The Falls Church City Council’s plans to adopt at its meeting this coming Monday a “memorandum of agreement” with the City’s Economic Development Authority (EDA) on a way forward for the affordable housing plans at F.C.’s 4.5 acre Virginia Village development has been tempered by the EDA’s decision this Tuesday to postpone its approval.
But an eventual approval will come soon, once aspects of the deal are worked through, both F.C. City Manager Wyatt Shields and EDA chair Russ Litkenhous noted at Tuesday’s EDA meeting held at City Hall.
In a statement to the News-Press yesterday, Litkenhous said, “There is still much public discussion to be had about the future of Virginia Village but the EDA remains committed to being good partners with the City to advance its affordable housing objectives.”
With 159 out of 336 existing City-supported affordable housing units set to expire within five years, the City partnering with the EDA to transform the Virginia Village from its current 20 fourplex buildings on its downtown S. Maple St. According to comments made by Shields at the City Council meeting last week, he would like to see the site become home to a new highrise residential affordably-priced apartment building.
It was noted by former F.C. Councilman Phil Duncan that the 4.5 acre site could easily hold hundreds of affordable units, being far larger than, for example, sites in Arlington currently being proposed where in excess of that number of affordable units are being advanced.
But such decisions remain down the road, subject to abundant public scrutiny and input. The City and EDA have, as of now, acquired 9 of the 20 fourplexes at the Virginia Village site.
At a nearby location, between 2008 and 2010, the then-Falls Church Housing Corporation, led by Carol Jackson and with critical support from former EDA chair and developer, the late Bob Young, advanced plans for a modest 66-unit senior housing building, known as “The Wilden,” but while it won initial City Council approval, significant local opposition produced a negative 4-3 Council vote in the summer of 2010 that led to the effort being scuttled.
In City Council developments from its work session this Monday:
It was announced that a second meeting between City officials, the EDA and restaurant owners will be held Tuesday, Feb. 10, at 7:30 p.m. at Viget, 105 W. Broad.
Plans for an east-west pedestrian and bicycle connection between the W&OD trail and the City’s secondary school campus, aimed at safe student travel to the Henderson Middle School and Meridian High School, is now estimated to be upwards of $2 million, depending on which one of three prospective routes is chosen.
Plans for the “Greening of Lincoln” project aimed at resolving storm water issues as well as roadway and sidewalk improvements now faces a jump from an original $500,000 estimate for its first phase to $3.7 million.
Both projects will be funded with a lot of outside money, however. Some $1.5 million of the east-west trail project will be paid for out of Northern Virginia Transportation Association “30 Percent” funds, and the first phase of the Lincoln Avenue project will be paid for by federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds from 2021.
On the latter project, the Council is being impelled to move quickly to contract the Sagras Company to move ahead due to the fact that the ARPA funds, totalling $4 million, must by law be deployed by the end of this year, or be lost. It will take the matter up formally for a vote at this coming Monday’s business meeting.
This phase includes the installation of new underground stormwater pipes in the area of Lincoln Park at Great Falls.
Amanda Stout Brain, the City’s Public Works Director, said that due to the increased cost, the ARPA money will not be available for other stormwater components including at the American Legion Hall and at Walden Court at Lincoln, another $9 million in Virginia state so-called Stormwater Local Assistance funds (SLAF) obtained for the City by former State Sen. Dick Saslaw will be deployed in later phases of the project, but will still not be enough to complete it in its entirety without additional resources.
On the east-west trail project, Stout Brain presented three options for its route, with a final choice predicated on responses from area homeowner associations, including those representing the Gates of Falls Church, Falls Plaza and residents of Offett Street, members of whom have to date voiced ranges of concern including privacy, liability, loss of trees and litter.
While the City has retailed Rinker Design Associates, the Falls Plaza Condo Association has so far not granted permission for the City to access their property, she reported.
Costs of that project are projected at $283,525 for engineering and design, $284,447 for right of way, and $1,391,748 for construction.
On another subject taken up at Monday’s lengthy work session, City residents may find themselves facing another one-year pilot project for scooters and electronic bicycles (called “shared mobility devices”) as early as the end of next month.
Right now, the City’s Environmental Planner Kurt Lawrence told the Council, the 2.2 square miles of the City is formally off limits to scooter providers that operate throughout the rest of the Northern Virginia region, because it is the only jurisdiction that does not have a formal policy permitting their use, and as such is the only “no ride zone” in the region.
Scooter users, if they come into the City limits from Fairfax or Arlington counties, are notified on their devices that they must leave right away.
Lawrence proposed that the City adopt a one-year pilot program as a way of moving toward a formal policy to allow scooter and e-bike uses, and that it could start by the end of March.
He said the City would offer the pilot to one of the four provider companies in the area to permit up to 100 rider units with a permit fee of $5,000 and a cash bond of $2,500. A lot of advances have been made in the technology since the City last tried a pilot in 2019 that kind of fell by the wayside with the onset of the Covid pandemic.
Mayor Letty Hardi said she is “optimistic” the project will work, as was Council member Justine Underhill, who announced that she has her own e-bike she loves to ride around town.
