Post #452: Construction noise barriers should be mandated under Town code

As long as I’m on the topic of noise …

John Pott (of Vienna Citizens for Responsible Development) talked to the people who live next to one of the Falls Church mixed use developments.  Universally, they said that the construction made their lives hellish.  Mostly, it was the unrelenting high noise levels from the construction equipment.

So it’s a pretty good bet that construction noise will make life tough for the neighborhoods as these MAC projects go up. 

And, as with noise abatement in the MAC streetscape, there are simple things that the Town could do that could make a big difference.  Mainly, the Town could require temporary construction noise barriers instead of standard chain-link fence. 

It’s not like this is something exotic.  Google “construction noise barrier” to see that in many areas, this is standard operating procedure.  Most use mass-loaded vinyl or some similar substance.  (Again, Google it, it’s a standard approach to noise control).

The issue of keeping the sidewalks open during construction has already come up.  I don’t think that one has been formally addressed.  So this is now the second thing that the Town could write into the code to help mitigate the problems caused by construction.  And this one matters greatly to those most strongly affected by these new MAC buildings.

How about it, Town of Vienna?  Do something tangible for the MAC-adjacent neighborhoods.  Write in construction noise barriers as a standard in the MAC and other commercial code.  And ask that Sunrise proffer that if they get to build their assisted living facility at 380 Maple West.  

Addendum:  Since I wrote this, I’ve been informed that buildings four floors and taller likely will have to have construction wind screens.  These are an insurance (safety) measure for workers at that height, but also serve to limit the dust from construction at that level. 

Post #451: Noise abatement measures for the MAC streetscape

I sometimes feel that I’m the only one who cares about the noise level adjacent to Maple.  But, hey, I get to pick the topic.  And today’s topic is noise abatement measures in the urban streetscape.  Not because I think the Town of Vienna is going to implement any of this, but because I’d like to know more.  And I think the Town should factor the high level of traffic noise into its decisions moving forward. Continue reading Post #451: Noise abatement measures for the MAC streetscape

Post #450: Audio recording, the 11/7/2019 Town Council work session on the traffic study

The minus one still cracks me up.  See Post #364.

Town Council met last night to have their third briefing from Kimley-Horn on the Maple Avenue Corridor Multimodal Transportation and Land Use Study.  I’m using this post just to get my audio recording up, in case anyone wants to listen to it, at this Google Drive link.  There’s no accompanying “index” file for the recording. Continue reading Post #450: Audio recording, the 11/7/2019 Town Council work session on the traffic study

Post #449: The 11/8/2019 BAR work session on Sunrise at 380 Maple West

Four views of proposed Sunrise Assisted Living at 380 Maple West:  First sheet:  View from Maple Avenue, Wade Hampton; Second sheet:  View from Glen Avenue, and adjacent commercial lot.

380 Maple Ave W - Sunrise view of four sides

 

Source:  Plans posted by the Town of Vienna for the 11/8/2019 meeting of the Vienna BAR (.pdf), by Rust | Orling Architecture, Alexandria VA.

Continue reading Post #449: The 11/8/2019 BAR work session on Sunrise at 380 Maple West

Post #448: Water/sewer bills, waiting for the other three shoes to drop.

Last year and current year Town of Vienna water and sewer rates:

Sec._1_13.___Schedule_of_public_works_fees_red lined-2

The Town of Vienna quietly raised the water and sewer rates in July.  Nobody paid attention at the time, but now it seems that a lot of people are figuring this out and a few seem upset about it.

And so, there seems to be a lot of nonsense going around about this, e.g., that our rates are twice as high as Fairfax County.  To be fair, water and sewer bills are not straightforward.  So I’ve seen a lot of mistakes like (e.g.) not factoring in the sewer rates.

But the key fact that many seem to overlook is that this is just the second year of a five-year plan to raise water and sewer rates in the Town of Vienna.  I don’t think that’s widely recognized.

So I thought I’d do my best to get the facts down in black and white.  The increase was done at the suggestion of a consultant.  The additional money will, in theory, fund additional (and apparently much-needed) maintenance on the Town’s water and sewer pipes and other infrastructure.  Taking that at face value, we have relatively little choice in the matter but to ensure adequate money to maintain the pipes.

The bottom line is that, right now, our water/sewer bills are about the same as everybody else in the area.  In particular, for a typical family, you’d pay about the same here as you would pay for water and sewer in Fairfax County.  That was the Town’s goal.

