Fairfax County, Va., approved a makeover of the U.S. Route 1 corridor near George Washington’s Mount Vernon home. Known as Embark Richmond Highway, the land-use plan aims to revitalize a congested, economically run-down 7.5-mile stretch in Virginia’s most populous county with 18,000 new housing units and 8.5 million sq ft of commercial, hospitality and retail development.
The planned 10-year build-out is expected to quadruple the area’s current population, to about 40,000 residents, with much of the residential growth concentrated around nine stations of a planned bus rapid transit line that will be incorporated into a $215-million widening of Route 1 set to begin in 2023. A 3.1-mile, two-station extension of the existing Metrorail Yellow Line is also envisioned, as well as a new street grid and improved corridor-wide access for pedestrians and cyclists.