July 5 — 11, 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. 20
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The Summer 2018 edition of the News-Press’s Real Estate special is here with features on the impact of a possible Amazon and Apple invasion, how schools affect the homebuying process, Falls Church’s top home sales and more.
Beyer Automotive Launches 1st Move In West End Property Redevelopment Planning Commission B��� S��� P����������� OKs Variances for New Show Room
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
length of the adjacent City of Falls Church. Even more important for City residents will be a direct access ramp to Metro parking at the I-66 interchange with Route 7 at the west end of the City and a new bridge carrying the W&OD Trail over Lee Highway (Rt. 29), a move that not only achieves the effort “to provide new travel choices, making trips more reliable and moving more people,” but also introduces a major safety benefit.
The iconic Falls Church business, Don Beyer Volvo, a.k.a. Beyer Automotive, took the first big public step in the redevelopment of the acreage it has been quietly assembling around its showroom and famous pigs statue, coming before the F.C. Planning Commission on Monday night. The organization won a unanimous approval for two variances and a special use permit that would allow them to demolish old buildings at 1119 and 1121 W. Broad St., now housing sign painting and auto detailing services, and replace them with a new building that would double as a four-strong auto showroom and administrative offices. With the Planning Commission’s OK, the matter now comes before the City’s Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) which will have the final say at its July 12 meeting next week. While the request Tuesday, which had come before the Planners earlier in a low-key work session, was modest in scope, Beyer representatives said it was just the first step in what’s been the long-awaited major redevelopment of the assembled Beyer properties in what’s known as the Gordon’s Triangle end of the City. The step, if it moves forward, will involve the relocation of the company’s current auto showroom at 1231 W. Broad, which will then free up that property and surrounding areas for a much more robust development plan.
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SEE SPECIAL, PAGES 13 – 20
F������’� R�� P����� H������ S�� ��� J��� 16 A public hearing as part of the F.C. Planning Commission’s regular meeting on July 16 will mark the next step in Mill Creek’s effort to win approvals allowing its 4.3 acre Founder’s Row project to move ahead. SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 9
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The planned pocket park for the 100 block of W. Broad Street adjacent the Unity Club has been put on hold after estimates on the project’s cost came out significantly higher than expected. SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 9
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In one way, Donald Trump’s attack on our foreign trade partners resembles his attack on immigrants: in each case, the attack is framed as a response to evildoing that exists only in his imagination. SEE PAGE 22
INDEX
Editorial.................6 Letters...................6 News & Notes10–11 Comment ..12, 21-22 Business News ...23
Calendar .......26–27 Classified Ads .....28 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ..........29 Critter Corner......30
IN RESPONSE TO THE SEPARATION of families at the border, these Falls Church youngsters held a bake sale on June 20 to raise money to help reunite children with their families. Participating in the sale, (left to right) Griffin, Noah and Oliver Hardi and Maura Hughes (along with their pooches) raised $275 stationed outside of the Mary Riley Styles Library. (P����: C������� L���� H����)
I-66 Eastbound Expansion Work Begins With New W&OD Bridge BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
It’s about putting all those new I-66 rush hour toll dollars to work making life better for Northern Virginians. While nobody likes tolls, especially the “dynamic tolls” that have ballooned toll charges during certain peak hours (although the average toll for a trip out of D.C. along I-66 is $12) benefits on the other side of the coin are being rolled out quickly. For residents of the City of Falls Church and immediate envi-
rons, the benefits have included the restoration of the 3T Metro bus line connecting the downtown corridor in the City directly with the East and West Falls Church Metro stations (a service that will recommence in January after being scuttled a year ago), and now comes the project to widen a four-mile stretch of I-66 Eastbound. It will add a lane in the run from the Dulles Connector Road (Route 267) to Exit 71 at Fairfax Drive in Arlington’s Ballston area, subsuming the entire stretch that runs the