January 17 – 23, 2019
Fa lls Chur c h, V i r g i ni a • ww w. fc np. c om • Fr ee
Fou n d e d 1991 • Vol. XXVIII No. 48
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week Falls Church’s Winter Real Estate Guide is Here The winter edition of the NewsPress’ Falls Church real estate special is inside with features on the future of home garages, the “Amazon Effect” and area housing inventory.
See special section, pages 13–20
MLK ‘Day of Service’ Events Monday
1st Public Unveiling Held of 3-Player Plan To Develop at West F.C. Metro WMATA, Virginia Snow Day in the Little City Tech, F.C. in Reveal Of Common Vision
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Chambers of Commerce throughout the area. The Falls Church Chamber of Commerce added its name to a growing list of other Chambers and business organizations in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area “strongly urging the president
For the first time in a public meeting, the scope of a threeparty cooperative effort to put over 40 acres of dense mixed-use development adjacent the West Falls Church Metro station was unveiled Tuesday night at a forum on the campus of the Virginia Tech Northern Virginia Graduate Center. With representatives of all the involved parties present at the forum, including WMATA (the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority that operates the regional Metro rail system), Virginia Tech and the City of Falls Church, the full scale of the vision for a seamless combination of their three properties into one coherent array of residential, office and retail projects was presented, tied together by a colorful, wide boulevard extending from the Metro station to Route 7 just west of Falls Church. Fairfax Supervisor John Foust hosted the event and commented at the outset that the public turnout was considerably higher than he expected. A large classroom at the Grad Center was filled to overflowing. But the concord and generally common vision among the three property owner entities, and Fairfax County, exhibited at the meeting was historic. Nina Albert, managing director of WMATA’s Office of Real Estate and Parking, Kenneth Wong, director of the
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The Falls Church City Council voted to commemorate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by declaring Monday a Day of Service and will join communities around the country in a national day of service project. See News Briefs, page 9
Stamos Announces Bid for Re-Election
Last week, incumbent Commonwealth Attorney Theo Stamos announced her candidacy for re-election to represent Arlington and the City of Falls Church. See News Briefs, page 9
Mustang Boys Down Strasburg, Madison Co. Now, nearly three weeks through Bull Run District play, George Mason High School’s boys basketball team has kept its spotless district record intact. See Sports, page 24
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF the first snowfall of the year, children took to the hills of Falls Church over the weekend and on the no-school Monday to race down neighborhood slopes on their sleds. See more snow photos on page 8. (Photo: Carol Sly)
Chambers, Area Business Groups Decry Impact of Federal Shutdown by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Index
Editorial................ 6 Letters.................. 6 News & Notes.10–11 Comment...... 12–13 Business News.. 23 Sports................ 24
Calendar...... 26–27 Classified Ads.... 28 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword......... 29 Crime Report..... 30 Critter Corner..... 30
With President Trump’s federal government shutdown now the longest in U.S. history and in its fourth week, the detrimental impact on the economy and social services demands across the nation are threatening to cripple
the nation’s growth, and the accumulating impact on furloughed federal workers in Northern Virginia is reaching a breaking point. Area leaders are calling for an immediate end to the shutdown, including Virginia’s leaders in Congress and the Greater Washington Board of Trade and