Comments in Support of West Falls Church plan amendment PA

Coalition for Smarter Growth, Audubon Naturalist Society, Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance, Sierra Club Great Falls Group, Friends of Holmes Run, Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions

June 15, 2021 Fairfax County Planning Commission 12000 Government Center Parkway Fairfax, VA 22035 RE: Comments in Support of West Falls Church plan amendment PA 2018-II-1M Chairman Murphy and Commissioners: Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the Audubon Naturalist Society, the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance, the Sierra Club Great Falls Group, Friends of Holmes Run, and Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions. We write to express our support for the redevelopment of the West Falls Church Transit Station Area and urge you to consider our recommendations below and vote in favor of the comprehensive plan amendment (CPA) (2018-II-1M).

The above named organizations, as part of the Fairfax Healthy Communities Network, envision a Fairfax County where people can live, work, and play in connected communities that are healthy, sustainable, and inclusive. This vision recognizes that the intersections of equity, housing security, walkable, bikeable neighborhoods, transit-oriented communities, clean air & water, access to green space, and food come together in one word: health.

Providing more homes and jobs in walkable communities at major transit stations like West Falls Church is essential to reducing traffic in our region and slashing our greenhouse gas emissions.

The plan amendment would transform acres of underutilized parking lots at the West Falls Church metro station area and VA Tech site into an inclusive, walkable, bike-friendly, transitoriented community.

The proposed plan amendment will help realize Fairfax County’s vision of providing a network of transit-oriented development (TOD) along its transit corridors. This vision is outlined in the County’s Comprehensive Plan guidance,1 which calls for development close to transit stations to focus on reducing dependence on driving and increasing transit ridership.

1

Comprehensive Plan: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planning-development/sites/planningdevelopment/files/assets/compplan/policy/landuse.pdf

Transportation The CPA includes significant transportation improvements that will help reduce traffic congestion, enhance access to the West Falls Church metro station and future Route 7 bus rapid transit, and provide greater connectivity for people walking and biking. It supports welldesigned TOD calling for an enhanced grid of streets, pedestrian and bicycle improvements, wider walkways along primary pedestrian routes, bicycle facilities throughout the development, street trees, and pedestrian scale lighting.

Recommendation: Initiate the West Falls Church Active Transportation Plan Immediately Work remains to be done to ensure that pedestrian and bicycle improvements are implemented in the surrounding area. We appreciate the inclusion of the West Falls Church Active Transportation Plan in the CPA. The plan will help identify and plan for needed bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements and connectivity throughout the West Falls Church area.

We ask that Fairfax County create a follow-on motion to launch the active transportation plan concurrent with adoption of the CPA. The County should also work with the Virginia Department of Transportation to allow more innovative “complete streets” solutions for walking and biking along and crossing Haycock Road and Route 7. This effort must be prioritized and implemented right away to ensure the safety of people biking and walking to and from the redeveloped station area.

Affordable Housing Through redevelopment of the station area, affordable and workforce dwelling units (WDUs) that align with the housing goal of 5,000 units in 15 years will be created. Providing affordable housing near transit and jobs is essential to ensuring an inclusive and economically prosperous Fairfax County where people are able to live near their work, helping to reduce long commutes through the county, and reducing our climate impacts. We commend the proposed CPA, which includes 10 percent WDUs, an increase over the policy recommendation of 8 percent.

Environment We are grateful the proposed plan includes open space, linear parks, and the preservation of native trees and the forested area along the metro access road as part of the redevelopment.

Access to open space, natural areas and parks are an essential part of healthy, livable communities and a key health determinant for residents.

Recommendation: Incorporate Stronger Stormwater Retention Goals The plan also rightly calls for minimizing impervious cover and employing stormwater management best practices. The current site has extensive impervious surfaces, including acres of parking lots, with minimal stormwater management. Redevelopment presents an opportunity to greatly improve stormwater management on these properties. However, the current language accounting for a 40 percent reduction from a 10-year 24-hour storm does not go far enough in reducing runoff, particularly as we face the current climate crisis, which is bringing stronger and more frequent storms.

We instead recommend that the County include language in this CPA similar to the language on stormwater adopted in the Merrifield Suburban Center CPA2: “As a goal, development on the site should retain rainfall from the peak 1-hour, 1-year storm through infiltration, evapotranspiration and reuse in order to adapt to the increased intensity, duration, and frequency of storm events and resulting rainfall volumes. At a minimum, development is expected to retain the first inch of rainfall. Also, detention measures that reduce the volume, peak flow, and velocity of runoff into the adjacent watersheds to a rate equivalent to good forested conditions are expected to be pursued to the maximum extent practicable as determined by Land Development Services.“ In Summary Redevelopment of the West Falls Church station area will complement and connect to the City of Falls Church’s new high school and mixed-use redevelopment already underway. Together these projects will create a new inclusive, vibrant and livable neighborhood with great access to transit in West Falls Church.

We urge you to consider our recommendations and support the proposed comprehensive plan amendment. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sonya Breehey Northern Virginia Advocacy Manager Coalition for Smarter Growth Renee Grebe Northern Virginia Conservation Advocate Audubon Naturalist Society Michelle Krocker Executive Director Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance Susan Bonney Chair Sierra Club Great Falls Group Whitney Redding Primary Conservator Friends of Holmes Run Meg Mall Executive Director Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions 2

Merrifield Suburban Center CPA p. 9: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planning-development/sites/planningdevelopment/files/assets/documents/compplanamend/merrifieldsubctr/adoptedtext-2017-27.pdf#page=9