Letters to the Editor


July 4 in Falls Church, More Than Fireworks
Editor,
I read with great interest and appreciation, Richard Barton's report on Arlington's Independence Day events and celebrations. Here, in Falls Church, much of what he reports can also be observed-the fireworks, band concert, outdoor family get togethers, grills and parties.

The main difference between us is that for the past 20 years, under the sponsorship of the FC Village Preservation and Improvement Society, we have convened annual 4th of July readings, held in the City Council Chambers, open to all. We believe this tradition to be a unique one in which citizens, young and old, including recent ones of foreign extraction, the very young as well as the elders, as your photos last week illustrated, are invited to read aloud four major documents from the American Revolution. In so doing, they recall and feel the connection of this part of Virginia, especially the Falls Church Episcopal founded in 1732. For in this church's vestry sat George Washington and George Mason, The Father of the American Bill of Rights.

Each person present is invited to read a few sentences or small paragraph individually and occasionally in unison, from Mason's Fairfax Resolve, his Virginia Declaration of Rights whose words and purpose foreshadowed those of the American Bill of Rights and of the Declaration of Independence itself.

Falls Church may have developed a new way of celebrating and remembering the birth of our country as reflected in the seminal and long lasting words of a few of our earliest Virginia and American statesmen.

Louis T. Olom; Falls Church

Burnett Favors Affordable ‘Granny Flats’
Editor,
I was pleased to see mention of "granny flats" as an affordable housing option in the News-Press editorial last week. The zoning/coding tool that allows such creative and neighborhood-friendly land use to make this happen is called form-based coding. Form-based coding deals directly with building form and sets only broad parameters on building use. It's a way to make our zoning code work to focus on the aspects of daily life we all enjoy. Best of all its a process firmly rooted in upfront, community-based input known as charettes to visually determine the direction for the City on issues such as building height and placement, density, environmentally-focused design and the range of housing options possible such as "granny flats" in both residential and commercial areas.

Imagine if we were to spend a few years working together to create a thoughtful, unified direction for growth and development citywide instead of spending the next 20 years battling parcel by parcel and zone by zone. I know which process I'd like to be a part of.

Bob Burnett; Falls Church