Civic Group to Mull Ideas Saturday for Redevelopment at East F.C. Metro

This Saturday, leads of the Arlington/East Falls Church Civic Association will host a public meeting to solicit public input on how the area around the East Falls Church Metro Station should be redeveloped.

According to an article in the association's spring newsletter, The Point, Metro has classified its East Falls Church station as a Stage 2 station for redevelopment, meaning that it is now on a short list for significant changes over the next five years.

"We don't want our neighborhood streets to become commuter lanes for Metro's faraway customers," Andy Black, president of the association, said in The Point.

The public event will be held in the meeting room at the Falls Church Fire Station, across from the La Cote D'Or restaurant at 6590 Little Falls Street from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A class at Virginia Tech's Department of Urban Affairs and Planning has been hired to facilitate the meeting, known as a charrette, and help stimulate ideas.

"Many developers have approached Metro and suggested development on the site without any input from the community. This charrette is the opportunity for our civic association to be proactive rather than merely reactive to the development plan," The Point quoted Mike Nardolilli, chair of the association's Metro Site Review Committee.

Meanwhile, plans are moving ahead following the Arlington County Board's 5-0 vote in February to approve construction of a five-story, 128 condominium unit project at the intersection of Rt. 29 and Westmoreland Streets, directly across from La Cote D'Or. The project will include 8,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor and 18 townhouses immediately to its east.

Considered a Metro-oriented development, the Silverwood Homes project will be a mix of one bedroom, one plus den, and two bedroom units with over 200 covered parking spaces. Retailers are expected to be restaurants, coffee shops, and small service businesses. Sales of the units are expected to commence this summer.

As casualty of the intense redevelopment anticipated at the East Falls Church Metro has been the decision by Ayoub Carpet, a fixture at its N. Fairfax Drive location since 1960, to relocate this fall to an area around Dulles Airport. The business was started in Rosslyn in the early 1950s by Joseph Ayoub, an immigrant from Palestine, and his five sons as a carpet cleaning company. The family bought land and constructed a 10,000 square foot building at its current location and moved there in 1960. Joseph Ayoub died at age 88 in 1996 and the business is now operated by his nephew, John Ayoub, according to a report in The Point by Robb Metry.