But looking forward, our bills are going to continue to rise, at about 10%/year, for the next three years.  The upshot is that the FY 2023 (starting summer 2022) bills will be about 50% higher than the FY 2018 (starting summer 2017) bills were. Continue reading Post #448: Water/sewer bills, waiting for the other three shoes to drop.

Post 446: Patrick Henry commuter garage, reductio ad absurdum

What is wrong with this picture (Page 30, Town of Vienna Capital Improvement Plan (.pdf) as of October 21, 2019).

This is a tough post to write, so let me get to the point, with a set of simple declarative statements below.  I’m going to provide just enough detail to show you what’s wrong with the picture above.


Continue reading Post 446: Patrick Henry commuter garage, reductio ad absurdum

Post #445: The 11/4/2019 Town Council meeting

I didn’t attend.  I caught most of it via streaming, but this review is based on the Town’s video recording, which is already posted at this link.  I think that sets a new record for timeliness.  (FYI, I need to use Chrome to watch those Town recordings, YMMV.)

Times listed below are offsets within the Town recording linked above.

My summary report, below, is not an exhaustive list, just the items I thought were most relevant to me, and things that I post here.  You can find the agenda for the meeting at this link (.pdf) or shown in the box below:

Town Council 2019-11-05 agenda

 

Continue reading Post #445: The 11/4/2019 Town Council meeting

Post #444: MAC-related public meetings this week

There are several public meetings this week with some relevance to MAC zoning.

Monday, 11/4/2019, at 8:00 PM in Town Hall, Town Council will hold a meeting that includes several MAC-related items. 
1)  They will hold a public hearing on extending the MAC moratorium through June 30 2020.  Citizens are invited to speak.  Three minute time limit.
2)  They will consider a resolution to request grant funding for a three-story parking garage/library to replace the current Patrick Henry library.
3)  They will examine (and likely approve) the modified rear facades of the Marco Polo/Vienna Market MAC project.

The relevant materials can be found here:
https://vienna-va.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=716363&GUID=DC46C9A8-009B-49C0-93BE-A2BB7BFFB61B&Options=info&Search=

Thursday, 11/7/2019, at 7:30 PM in Town Hall, Town Council will hold a work session to obtain their final briefing on the Kimley-Horn “Maple Avenue Corridor Multimodal Transportation and Land Use Study”.

The relevant materials can be found here:
https://vienna-va.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4213345&GUID=7038D400-8A10-4B9D-AE3D-8F5E05930CAB&Options=&Search=

 

Friday, 11/8/2019 at 8:00 AM (AM), the Board of Architectural Review will hold a work session on the new building proposed for 380 Maple West, a Sunrise assisted living facility.

The relevant materials can be found here:
https://vienna-va.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=735324&GUID=CEE00DFC-1728-44FD-B567-C1B14E4BA0D5&Options=info&Search=

The Town reserves the right to change or cancel meetings on short notice, so check the Town’s general calendar before you go, at this URL:
https://www.viennava.gov/Calendar.aspx?NID=1&FID=220


Commentary:

On the Monday Town Council meeting, I would have expected the extension of the MAC moratorium to be cut-and-dried.  Would have, except that it was anything but that at the preceding Planning Commission meeting.  The actual discussion was in fact for more convoluted than I said in my brief writeup (Post #440), and included some legal arguments to block any consideration of an extension of the moratorium

Also, the Town Council is being asked to approve a grant request for funding the largest parking structure option that the Town’s consultant offered them.  I had not realized that the Town had made the affirmative decision to go with that option.  If that’s a done deal, I certainly wish they would reconsider (e.g., Post #367, Post #369, Post #371).

Separately, the Town is also going to ask for about $240K in grant funding for Capital Bikeshare bike racks.  I’ve already expressed the sentiment that this is almost sure a near-total waste of money, given the lack of use of these rental bikes in Tysons and other remote suburban near-Metro locations (Post #387).

On the Thursday Town Council work session, to me the big question is how they’ll deal with the estimated traffic impact of MAC development.  The rest of the items — the proposed projects for the Town to undertake — seemed fairly weak to me.  You can see can see my analysis in Post #358 and subsequent posts to Post #364.  It is worth bearing in mind that the traffic impact analysis does NOT use current traffic as baseline, which is why (e.g.) redevelopment of the currently empty BB&T site was estimated to reduce traffic on Maple in that study.

