Letters to the Editor: May 18 – 24, 2017

Falls Church Has Rare Development Opportunity

Editor,

I agree completely with the sentiments in your editorial in last week’s edition. I would like to add some of my perspectives on the subject.

Falls Church, unlike the surrounding Virginia and Maryland Counties, has the rare opportunity to control its own development destiny. Since most of these counties have exceeded development densities that make financial and services sense for their residents, they just continue chasing development to cover their increasing structural costs.The quality of life continues to decline.

Since Falls Church has limited land for any new, large comprehensive single-family home tracts, infill and multi-family are the best options. With a strategic long-term development plan, Falls Church can allow for sufficient needed residential and commercial development to help bring new revenues and appropriate local community services. “Development for development’s sake” is ruining the surrounding jurisdictions with sprawl, choking traffic, and declining quality of community life. Falls Church can avoid this if it make the courageous policy decision to let its citizens, not developers, dictate the future of this wonderful community.

Leaders need to step back to ask who the community is for and what future community services will be needed.

Jim Coyle

Falls Church

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