Traffic Concerns Key As AT&T Campus Redeveloped

OAKTON, VA — Oakton residents showed up Wednesday night at the Jim Scott Community Center to meet with representatives of EYA, the developer seeking to redevelop the AT&T property at the corner of Jermantown Road and Chain Bridge Road/Route 123. But one concern rose above all the others.

“The majority of people are interested or like the affordable housing provisions of the plan,” said Evan Goldman, EYA’s executive vice president for acquisitions and development, on Wednesday night. “They like the retail in the plan. They like that it’s walkable, the parks, all the stuff we're doing. So, the question has always been, how do you do all of this and make the traffic work? Because that's the biggest existing concern.”

Currently, the 33.1-acre site has a three-story, 443,750-square-foot office building. It is home to AT&T’s regional headquarters, but the company has scaled back occupancy of the campus and is not expected to return to full occupancy.

This area of Chain Bridge Road has a mix of office, retail and restaurant uses and is near the Interstate 66 exits.

EYA is seeking to replace the AT&T building with a mixed-use residential development, which would include 473 multifamily units, as well as 330 townhomes and two-over-two townhomes. In addition, there will be a 105-unit building that consolidates workforce and affordable dwelling units and about 111,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, including a grocery store.

EYA’s current proposal came from Fairfax County's Site-Specific Plan Amendment Process, which considers land use changes for specific sites. In March, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a comprehensive plan amendment for the project, but a rezoning application is still making its way through the county approval process.

Traffic was the number one concern mentioned by people at Wednesday’s meeting. As part of the development process, EYA conducted a two-year traffic study of the Chain Bridge Road and Jermantown Road intersection, as well as the surrounding streets.

EYA's solution to the bottleneck of traffic at the intersection is to reconfigure the timing of the traffic lights and remove lefthand turns in both directions at the intersection. (See above.)

Access to Chain Bridge Road would be shifted to Rosehaven Street, which would be realigned to connect with the White Granite intersection near the post office. Eastbound drivers would then be able to take a right on red to access southbound Chain Bridge Road from Rosehaven Street and westbound drivers would turn left at that intersection.

"The eastbound goes from 185 seconds to 81 seconds, so literally, 100 seconds less of wait time," Goldman said. "It's like a 60 percent improvement in the eastbound traffic moving on Jermantown during the PM rush hour, which is the worst time. In the morning on the westbound rush hour, which is the worst time, the westbound through movement goes from 168 seconds to 72, so almost a 60 percent improvement in the traffic flow at that intersection."

"I was heartened to see a lot of new faces who are getting involved and engaged," said Supervisor Dalia Palchik (D-Providence), who hosted Wednesday night's meeting. "A lot of people coming from really close to the development are excited about it, but I'm still hearing a lot of concerns we all share around the traffic. But, people are pretty excited when they hear that the retail includes more than 7,000 square feet of art space, as well as outdoor space, community art space, that there's an inclusive daycare."

Dr. Tarek Abdelhamid, a resident of the TreeBrook community across Jermantown from the AT&T property, had no concerns about the project, except possibly the traffic.

Also See ...

• Office-To-Residential Proposal Draws Concerns From Oakton Community Groups
• 'More Walkable, Vibrant Oakton': Coalition Backs AT&T Site Development
• 9 More Early Voting Sites Open For Special Election In 11th District
• $950M Powerball Jackpot In Saturday’s Drawing Could Grow: How To Play In VA

“Overall, the positive is much more than the negatives,” he said. “ I can see 90 percent and more are positive when you add vitality, viability to the area. I’ve lived in cities all over the world. Actually, I grew up in a downtown area. There is some traffic, but the beauty of having such an environment, activities and viability is just beyond imagination.”

EYA will continue to do community education meetings over the next number of months, with the hope of having a public hearing at the Fairfax County Planning Commission before the end of the year, with the Board of Supervisors voting on the project early in 2026, according to Goldman.

“Once we get through that process, we then have another year of permits to do, so breaking ground would probably be at some point in 2026,” he said.