September 26 — October 2, 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. 32
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week Candidate Forums Begin Next Week
A coalition of Falls Church groups has come together to organize two campaign forums to showcase the candidacies for City Council and School Board in this November’s local elections. The first, featuring the School Board, is next Thursday. See News Briefs, page 9
Crossing Guard’s 52Year Career Honored
Growing Cut-Through Traffic Woes Spur F.C. Council’s Call for Action Smart Cottages
Increased HOV Hours,
Tolls on I-66 Blamed in Part For Impact on F.C.
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
lation growth, development, and especially anticipated climate change impacts. The draft chapter Walker presented last week included the following paragraph, “As the City continues to develop and adapt to a rapidly changing environment, its environmental goals must go beyond protecting and improving
A growing volume of anecdotal evidence around the City of Falls Church is suggesting that the imposition of expanded HOV hours and tolls on I-66 has led to an increase of speeding vehicular “cut-through” traffic in the City’s residential neighborhoods, it was asserted at Monday’s F.C. City Council meeting. It was a petition by citizen Jessica Hegenbort at the meeting which precipitated a lengthy and often animated conversation of the subject that included mandates from some City Council members that additional “traffic calming” measures be taken immediately and the observation by no less than Police Chief Mary Gavin that the new (enacted in December 2017) tolls on I-66 “has put more traffic on the side roads,” such that the number one complaint her department receives from the public has to do with traffic. Hegenbort’s petition arose from an incident in front of her home in the 200 block of Marshall Street in which a speeding car, availing itself of a wellknown cut-through route through F.C. residential neighborhoods from Route 29 to Route 7. There is a curve in the block that creates a blind spot and one of her children, she reported, barely avoided being hit and potentially seriously hurt on a recent afternoon.
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Since the 94-year-old left the City of Falls Church Police Department in June, Janet Haines is adjusting to life as a new retiree after 52 years of serving as the crossing guard at Saint James Catholic School. See page 8
‘Miller House’ in F.C. Wins Award
The Virginia Municipal League is awarding Falls Church its “Community Health” Innovation Award in recognition of the Miller House, a group home for adults with disabilities in the City. See News Briefs, page 9
Mustang Volleyball Wins 5th Straight
George Mason High School’s volleyball team continued its hot streak with wins over Skyline High School and Brentsville District High School this past week. See sports, page 17
THE CITY OF FALLS CHURCH’S innovative new cluster of cottages on Railroad Avenue, developed by the Young Group, was a central feature of a walking tour given by the Coalition for Smarter Growth on Saturday. The event is featured in both the editorial and guest commentary of this edition. (Photo: Courtesy Theresa Twiford/Pearson Smith Realty)
New F.C. Environmental Goals To Focus on Climate Change
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Index
Editorial................6 Letters.......... 6, 22 News & Notes.10, 11 Comment...12, 13 School News.... 16 Sports............... 17
Calendar..... 18,19 Classified Ads... 20 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword........ 21 Crime Report.... 22 Critter Corner.... 22
Kate Walker, environmental programs coordinator for the City of Falls Church, stressed in remarks to the F.C. City Council last week that the draft new chapter in the City’s Comprehensive Plan on the environment will have a very different thrust than contained in the current version
drafted in 2005. The new version of the chapter, tentatively entitled, “Environmental Sustainability and Resilience: the Natural Resources Chapter of the City’s Comprehensive Plan,” which is intended to look forward for the next 40 years or so, will shift the priority from preservation to “adapting to change,” the changes that are expected due to popu-