Three proposals came before the Area Plan Review Task Force on Nov. 18, and each time the Task Force went with proposals that called for lower density.
Seven residents on Swanee Lane wanted to jump on the high-density-near-the-Vienna-Metro bandwagon. "It's located directly across the street from the entrance to the Vienna Metro station," said Jim Clark, one of the residents and homeowners' spokesperson.
The street used to have 10 houses on it, but when a piece of land at the end of the street was redeveloped, three of them were razed for a new, 62-unit development. Now seven houses remain on 3.46 acres.
Now, the 62-unit development can be accessed only by driving past the seven lower-density units. Clark and his neighbors were asking for an increase in the plan density from one to two houses per acre to four to five.
The houses are ripe for redevelopment into higher density that would be more compatible with the new development, but Clark explained that the density of four-five was necessary to accomplish this. "You have to give something in the comprehensive plan to induce the developer to do that," he said.
Some members of the Task Force agreed with Clark. "It just simply stands out as a totally different development," said Task Force member Fran Hooper.
Neighboring homeowners came to speak against the proposal. The Briarwood neighborhood abuts the new development and the area proposed for replanning. That development has an eclectic mix of housing styles, said Nick Vlannes, speaking for the Briarwood Civic Association. 'We have houses from each decade of the 1900s," he said.
This mix, Vlannes argued, made compatibility difficult to measure. Additionally, he suggested that if the higher density were approved, it could lead to a domino effect and further increase density in surrounding areas. "If it proceeds, this actually becomes a point of instability in our neighborhood," Vlannes said.
The task force sided with Vlannes and voted to recommend retaining the lower density already in the plan by a 23-5 vote.
A PARCEL in the northwest corner to the intersection of the Beltway and I-66 was also recommended for downplanning. The 11.57-acre property is opposite Stenwood Elementary School on Gallows Road.
It is currently planned for five to eight units per acre, while the adjoining neighborhoods are all lower density. "[The nominated property] is not in sync with the surrounding neighborhood at all," said Gene Barnes, a nearby property owner, who made the nomination.
The property is zoned for three houses per acre, but any development is complicated by the presence of I-66. Should someone want to redevelop the land, he would need to provide a 200-foot buffer from the highway. That buffer takes up roughly one-third of the land.
As a result, the houses would need to be clustered on the portion of the property that is outside the buffer.
Barnes wanted to mandate that the property could not be developed at a density greater than three houses per acre. However, since it is already zoned for that, a developer would have by-right development options that would mean he would not have to make any proffers.
The Task Force recommended, by a unanimous voice vote, dropping the planned density, with a stipulation that the density be capped at 3.5 houses per acre. If a developer wants to build at that density, he would need to have the land rezoned and would therefore be forced to provide certain proffers, such as sound barriers, tree saves and convenient pedestrian access to the Dunn Loring Metro station.
THE THIRD proposal called for a redevelopment of a property along Route 7 near the City of Falls Church and across from George Mason High School.
The spot is currently an office building with a parking lot, and temporary Metro parking lot. The developer, the Akridge Co., initially proposed redeveloping the site with a mixed-use development of 470,000 square feet, of which 90 percent would be residential and the remaining 10 would be split evenly between office and retail.
"It is our belief that this is a gateway site," said Art Walsh, attorney for Akridge. "It is nearly blighted. We think there's an opportunity for an attractive mixed-use development."
The floor to area ratio (FAR), a measure of density used in commercial properties in which a higher number is a higher density, for the property is currently 0.62, and the initial redevelopment proposal would take that up to 3.
Neighboring residents were opposed to the plan, said Larry Sexton, a Task Force member and president of the Falls Hill Homeowners Association. "We did not get one person supporting this proposal," Sexton said.
Staff recommended against the proposal. At the meeting, Akridge proposed a lower density plan. This would have a FAR of 1.75 and would mean approximately 275,000 square feet of development.
The proposal would renovate the existing building and add 25 townhouses and 80 condominiums.
The Task Force expressed annoyance at the change. This is the third time in this APR cycle that a proposal of Walsh's has been revised down at a Task Force meeting. "I'm sensing a pattern of this revision of nominations," said member Karen Hunt.
When a proposal is revised at the meeting, staff does not have the opportunity to review the possible implications and cannot present an analysis.
Some members of the Task Force, however, did think that the proposal had merit. "I think this is an incredibly underutilized site, and there's something that could be done with it," said Julie Hummel of the Brookside Homeowners Association.
The Task Force was not persuaded and voted 20-11 to recommend retaining the current plan.