'50/50 Or Fight'

The fate of a proposed 56-unit senior housing project in the 1100 block of West Broad St. was given a sequence of surprise boosts at Monday's Falls Church City Council meeting, even though it still hangs by a thread and a final decision on the matter remains postponed until Jan. 10.

The embattled proposal of the Falls Church Housing Corporation to add significantly to the virtually non-existent stock of affordable rental housing in Falls Church was given tentative new life when numerous citizens living adjacent the property in question stepped forward Monday to say they could "live with" the project as long as it did not intrude onto land designated to be added to the West End Park.

By the end of the night, five hours after the meeting had been called to order, at issue was the exact location of a slim 20-foot width of real estate designated to be a buffer along a projected boundary dividing in half the undeveloped property owned by the Falls Church Volunteer Firefighters just west of the W&OD Trail bike bridge over West Broad.

In 1998, in a deal with the City for construction of a new fire station on North Washington St., the Firefighters agreed to deed over 50% of its W. Broad property to the City for open space, with the understanding that the City would help, with re-zoning or other measures, the Firefighters sell the other 50% for a good price. The Housing Corporation stuck a deal with the Firefighters to buy its 50%, pending Council approval of its project.

While a mobilization in recent weeks of neighbors and open space advocates brought many complaints against the mass of the proposed five-story building and appeals to keep the entire Firefighter parcel for parkland, Monday night numerous neighbors said they'd accept the project as long as it was kept strictly on the Firefighters' 50% of the land.

The latest Housing Corporation design proposal has its building entirely on the Firefighters' 50%, but with a mandated 20-foot buffer edging over onto the other half. In its plan, the Housing Corporation would be responsible for the buffer, but grant it permanently to the City as an easement so that it could be landscaped to be integrated into the expanded West End Park on the other half of the property.

But this proposed placement of the buffer on the City's 50% of the land became the new sticking issue for the neighbors, who insisted, in the words of one, that it be "50-50 or Fight."

But near 12:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, the Council voted unanimously to adopt a resolution including carefully-crafted language proposed by Councilman David Chavern that it carry over the matter to the Jan. 10 meeting "with the goal to achieve a 50-50 split in the property."

The key word in the revised resolution was "goal," substituting for language mandating an absolute 50-50 split. That came after Council member Robin Gardner offered that the Council might be willing to provide some assistance to the Housing Corporation to help overcome the added cost of scaling its project back further.

Gardner's comment prompted Carol Jackson, executive director of the Housing Corporation, to report that Council pressures to downsize the project had already put her organization an additional $600,000 in the hole.

Every time the project is redrawn to further reduce the size of the building, thus reducing the number of rental units, the financial feasibility of the project is diminished, she noted. Already, the proposed number of rental units has been reduced by about 14.

Chavern then offered that the Housing Corporation's added cost to further reduce the building size to fit the buffer on its half might be prohibitive. "We have to weigh the cost against what is no more than a 1/10th of an acre in dispute here," he said.

He said that if the Housing Corporation came back on Jan. 10 to report on the added cost of a further reduction of its project, then the Council should decide if it is "worth it" or not to insist on the absolute 50-50 split. That was when he proposed the language, "a goal of 50%," and the Council concurred.

Council members David Snyder and Sam Mabry both commented that the Council is "absolutely committed" to making the Housing Corporation project work, and colleagues Chavern, Robin Gardner, Lindy Hockenberry and Vice Mayor Marty Meserve, acting as mayor at the meeting in the absence of Mayor Dan Gardner, concurred.

The Housing Corporation's latest proposal came to the Council Monday with the blessing of the Planning Commission, which voted its approval of all three measures, including a change to the City's Comprehensive Plan, a re-zoning and the granting of a Special Exception, required to make it happen.

In its final action early Tuesday morning, the Council voted unanimously to reappoint four members of the Planning Commission whose terms were due to expire Jan. 1. Ruth Rodgers, Christine Sanders, Maureen Budetti and Suzanne Fauber were approved for new four-year terms on the commission.