9-17-2015

Page 1

September 17 - 23, 2015

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. XXV No. 30

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

Inside This Week Taste of Falls Church Is This Saturday

All the details on this weekend’s 40th annual Fall Festival and Taste of Falls Church are inside a special Food & Dining pull out in this edition, plus features on crawfish, burgers, a small-town grocery store and more. 2015

See pull out inside

F.C. Schools to Seek More Delay In Fairfax Co. Ruling on Mt. Daniel

Jones Says More Time Needed to Answer Questions by Nicholas F. Benton

Falls Church News-Press

F.C. Solar Company Wins $225K Award

ConnectDER LLC, a Falls Church-based solar energy equipment company, won first prize in the energy category and $225,000 in Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s first-ever Virginia Velocity Business Plan Competition See News Briefs, page 8

David Brooks: The Biden Formation Story Every presidential candidate needs a narrative to explain how his or her character was formed. See page 12

Press Pass with Brad Roberts

Brad Roberts, lead singer and guitarist for Crash Test Dummies, is returning to the road for his first tour since Ellen Reid retired from the group in 2010. See page 33

BREAKING THE GROUND, aka a “groundbreaking,” at the W. Broad Street site of the former Burger King was a large delegation of Falls Church dignitaries ceremonially launching the construction of a new senior living mixed use project, The Kensington. (Photo: News-Press)

Kensington Groundbreaking Marks Shift in New Housing

by Nicholas F. Benton

Falls Church News-Press

Index Editorial..................6 Letters................6, 9 News & Notes.10-11 Comment..12-15, 27 Business News....30 Food & Dining.S-1–S-12

Sports..................32 Calendar.........28-29 Classified Ads .....36 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword...........37 Critter Corner.......38

The rousing groundbreaking ceremony held last week for The Kensington, the City of Falls Church’s latest large scale mixed use project that will now rise out of underutilized land in its commercially-zoned corridors, symbolically signaled a new prevailing theme for new residential development in the City. The Kensington is designed for senior citizens, while other projects in the queue for City Hall approval, such as Mason

Row and anticipated submissions for the City’s newly acquired land that is currently home to its high school and middle school, suggest that designing rental apartment homes for younger couples, singles, the elderly and others seeking greater affordability reflect the “new normal” of the national economy, overall, and what people most likely to want to live in Falls Church are looking for. For years in The Little City, residential meant single family homes, and there have been over 4,000 built, and counting. In the

post-war 1940s, the first deviation from that came with what was called Tyler Gardens, on the model of what boomed nationally as GI loan housing, and is now called Winter Hill, having converted to condominiums in the early 1970s. There were a few other cases, such as Park Towers, the Merrill House, the Broadfalls, Oakwood and Roosevelt apartments, but it wasn’t until 2003 that the tide turned in a significant way for the City with the completion of

Continued on Page 4

Dr. Toni Jones, superintendent of the Falls Church City Public Schools, announced yesterday that at the Fairfax County Planning Commission meeting set for tonight, the City Schools will seek a postponement by the Planners of action on the schools’ request for approval of expansion and renovation plans for Mt. Daniel Elementary School. Dr. Jones’ complete statement follows: “On Thursday evening Falls Church City Public Schools will be requesting that the Fairfax County Planning Commission defer the vote on the Mount Daniel Elementary expansion project. While we are disappointed to be at this juncture, we understand this extension is necessary and will allow for additional information to be submitted to the Planning Commission in response to questions already received. The additional time will also be needed to answer any questions from the Planning Commission which arise from this additional information. “Additional time is needed for a professional transportation consultant to review and comment on the current traffic counts and analysis to identify appropriate measures to address the concerns raised at the public hearing regarding access and traffic circulation. Such review could not begin until school was back in session and the typical school-generated traffic resumed. Adequate time also is needed for the construction team to provide responses to

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9-17-2015 by Falls Church News-Press - Issuu