March 30 – April 5, 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. X X V I I N o. 6
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week F.C. Teacher Sex Assault Case On to Grand Jury Jose Daniel Estrada, the sixth grade math teacher from Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School charged with aggravated sexual battery of two sixth-grade girls, waived his preliminary hearing Tuesday in Falls Church City Court, sending the case to a grand jury in Arlington Circuit Court. See News Briefs, page 9
City Announces Date For Easter Egg Hunt
F.C. Planning Chair Says Town Hall Called for Density at GMHS Site Walking for Women
Maximize Economic Development, Public Concluded at Event
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
await a final adoption of the budget on April 24, and this Sunday afternoon will provide the public with its first opportunity to react at with a town hall scheduled for 3 p.m. in the Council chambers. None of the Council members Monday were willing to commit to supporting the same tax rate when
Russ Wodiska, the new chair of the Falls Church Planning Commission, keynoted and moderated last Saturday’s town hall forum on economic development options for the West End Campus Development Project. He told the News-Press Tuesday that he came away from the event heartened, and with a strong sense of consensus that greater densities than earlier in vogue in Falls Church will be both welcomed and expected on the 36-acre site of a prospective new high school. In closing summary remarks from different breakout groups, Wodiska said he divined a “general agreement” that, he said, “will help shape our draft plan in the next two months.” He said the key themes were to 1. use the entire 10 acres allotted under the agreement to acquire the land for economic development (the rest to go to educational purposes), 2. to prefer mixed use to help create a “unique place,” 3. to prefer more density than currently permitted, with buildings from eight to 13 stories, and 4. to take advantage of the easy access to the West Falls Church Metro station. There was no major dissent to the prospect of greater density, he said, although no one wanted to see 20-story or higher buildings. (One innovative developer at the meeting quipped that he’d see no reason why a mixed use building of 35 stories would not work, since there is one that height, The Adair, that has just been completed in Tysons, and another one, even higher, is just now coming out of
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The 2017 City of Falls Church Annual Easter Egg Hunt, hosted by the City’s Recreation and Parks Department, will take place in Cherry Hill Park on Saturday, April 15 at 10 a.m. See News Briefs, page 9
Frank Bruni: Nunes is Dangerous
Rep. Devin Nunes obviously fancies himself Jason Bourne. To sneak onto the White House grounds for that rendezvous with an unnamed source last week, he switched cars and ditched aides, vanishing into the night. See page 15
Mustang Girls Lacrosse Teams Off to Hot Start The George Mason High School Girls varsity and junior varsity lacrosse teams just don’t want to lose to open the season. See Sports, page 18
ON THE ROUTE OF the first annual Women’s ‘Herstory’ Month walk in Falls Church last Sunday, former four-term Falls Church Mayor Carol de Long (left), fifth generation Tinner family matriarch Mildred Tinner Leak (center, front), and Jackie Bong-Wright (right, in white), head of the Vietnamese-American Voters Association, three of the grand marshals of the event, made their way along with 300 others from the plaza on S. Washington in front of the new Lincoln at Tinner Hill to the Community Center. Former F.C. Mayor Betty Blystone, unable to attend, was also a grand marshal. More photos on page 22. (Photo: News-Press)
F.C. Council Votes for Preliminary OK to 4¢ Real Estate Tax Hike by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Index Editorial..................6 Letters.............. 6, 11 News & Notes.12–13 Comment........ 14–17 Calendar........20–21 Food & Dining......23
Business News....25 Classified Ads......28 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ..........29 Critter Corner.......30
By a vote of 5-2, with Phil Duncan and David Snyder voting “no,” the Falls Church City Council Monday night gave a preliminary OK to City Manager Wyatt Shields’ recommended four cent tax rate increase for the Fiscal Year 2018 budget.
The four-cent hike above the current $1.315 per $100 of assessed real estate valuation includes a penny added for the school system at the request of the School Board and three cents, or $1.2 million, to set aside in the event voters approve a bond referendum in November to construct a new high school. The final numbers, however,