Last week the Board of Supervisors passed a major new plan for Tysons Corner which serves as a massive overhaul for the car-choked symbol of anti-pedestrian suburban sprawl.

The irony about Tysons is that everyone derides it and yet it still claims the highest rents and best occupancy rates in the D.C. area.  In other words, nobody wants to be there - but everybody is.

It's like how Oreo's are still the most popular snack food but no one admits buying them.

The concept behind the new plan is to divide Tysons into digestible neighborhoods with a grid pattern of roads and transit, cut down on patchwork land uses, and create walk-able enviroments with mixed- use residential and park spaces. 

With the new Metrorail in place, what could go wrong?

It's all great stuff.  But some folks are not enamored .

Leaving aside the inevitable qualms of neighboring communities on large increases in permitted density, there are some real world issues contrasting the way things are with the way we want them to be (editor's note:  I represent the "South of 7" portion of Tysons and the neighborhoods immediately adjoining).

In my previous life as a Fairfax City Councilman (1998-2002), I was a full-bore advocate for walking to work and walking to shop. I pushed for businesses with "street presence."  I fought the enemy of large parking fields with minimal landscaping and flat buildings with low FAR ratings. We all thought that "street scape" was the future.

It hasn't quite worked out that way.  The reality is that the Wal-Marts and Costco's continue to capture market share, even in 2010.  Small downtown business cannot seem to compete, except for a highly niche audience.  I can't tell you the struggles I've seen for downtown businesses in Fairfax to stay open -- and that's with a City that's highly supportive of small business.

To commit Tysons to a pedestrian-friendly path is laudable.  I'm 100% for it.  All new cities and all new roads should contain spaces for bikers and pedestrians.  But you can't just build it - the market (i.e. consumer market)  has to support it.  Businesses have to want to locate there and consumers have to want to visit you. 

You can't dictate that.  People choose convenience over aesthetics all the time in America. And that leaves me skeptical, while still supportive of the plan goals. 

Tysons will always remain an uncoordinated example of suburban sprawl.  That's its nature.  It can be more accessible for walkers and bikers.  But it will take far more than a plan to change Tysons'  fundamental nature.  It will take a change in the attitudes of those who visit.