BIG TURNOUT at F.C. City Hall Wednesday night for an update on changes in the Mason Row development plan. (Photo: News-Press)With a final vote due Monday by the Falls Church City Council, requiring a super-majority of five out of seven vote to pass, developers of the 4.3 acre Mason Row project made more changes this week, downsizing the total number of rental residential units, lowering the frontage along West Street facing the residential neighborhood by one floor, and committing to meet the full measure of City policy on affordable dwelling units, or ADU’s, along with a total of $2.25 million in cash contributions to the schools ($1.8 million), the library ($219,307), City parks ($150,000) and the arts-based CATCH foundation ($25,000). Market rate rentals are now at 299, with an additional 23 ADU’s.
New architectural changes on the hotel building include “custom designed exterior architecture to provide for a more Falls Church-style building,” said Peter Batten of the Spectrum Development. Also, the theater is being moved above ground to the second floor of the interior, eastern side of the project with full access on Mason Ave. “The transition that our project provides with the neighborhoods in the area has been carefully thought out and is better than the transitions provided by many of the prior-approved mixed-use projects in Falls Church,” Batten said. Failing to win approval from the Planning Commission means the project needs the super-majority Council vote Monday.
Spectrum and Mill Creek are scheduled to present these new changes at a public meeting at City Hall Wednesday night.
