November 20 - 26, 2025
Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free
Founded 1991 • Vol. XXXV N o . 41
The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia
F.C. Mayor KNOCKS OFF SOCKS Appointed to Spanberger Transition On Housing Policy Group As F.C. Faces That Issue by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
City of Falls Church Mayor Letty Hardi has been appointed to the transition team of Virginia’s just-elected new governor, Abigail Spanberger. She has already begun serving on a housing policy committee under Chris Lloyd, appointed her new commerce and trade secretary. With the appointment, Hardi becomes the first mayor of Falls Church ever to serve on a statewide political body. She told the News-Press in an interview Tuesday that she has already begun a series of video and Richmond in-person meetings which have been added to her always busy schedule of events in the Little City. She said the involvement is shortterm, defining key issues on housing for the incoming Spanberger administration up to the point of her swearing in in early January. Her contributions on the housing front will reflect her work and that of the Falls Church City Council on affordable housing, which was a
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HELP SUPPORT THE NEWS-PRESS Bring Back Home Delivery
“BRING A SECOND PAIR of socks, because this is going to knock your socks off,” exclaimed Meridian High School theater director Shawn Northrip to the News-Press this week. The musical,”Rock of Ages,” opens tonight through Saturday in the school auditorium. See story, inside this edition. (Photo: News-Press)
A Groundbreaking for New West Falls Metro Development
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), known endearingly simply as Metro, along with development partners Rushmark Properties and EYA, LLC, and Virginia elected officials, broke ground yesterday on a dense mixed-use community development adjacent the West Falls Metro station where residents will soon be able to live, work, and play steps from the City of Falls Church. The Falls Church Gateway
Partners will transform 24 acres of Metro-owned parking lots into a vibrant neighborhood that enhances transit accessibility and supports affordable housing, participants in yesterday’s groundbreaking event were told. The project will be developed in three phases and include up to 1 million square feet of new residential, office and retail space. The residential portion will include up to 810 apartments and 82 townhomes with affordable housing components. The project also includes a new street grid with improved pedestrian, bike, and bus access.
New public spaces like civic plazas, pocket parks, and a dog play area will also be created. The first phase is expected to open with townhomes starting in 2027 and apartments in 2028. The project is the third component of the wider West Falls development that includes the 10 acres of new construction in the City of Falls Church, and a Virginia Tech/HITT construction component adjacent it currently under construction. The broad West Falls Station Boulevard will be extended from Route 7 all the way to the Metro station to provide a seamless link
through all three components that, combined, will be 42 acres. “This project will bring so many benefits to the local neighborhood, and I am thrilled to see WMATA break ground on it,” said U.S. Rep. Don Beyer at the morning event yesterday. “Enhancing accessibility and making use of underutilized spaces at the station will be a great boost for the local neighborhood and Metro riders. I look forward to realizing the promise of these and other transit infrastructure improvements.”
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