July 4 — 10, 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 • V ol. XXIX No. 20
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week Future of F.C. Fireworks in Doubt
Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields cautioned the City Council that following this week’s scheduled City-sponsored fireworks show, future shows may be in doubt due to strict laws prohibiting the launching of fireworks within specific distances from public buildings. See News Briefs, page 8
Next Big Step in West End Project To Clear F.C. Council Hurdle Monday
Key Vote Expected To Pass Easily With New Modifications
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Men Robbing Cars at F.C. Area Cemeteries
other nicotine products from all school property and on school buses and at school sponsored events off campus. Speaking of signs and customers, look for those fun and catchy sandwich board signs designed to draw customers in to restaurants on local sidewalks soon. Restaurants are now allowed to advertise their “happy hour” specials with names like “Thirsty Thursday” and include prices and discount details to customers.
This coming Monday’s Falls Church City Council meeting is expected to veritably celebrate the next concrete step in the remarkably effective development and negotiating process over the last seven months between the City and the developer team of EYA, PN Hoffman and Regency, known as the Falls Church Gateway Partners. At issue is the approval of a Special Exception Entitlement for the intense mixed-use economic development of 9.45 acres on the site currently occupied by George Mason High School. As construction of a brand-new high school is now underway on fields adjacent to the present Mason building on Route 7, the anticipated December 2020 completion of the school will free the existing school site for demolition and the commencement of an extensive, dense mixed-use development whose yield promises to cover the cost of the new school and much more. The Council’s anticipated overwhelming “yea” vote on July 8 will have come about not for lack of intense public scrutiny and massages of the plans for the development over the last seven months, but also for what has appeared to be a remarkably copacetic and cooperative undertaking, albeit with many varied recommendation from school and citizens groups and subsequent modifications to the plan. A critical inflection point came with the signing of a Comprehensive Agreement May 13.
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Police are on the lookout for two men they say are robbing the cars of people attending burial services and visiting grave sites around the Falls Church area. See News Briefs, page 8
Mason Grad Robbed of $10K+ in Camera Gear A George Mason High School alumnus who just finished up his first year studying film had five-figures worth of equipment snatched from him on the tail end of his trip to France in May. See page 15
F.C. Fireworks Show Set for Thursday
Gates open at 6 p.m. this Thursday for the Little City’s annual free Independence Day fireworks celebration at George Mason High School. See News Briefs, page 8
Index
Editorial................6 Letters.......... 6, 14 News & Notes.10, 11 Comment.... 12,13 Business News.17 Calendar..... 18,19
Classified Ads... 20 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword........ 21 Crime Report.... 22 Critter Corner.... 22
THE WEST END DEVELOPMENT team, Falls Church Gateway Partners, is expected to receive a special exception from the City Council on Monday for its 9.45 acre project planned for the site currently occupied by George Mason High School. The yellow dotted lines indicate the main roads and blocks currently planned for the development in this aerial visualization created by Falls Church’s Digital Design & Imaging Service using their trademark surveillance aerostat balloon from 800 feet above ground level. (Photo: Digital Design & Imaging Service, Inc.)
State Del. Simon Reports on New Virginia Laws in Effect on July 1
by State Del. Marcus Simon Special to the News-Press
Hundreds of new laws went into effect on July 1, 2019 across the Commonwealth of Virginia, on topics ranging from public safety to transportation, health care and the environment, to education and taxation. Some have been covered extensively, like the economic incentives that will facilitate the deal to bring Amazon HQ2 to the Commonwealth. Others have received less coverage, but may
still have a noticeable impact on your day to day interactions in Falls Church and environs. You may have seen signs in local convenience stores where tobacco products are sold over the last several weeks notifying customers that effective on July 1, you must be 21 years old to buy tobacco and vaping products, up from age 18. The General Assembly continues to step up efforts to keep tobacco and vaping products away from children. Another new law requires local school boards to ban tobacco and