Providence District Planning Commissioner Linda Smyth will announce her candidacy Friday for the open seat on the Board of Supervisors to be vacated by the incumbent Providence District supervisor, Gerry Connolly, who is running for board chairman.
“I see Fairfax County as a crossroads,” Smyth, a Democrat, said. “It’s time to take stock of our successes and challenges and plan for a future in which everyone has a part. Growth and development can lead us into that future, or it can pit us against each other.
“It is my pledge as Providence Supervisor to bring people together to preserve the future of our neighborhoods and our environment,” she said.
Smyth enters the race just one week after a momentous decision on a major land use case that was decided by the Planning Commission last week: Tysons II Land Company’s proposal for a final development plan at the Galleria engenders all of the complex development issues facing Fairfax County as it reaches buildout.
Smyth and the Commission voted against the proposal while urging the applicant to reach a compromise with Fairfax County over the outstanding zoning issues.
The measure will come to the Board of Supervisors for a public hearing at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, April 28.
Last year, Smyth voted in favor of West*Group’s plan to build four buildings with 1354 condominiums and townhomes at West Park in Tysons Corner.
That approval, ratified by the Board of Supervisors on Jan. 6 of this year, raised concerns about infrastructure and schools in the Tysons area.
“This was a conversion from office to residential that could be built by right. The proposal for residential would generate less peak hour traffic than the office proposal
“It’s also a way of putting more people at Tysons Corner, where they can work, shop, and build a 24/7 urban way of life. Tysons is our urban center.”
ALTHOUGH TYSONS is located in Providence District, it impacts several McLean neighborhoods that adjoin the Dulles Toll Road and Route 123.
Smyth, 53, has been Providence Planning Commissioner since 1999.
She has chaired the Planning Commission’s budget and personnel, policy and procedures, and joint transportation committees.
Smyth has chaired Providence District’s VolunteerFest Committee since 1996 and was named Providence Citizen of the Year in 2000 by the Providence District Council. She served that group as vice chair in 1998-99.
She has been president of the Briarwood Citizens’ Association from 1994-2001 .
She was Merrifield Suburban Center Citizens’ Task Force from 1998-99. Smyth has worked as a substitute teacher for Fairfax County Public Schools since 1992.
A native of Cape Girardeau, MO, Smyth moved to Northern Virginia in 1972 and to Providence District in 1974.
She earned a BA degree from Washington University at St. Louis in 1970, a masters from the University of Virginia in 1971, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Virginia in 1978.
She is married to Nigel Smyth, an attorney in Fairfax, and they have one son, Sefton, a second-year law student at the University of Virginia.
Smyth will kick off her campaign at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 11, at the Dunn Loring Volunteer Fire Department on Gallows Road.