconia-Springfield area that could guide growth and transportation decisions for the next 20 years or more. Local bicyclists should make sure our voices are part of that vision.
On Tuesday, October 20, Fairfax County planners and project consultants will host a virtual community meeting to present the new Preliminary Plan for Franconia-Springfield. The plan incorporates several rounds of public input and refines three earlier concepts into a proposed planning vision for the area.
FABB encourages riders who live, work, shop, or bike in Franconia-Springfield to participate in the meeting, ask questions, and speak up for a future built around safe bicycling, convenient transit, connected communities, and less dependence on automobiles. If you cannot attend, you can still review the study and provide comments through Fairfax County’s project website.
A Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity
Fairfax County began the current planning study in 2023, following recommendations from the Springfield Market Study. The existing Springfield Comprehensive Plan includes policies addressing revitalization, land use, transportation, parks, and other issues, but it has not undergone a comprehensive review in more than 17 years.
The study focuses particularly on the Franconia-Springfield Transit Station Area (TSA) and the Springfield Community Business Center (CBC)—two areas surrounding one of Northern Virginia’s most important transportation hubs. With Metro, Virginia Railway Express, buses, major highways, neighborhoods, shopping, employment, and other destinations all converging here, the decisions made through this process could determine whether future growth produces a more connected, bikeable and walkable Springfield—or simply generates more automobile traffic
FABB has previously encouraged local riders to participate in this process, and the release of the Preliminary Plan gives us another important opportunity to reinforce that message. To date, planning options and public surveys emphasize pedestrian facilities with few mentions of bicycle infrastructure. Clearly, more voices should be heard to make sure that bicyclists’ needs, such as parking and trail and lane connections, are included.
What Should Bicyclists Ask For?
1. Create Bikeable as Well as Wikeable Neighborhoods. Ask for safe, comfortable, and connected sidewalks, trails, protected bike lanes, crossings, and other facilities linking homes with transit, schools, parks, businesses, and neighboring communities. A bike lane or trail that ends at a dangerous intersection or high-speed roadway isn’t a network. Connections matter.
2. Protect and Expand Green Space. Parks, trails, trees, and green infrastructure should be integral parts of Springfield’s redevelopment. In addition to improving recreation and bicycling connections, these investments can help manage stormwater, reduce urban heat, and make growing communities more pleasant places to live.
Riders also can support the prioritization of transit-oriented development that provides more housing, jobs, shops, services, and other destinations within easy walking and bicycling distance of the Franconia-Springfield Metro and VRE stations. Similarly, an increase in housing choices—including affordable housing—with greater density near Metro, VRE, trails, jobs, and services gives more people the opportunity to make trips by bicycle and transit instead of driving.
Make Your Voice Heard
The Preliminary Plan is exactly the stage when community participation matters. Plans adopted today will influence the location of future development, the design of streets, connections to transit, and investments in bicycling and walking infrastructure for decades.
Join the virtual community meeting on October 20 to learn what planners are proposing, ask questions, and tell Fairfax County what a bikeable, walkable, transit-oriented Franconia-Springfield should look like.
Can’t attend? Don’t sit this one out. Visit the county’s Franconia-Springfield Planning Study page, review the Preliminary Plan, and submit your comments.
The Franconia-Springfield area already has extraordinary transportation assets. With thoughtful planning and sustained public involvement, we can make sure its next 20 years bring better connections among those assets—and safer, easier ways for people of all ages and abilities to get around by bike and on foot.
Learn more, join the meeting, and provide comments here.
Speak up now for a safer, more connected, and more bikeable Springfield.
