December 21 – 27, 2017
FA LLS CHUR C H, V I R G I NI A • WW W. FC NP. C OM • FR EE
FOU N D ED 1991 • VOL. XXVI I NO. 44
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Liberty Barbecue, the longawaited, slow-and-low restaurant from the group behind Arlington’s Lyon Hall, Liberty Tavern and Northside Social, opened its doors in Falls Church for the first time last Friday night to a gaggle of hungry residents. SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 9
T�� A��-O�� C�������� B�����: R��� �� F���? It may be a new holiday season with new presents to wrap and new meals to whip up but one age-old debate still flickers on — whether locals are buying real or fake trees to decorate their homes this season.
F.C. Planners Lift Height Limit Off Economic Piece of Campus Plan S������� I�
Density Could Go 4.0 FAR ‘Or Higher,’ New Language Proposes
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
With an apparent dead heat now, to be resolved by a coin flip, the prospect of an unprecedented 50-50 split in the House of Delegates is also now in the air. Further complicating the situation is the fact that another recount, in the 28th House District, is set for today (Thursday), and also faces a legal challenge as 147 voters in the district, which covers Fredericksburg and Stafford County, were given the wrong
Monday night in a unanimous vote, the Falls Church Planning Commission recommended to the City Council that language in the Comprehensive Plan concerning the 10 acres set aside for commercial development on the Mason High School site not be encumbered with any reference to density limits. The draft language for the new location set densities at FARs (floor to area ratios) of “2.5 to 4,” but the commission was in unanimous agreement that two words be added to that formulation: “or more.” Their intention was clear, with the City moving toward opening up to bids on development of the site, the commission thought it unwise to place any limits on how dense the project could be. “This document is to provide a limit on the lower end of the FAR range, not the higher one,” Commissioner Tim Stevens said. “It’s the opposite of what we would want for most of the rest of the City in which we would want to place an upper limit on density,” he said, “But in this location, it is the other way around. We want a lower limit, but don’t want to predispose an upper limit.” The other change the commission made was in language defining the purpose for the 10 acres of dense economic development. The draft language said it is for the purpose of covering the cost of the new high school planned for elsewhere on the site of an overall 36 acres. “But is is also for other purposes, so we would not want language to restrict it to that purpose,” the commission concurred.
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SEE PAGE 8
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Family values. How long have we been subjected to that subjective phrase, championed by Republicans who equated it with heterosexuality, fecundity and Christian piety — and who appointed themselves the custodians of those? SEE PAGE 14
M���� B���’ U�-���D��� S���� C�������� Finishing off their third week of the season, George Mason High School’s boys basketball team earned a hearty 66-52 win over Loudoun County High School on Dec. 14 followed up by a 78-67 loss to Washington-Lee High School on Tuesday. SEE SPORTS, PAGE 20
INDEX Editorial.................6 Letters...................6 News & Notes10–11 Comment ....... 12–14 Business News ...15 Calendar .......18–19
Sports .................20 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ..........21 Critter Corner......22 Classified Ads .....23
FALLS CHURCH SHERIFF deputies were sworn in at City Hall ceremony Tuesday by Clerk of the Circuit Court Paul Fergeson. He also swore in to new four year terms the City’s Sheriff Steve Bittle, Treasurer Jody Acosta and Commissioner of the Revenue Tom Clinton who were reelected to new terms last month. (P����: N���-P����)
Race Recounts This Week Throw State’s Delegate Balance Up in Air BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
A recount of the votes in the razor thin outcome of the Nov. 7 election in the Tidewater area’s House District 94 has thrown the issue of the balance of power in the Virginia state legislature into the air. According to the latest report on the recount Wednesday, what was a 20 vote lead for the Republican going into the recount evaporated into a dead heat. On Tuesday, it was announced
that the result had been reversed, with the Democrat Shelly Simonds shading her Republican rival David Yancey by a single vote of 11,608 to 11,607. That outcome, which Republicans appeared to accept at the time, was short-lived, however. A single ballot that had been discarded in the recount was deemed to be a vote for Yancey and was added back in Wednesday. As a result, the Newport News Circuit Court refused to certify Simonds as the winner.