The owners of 70 houses on large

The owners of 70 houses on large lots in suburban Vienna, Virginia, are banding together to sell almost the entire Poplar Terrace development to Centex Homes, which would then try to build 1,326 townhouses and condominium units on the 40 acres situated near the Vienna/Fairfax Metrorail station. A few holdouts remain, and the proposed density is about 15 times greater than currently permitted. But Stewart Schwartz, director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, contends, “the place we need to focus redevelopment is in our central city and areas within a half mile of transit stops.” Given the projected demand for housing in the Washington area, this kind of transformation — from suburban to urban densities — “is in the cards for Fairfax and Arlington neighborhoods for the foreseeable future,” the homeowners’ real estate consultant, Mark Anstine, was quoted as saying in the Washington Post. Individually, Poplar Terrace houses are valued at about $400,000 each. If the Centex deal goes through, homeowners would get $760,000 or more.