Falls Church News-Press 2-7-2019

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February 7 – 13, 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. 51

Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads

Inside This Week New F.C. Aldi Opening in 2 Weeks

It was announced this week that Aldi, the City’s newest grocery store at 155 Hillwood Ave. in the Tower Square shopping center, is slated to open to the public on Thursday, Feb. 21. See News Briefs, page 9

Snyder Tells WMATA: Stay Within 3% Growth Falls Church City Councilman David Snyder testified at Tuesday’s monthly meeting on WMATA’s Metro budget and emphasized to Metro that it must stay within the allotted subsidy percentage increase.

Modified West End Plan Includes 150-175 Affordable, Workforce-Friendly ‘Micro Units’ More Senior, Condos Year of the Pig Appealing to ‘Empty Nesters’ Added Too

by Nicholas F. Benton

Falls Church News-Press

on the original agreed-upon initial terms between the two parties in December than the series of marathon closed sessions held in January took place. For as much pride as the City took in the transparency and openness of the process leading to the December compact, nothing was public about what transpired in the

Early-stage modifications to the interim agreement for the dense economic development of the City of Falls Church’s 10.3 acres of its high school-middle school site designated for that use will, if approved by the F.C. City Council going forward, include an extra 150,000 square feet in residential density, including 50,000 square feet for senior housing and 100,000 square feet for 40 or so of the first new condominiums built in the City in over a decade, and even more notable, some 150-175 “micro unit” rentals. The modified plans of the team of EYA, PN Hoffman and Regency, operating under the moniker of the Falls Church Gateway Partners, hammered out the terms in a series of intense closed sessions with the City Council in the last month, with the final product made public for the first time this Monday night. The modifications, coming almost immediately after the terms of an original, high profile tentative agreement were struck in December, came in the context of other changes (see story, left) to address the developers’ needs to win necessary financing for the ambitious development project which will transform the west end of Falls Church adjacent the West Falls Church Metro station. With the changes in mind, the F.C. Gateway Partners announced Monday that they’d formally filed petitions for necessary zoning and special exceptions with the City

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See News Briefs, page 9

Metro’s 3T Bus Service Now Restored The 3T Metro bus service on Broad Street in the City of Falls Church has been restored. See News Briefs, page 9

Mason Boys Set Records In Regular Season Finale

A double-dose of history was made during the George Mason boys basketball regular season finale when senior forward Hollman Smith broke 1,000 career points and senior guard Max Ashton set Mason’s new alltime scoring record. See Sports, page 16

THE YEAR OF THE PIG was initiated with a celebration at Eden Center, one of the East Coast’s biggest centers of Asian-American retail commerce, on Tuesday with a traditional lion dance. Another New Year celebration is set for this Sunday at the Falls Church shopping center. (Photo: Matt Delaney)

Clues Suggest January Closed F.C. Council Sessions Involved Considerable Heartburn by Nicholas F. Benton

Falls Church News-Press

Index

Editorial................ 6 Letters..............6, 8 News & Notes.10–11 Comment...... 12–13 Business News.. 15 Sports................ 16

Calendar...... 18–19 Classified Ads.... 20 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword......... 21 Crime Report..... 22 Critter Corner..... 22

Although everyone kept their cool at Monday night’s Falls Church City Council work session when terms of a modified agreement between the City and the development team of EYA, PN Hoffman and Regency (now known as the Falls Church Gateway Partners) for develop-

ment of the 10.3 acre site on the City’s high school-middle school property designated for dense economic development were first made public, offhand remarks during the course of the discussion indicated that there was a lot more anguish involved in the four lengthy closed sessions the Council held on the subject in the last month than was being let on. No sooner had the ink dried


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