Council Mulls Senior Project

Plans for a newly-configured, 62-unit mixed-use senior housing project proposed for the 1000 block of West Broad Street are expected to pass a "first reading" at the Falls Church City Council this Monday. But Council members, who mulled the project with their Planning Commission counterparts at a work session this week, made it clear that a thumbs-up Monday will be no guarantee of an eventual approval.

A strong contingent of neighbors to the site, staunchly opposed to the project since they contend it will limit expansion of the West End Park, was present at Monday's work session

Carol Jackson, executive director of the Falls Church Housing Corporation, which hopes to build the structure, noted that the building plan was substantially modified to accommodate to the concerns of the neighbors, resulting in fewer rental units available to qualified seniors. Attention to landscaping and sight-line concerns was evident in the modifications, she said. The site will now have no retail, and be limited to the 62 rental units plus 11,000 square feet of office space.

Yet some Council members asked if even further consideration for the neighbors' concerns could be achieved. Jackson said at that point that the neighbors, in fact, did not want the project at all, citing a petition of over 100 of them to that point, and suggesting this meant there would be no way to appease them.