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TEENS LAUDED FOR PROWESS IN CODING TECHNIQUES
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Information Session | Tuesday, July 25 | 10:00 am Age 3 – Grade 8 | GREENHEDGES.ORG/INFO-SESSION
Sun Gazette VOLUME 38
GREAT FALLS McLEAN OAKTON TYSONS VIENNA
NO. 43
JULY 13-19, 2017
Vienna Council Changes Zoning-Protest Rules Owners of More Surrounding Properties Would Need to Lodge Complaints BRIAN TROMPETER Staff Writer
Following testimony from nine residents who worried about a chilling effect on public participation, the Vienna Town
Council on July 10 unanimously approved code amendments to make it somewhat more difficult for protest petitions to derail future rezoning applications. Some Council members were unhappy after a protest petition against the Vienna
Market mixed-use redevelopment proposal last June triggered what turned out to be an unattainable super-majority requirement and scuttled the application. The Council last September asked the Vienna Planning Commission to work
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with town staff to tighten the rules. Planning Commissioners on May 10 approved a set of recommendations for the Council’s consideration. Under the new rules approved by the Council July 10: • Rezoning applications will need to obtain favorable votes from two-thirds of the Council quorum present, rather than the six-sevenths now required. • Protest petitions must be submitted in writing and received by the town clerk no later than noon of the working day before the day of the Council’ first public hearing or motion on the application. • Signers must execute the petitions under oat that they are the owners or legal representatives of owners of their lots. If the lot owners are not people but rather companies or other organizations, those who sign petitions on those groups’ behalf must provide documentation that they are the authorized representatives. • The petitions must be signed by 25 percent (up from the current 20) of either of these groups: owners of lots within the area of the proposed change or owners of lots that abut or are directly across a street from the rezoning area. Council member Douglas Noble asked town planning staff to ensure the new rules’ language clearly specifies that properties kitty-corner from the subject area are included in that second group. Charles Anderson, who lives on Pleasant Street, N.W., across from the Vienna Market site and was one of the development’s key opponents last year, said even obtaining signatures from 20 percent of surrounding property owners is difficult