Planners' Unanimous OK Sets Stage For Final Approval of S. Maple Plan

The Falls Church City Council is expected to approve this Monday Atlantic Realty's large scale mixed use plan for development of the 4.7 acre so-called Diener Tract, site of the old duckpin bowling alley at 400 S. Maple Street. The project will include 230 one and two-bedroom residential condominium units and 100,000 square feet of office and retail use.

The project will become the fourth approved by the City Council since the September 2001 approval of The Broadway, which is now completed in the 500 block of West Broad St. The Spectrum at 444 W. Broad and The Byron and the old Red Lobster site on the south side of the 500 block of West Broad, have already been approved. Both are slated to break ground this fall and to be completed within two years after that.

On top of all these, the City of Falls Church is concluding negotiations with the Akridge Company for a major downtown redevelopment effort in the blocks just west of the intersection of Routes 7 and 29. City Economic Development czar Rich Goff told a standing-room-only luncheon of the Greater Falls Church Chamber of Commerce Tuesday that the redevelopment will include a movie theatre and hotel as well as a lot of retail, office, structured parking and residential development. It was already announced that the first phase of the project will include a large supermarket in the block now home to the City's main post office.

The City Planning Commission gave an important, unanimous "thumbs up" to Atlantic Realty's S. Maple plan, which is considerably larger than the three previously OK'd, at its meeting this Monday. With its 230 condos and 100,000 square feet of retail and office, it is larger than The Broadway (80 units, 12,900 square feet commercial), The Spectrum (195 units and 28,800 square feet commercial) and The Byron (90 units and 18,422 square feet commercial).

A key development in the Planning Commission approval Monday was the testimony by a residential homeowner behind the site, who said that she and her neighbors were "all in accord" with the plan following "a very pleasing discussion" with the developers at a meeting last week. Alice Eister of Rollins Street said new buffer and fence plans "will look good to both sides."

The sharp contrast between support for the project from those neighbors who sat down and discussed it thoroughly with Atlantic Realty representatives and opposition to it expressed by signers of a petition circulated by citizen activist Lou Mauro resulted in a heated exchange between Falls Church Mayor Dan Gardner and Council member Dave Snyder in a Council work session this Monday.

Gardner said the petition provided signers with "limited input," "largely one-sided," and "not balanced."

Snyder retorted that "a petition with 457 signatures carries a lot of weight," and Gardner fired back, "Not the way it was put together. It was disingenuous at best and a disservice to the community."

"I couldn't disagree with you more," Snyder replied. "I can’t believe you are saying this."

Gardner said it was the petition was "based on listening to the opinion of one person" by contrast, he said, to "taking time, listening and talking to the developers" as happened at last week's neighborhood meeting.

This Monday, Atlantic Realty announced an added sweetener to its $2.89 million cash and equivalent total in voluntary proffers to the City, increasing the cash amount it will pay out per affordable dwelling unit should the City opt for cash instead of a designated number of affordable units embedded in the building. Their offer was increased to $80,000 per unit equivalent.

The City might decide to ask for a combination of cash and ADU units totaling 15, but that decision will not be required for months.

The proffers include a $1,111,980 cash contribution to the City's school construction fund as well as landscape and streetscape improvement, undergrounding of utilities and other amenities.

Clearly, moves by the developer to accommodate to City wishes by including a 3,000 square foot arts space at a steep discount for 10 years and an outdoor square facing S. Maple with a piece of public art appealed to the Council so far, and to the Planning Commission.

So did offers to increase the buffer zone from 20 to 27 feet behind the project and add a six-foot wooden fence to insulate it from the residential neighborhoods.

Another improvement was Atlantic's decision to cut the project from three buildings to two, one larger residential one with street level retail, and the second a Class A office building with ground floor retail. The buildings will begin construction simultaneously, rather than in phases.

It was also pointed out that, according to the City's own economic development model, the project is the "highest and best use" of the land from a net annual tax revenue standpoint, beating out all commercial, hotel or all-residential options.

A public hearing will precede the Council's debate and vote on the resolution that would authorize the Atlantic Realty project at this Monday's regular Council business meeting.