Housing Helps Recruit New Teacher

By Nicholas F. Benton

The novel new “teacher workforce” rental units included in the now-approved 402 W. Broad Street mixed use project have their first tenant.

Lilla Wise, Director of Human Resources for the Falls Church City Public Schools, said the first new teacher was hired into the system utilizing the incentive of access to one of the units, located within walking distance of all Falls Church’s schools.

It was stipulated in the agreement between the schools, the Falls Church City Council and developer Bob Young that Ms. Wise could use her discretion to make units in the project available to select teachers she is recruiting.

Meanwhile, the site plan for the new building was approved just this Tuesday morning after a late-hour appeal from Young to the Planning Commission Monday night to “get on with it.” The project’s site plan approval had been held up following last month’s unanimous vote by the City Council to permit the unique mixed-use structure that will be known as the “ Read Building.”

One of the “bones of contention” with City staff over the site plan, ironically, had to do with the efficacy of the environmentally-friendly “green roof” that Young said he would include as a proffer to the City.
The City’s chief engineer, Moe Wadda, held up the approval, according to an e-mail correspondence, on grounds “the green roof area” is “a relatively new concept whose effectiveness has yet to be proven” in mitigating storm water runoff. Wadda wrote that because of that, he “advised against their claiming credit for including the green roof area as part of the BMP (“best management practices”—ed.) mitigation requirements.”

But Young cut short a trip to the West Coast to show up at the Planning Commission Monday night and appeal. “The technology of green roofs was developed 25 years ago in Prince Georges County, Maryland, and that county’s handbook is still used to this day,” Young told the News-Press.

He was met with assurances from Elizabeth Friel, chief City planner, that the site plan would be approved by the next morning and it was.

Now, the project awaits a demolition permit as the trees on the site will begin coming down this week. A demolition of the old Falls Church Service Center building on the site is expected next week.

On another development front in Falls Church this week, a mixed use project proposed by the Hekemian Company for the intersection of N. Washington (Rt. 29) at E. Jefferson Street was subjected to a major review at a joint work session of the City Council and Planning Commission Monday night. The project would go on the site of the old Pearson Funeral Home at 427 N. Washington.

The project, which would include 124 rental apartment units and 23,000 square feet of ground floor retail space, has been given a favorable recommendation by the City staff and will come before the City Council for a preliminary approval later this month.

Some Council members were vocal in their opposition to the project this Monday, however, including David Chavern, who admitted that he lived near where it would go, but said that did not influence his opinion. Chavern called attention to the 500 condo units currently under construction or approved for construction just over the border in Arlington, just 200 yards away.

Others seemed more favorably inclined, including Mayor Dan Gardner, who, as a general principle to neighbors and others opposed to projects like this said, “Change happens. Get over it.”
He said he found the idea of rental units that could be affordable to young professionals “an attractive one that might bring a younger, more vibrant” presence to the City.

The proposed units would range in size from junior one-bedroom to two bedrooms and a study that would rent for $1,300 to $2,000 per month. They would include seven specifically set aside as “affordable dwelling units.”

Council member Lindy Hockenberry added that the project “could add to the stock of rental units that we don’t have right now.”

Council member Sam Mabry chimed in that with 2,000 residential units planned for the City Center area not far away, concerns over 124 units seem overblown. He suggested it would not significantly impact the overall City plans, and probed the notion that some or all of the rental units “could be held for Falls Church residents and employees.”

The project would bring $150,000 in annual fiscal benefit to the City and even though it is only 14% commercial, the proposed square feet of retail is double what any other retail concept could provide on the site due to its size and the need for parking.

For example, Hekemian spokesmen noted, it is double the square feet that a CVS store, which was considered for the site earlier, would occupy.