December 6 — 12, 2018
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. 42
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week Santa Coming to the Little City Next Week
The annual tradition returns as the Falls Church Volunteer Fire Department decorates its reserve engine and escorts Santa Claus through the streets of the greater Falls Church area starting Dec. 18. See News Briefs, page 9
Smyth Announces She Won’t Seek Re-Election
With Econ Development Plan, New Mason High Won't Need More Tax $ F.C. Council, School Board Gets Preview Of Next Budget Year
by Nicholas F. Benton
Linda Smyth, who has represented the Providence District of Fairfax County adjacent the City of Falls Church at its southern end, announced she will not seek re-election next year.
Falls Church News-Press
agreement with the City to light up the site in a big way, he’s already lining up the first of the new businesses: the grocery store, the hotel, the music venue, the music school and the senior living apartments. A mood of excitement pervaded both the Coordinating Committee (the City’s team of representatives from its City Council, School Board and City staff) meeting last Friday morning and the EDA Tuesday night.
Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields confirmed that the new $120 million George Mason High School, as well as the renovations to City Hall and the Mary Riley Styles Library, will get built without costing City taxpayers an extra dime over what they’re already paying in real estate taxes if the preliminary deal struck between the City and the master developer for 10.3 acres at the City’s West End passes. Shields revealed the development at a joint work session Monday night of the F.C. City Council and School Board, their first take at the next fiscal year budget. As much as it was hoped for as the outcome of the dealings with the EYA, PN Hoffman and Regency team that wants to put a $500 million development onto the City’s site where the current high school sits, it was not stated openly that the plan would enable an effectively cost-free high school and other developments, beyond the 3.5 cent real estate tax rate increase that was assigned in two steps over the last two years. But this was the cornerstone of the joint session Monday night, a prequel to the next six months deliberations that will result in the adoption of a new annual City and Schools operating budget next April, set to go into effect next July 1. It is a signal that the upcoming budget deliberations, even with an
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See News Briefs, page 9
F.C.'s New Animal Rescue Foundation
The Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation’s new residence at Seven Corners has become a transformational outpost for an organization devoted to finding permanent homes for estranged animals. See page 16
Mason Boys Hoops Improves To 2-1
Early returns are promising for George Mason High School boys basketball team’s shift in defensive philosophy. See Sports, page 19
THE JOINT MEETING of the Falls Church City Council and School Board Monday learned that the new high school, City Hall and library renovations will all be paid for without costing City taxpayers any additional money. (Photo: News-Press)
EYA's Master Developer: We Already Have 'Letters of Intent' by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Index
Editorial................ 6 Letters..............6, 8 News & Notes.12–13 Comment...... 14–15 Business News.. 17 Sports................ 19
Calendar...... 26–27 Classified Ads.... 28 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword......... 29 Crime Report..... 30 Critter Corner..... 30
At meetings of the Falls Church Campus Coordinating Committee and Economic Development Authority in the past week, Evan Goldman, the chief master plan coordinator for EYA, Inc., the team chosen by the F.C. City Council to develop the 10.3acre West End commercial site on the grounds of George Mason High School, announced that his company is already in negotiations with five entities on “letters of
intent” to build on the site, having secured two already. “I have been in on 12 Falls Church project-related meetings today,” Goldman told the EDA board at its monthly meeting Tuesday night. “This is a very cool, exciting project.” That’s putting it mildly from the standpoint of what he, and his counterparts from PN Hoffman and Regency chosen to build the $500 million project, have presented to date, and with the ink barely dry on the preliminary $44.5 million 99-year lease