F.C. Council Members Tip Hand, Want City to Buy Land for Park

Two members of the Falls Church City Council were reprimanded by City Attorney Roy Thorpe Monday for expressing their preference for City acquisition of the land that the Falls Church Housing Corporation is currently seeking Council approval to develop for affordable housing. The incident occurred at Monday's Council work session.

Thorpe cautioned Council members Sam Mabry and Marty Meserve that if it were construed that the Council's action on the FCHC's petition was prejudiced by its own designs on the land, then the Council could be held legally liable to both the FCHC and the current land owners, the Falls Church Volunteer Firefighters. The FCHC currently has a tentative contract to purchase the land from the Firefighters.

"Let the record show that that is clearly not our intent," Mabry insisted. Still, Mabry's comment that, if the FCHC plan was not approved, the City might acquire the land and use it for parkland, a comment that drew a swift "second" from Meserve, led to Thorpe's intervention.

The exchange occurred in the context of the Council's consideration of the latest FCHC proposal for development of the Firefighter property in question, which is a 28,500 square foot plot of undeveloped land facing onto W. Broad St. and sitting adjacent the City's West End Park.

A combination of neighbors to the site and open space advocates have loudly objected to the FCHC plan, including with a rally at the park last Saturday morning. They've complained that the proposed five-story senior housing building would negatively impact the park and that the undeveloped land on which it sits is considered an extension of the park and should be kept that way.

But the land is owned by the Firefighters, and in a deal cut with the City to assist in the construction of a new fire station on N. Washington St., the Firefighters agreed to deed over half the land to the City for open space and to sell the other half, facing on W. Broad, for the highest value it can get. The City committed to assisting the Firefighters in getting the best value for that half of the land.

The FCHC entered into a conditional agreement with the Firefighters for the acquisition of that half of the land for purposes of building an affordable housing facility with about 65 apartments for senior citizens.

In its latest proposal, the FCHC project fits entirely on the half of the land it has contracted to purchase from the Firefighters, but is asking the City to allow a 20' landscaping buffer, which will function as parkland, to be on the City's part of the parcel.

"Our view is that the City is committed to affordable housing, and that the need is pressing, and all we're asking the City to do now is allow for a small buffer to give us the scale of building to both optimize the number of affordable units and to work for us, from a financial standpoint," Carol Jackson, executive director of the FCHC, told the News-Press yesterday.

But at Monday's work session, the Council instructed Thorpe to draft a resolution that would call for an exact 50-50 split of the land, forcing the buffer be part of the FCHC side and requiring the project to shrink further.

Jackson, however, said that she would not give up in the face of this latest blow to the project's feasibility. "The Council has not formally heard our proposal yet. We want to keep that buffer as parkland, and we think our proposal will work to address the needs for both open space and affordable housing," she said. She said she was pleased by the vote of the Planning Commission this Monday to recommend approval of the project as it now stands. On the three approvals required, two were passed by 5-2 votes and one by a 4-3 vote.

Jackson reminded Peggy Fox, a reporter from WUSA-TV, during an interview yesterday on the West End Park grounds that should the FCHC plan fall through, the property would go on the market for sale to the highest bidder.

"Given the attention this land has now gotten, there are a number of developers who would be eager to bid up the price if we go away," she said. "If the City were to try to buy it, it would be competing in price for land with a considerable commercial value."

During the course of the noon interview, the only others in the park were a shabbily dressed man sleeping on the ground and three youths who were walking away from the local high school smoking cigarettes.

The Council is expected to table the matter at its meeting this Monday and to vote on the three petitions for approval at its January 11 meeting.