The Friday BAR session is a bit of a puzzler to me, as it is not clear to citizens that (e.g.) Sunrise has actually signed a contract with the current owner of 380 Maple West, and so on.  This is due, in part, I think, to the fact that this isn’t a MAC application.  Formally, it’s a request for changes to the existing, approved MAC building.  (I.e., new building, new owner, new purpose, new conditional use permit and so on, and yet all done within the context of the land already having been rezoned to MAC instead of standard commercial development.)

Post #443: Field trip to Whole Foods

I think everyone in Vienna is familiar with Whole Foods.  Whether you shop there or not, you recognize it as yet another one of our 1960s era commercial buildings.  Built in 1965, it’s a single-story brick building surrounded by surface parking.

We could reasonably disagree over the aesthetics of the building.  MAC advocates seem to scorn this low-rise-plus-open-parking-lot arrangement as “ugly 60’s-era shopping centers”.  But to me, buildings like this are inoffensive — well away from the street, not blocking the view of the sky, and small enough to allow the trees behind them to be seen.  The sky view and greenery are what mark this as a small-town scene, in my mind.  Despite the tacky power lines and ubiquitous cars.

But this post isn’t about aesthetics.  It’s about functionality.

We probably don’t fully appreciate how ridiculously easy it is to shop there.   As long as the parking lot isn’t full, you can typically park within 150′ of the door.  The parking lot has two entrances/two exits, so if you don’t want to hassle with Maple, you can use Park.  And it’s probably the most bicycle-friendly establishment in Town, with ample, convenient rack space.

We don’t appreciate it because we think it’s normal.  With few exceptions, the entire south side of Maple is built to that standard.  It was built from scratch to be automobile friendly.  Drive up.  Walk in.  Shop.  Leave.  No choke points, no hassle.


The new normal

This is why I suggest you take a field trip to the next-nearest Whole Foods, on Westpark Drive in Tyson’s Corner.  This is a new, modern Whole Foods, occupying the first floor of a mixed-use building.  Getting into and out of that Whole Foods is a different experience entirely.  And it’s one you’re going to have to get used to, as MAC converts Maple to mixed-use buildings.

Start by lining up at the sole entrance to the underground parking garage.   With the predictable result that, when the store is busy, you wait in line just to enter the parking garage.

The line moves slowly because you have to get your ticket.  Because of course you need a ticket.  This is a densely-built mixed-used building, so parking is tight, and precious enough to be careful about. And you’ll need to have this ticket validated in Whole Foods.  But if you stay more than 90 minutes, you’ll have to pay for your parking.

After parking in the underground garage, you need to locate and walk to the entrance.  Obviously you can’t see the entrance from where you parked, because your view is obstructed by the typical concrete pillars.  So you follow the signage.

Once you find the entrance, you take the escalator up to the store.  And commence shopping.  The interior of the store is everything you’d expect from Whole Foods.  Then schlep your groceries to your car, find the exit to the underground parking, and leave.


Structured Parking

Parking garages are a central feature of the proposed mixed-use redevelopment of Maple Avenue under the current MAC statute.  You can’t cover the lot with a building unless you put the parking under the building.  (But “parking garage” is apparently too tacky, so you have to refer to it as “structured parking”.) And MAC provides numerous “incentives” allowing developers to skimp on parking, relative to our existing standard for what constitutes adequate parking for retail businesses.  The plausible result will be that barely-adequate garage parking will be the new normal for Vienna.

If you want to see what the new normal is going to look and feel like, I suggest you take a field trip to that new Tyson’s Corner whole foods.  On some sunny Saturday afternoon, say.  If you’re agoraphobic, I suppose it’s a plus, because you can do your entire shopping trip without ever being exposed to the open air.

To be honest, I hate parking garages.  I particularly hate closed-sided underground garages.  I find them claustrophobic, ugly, noisy, and inconvenient.  To me, it’s just another unpleasant bit if urban life that you have to put up with.

When MAC advocates talk about how ugly our parking lots are, all I can think of is, yeah, sure, but they aren’t half as ugly as the parking garages that will replace them.  But the parking garage interiors are tucked away out-of-sight.  So as long as you don’t actually use the building, the ugliness and inconvenience of “structured parking” is somebody else’s problem.  It’s only if I actually shop in a place with garage parking that I end up muttering “if I’d wanted to live like this, I’d have moved to DC”.

Parking garages are certainly efficient, in terms of using scarce land area.  If you want to cram a lot of additional development onto the same amount of land, that’s what you have to do.   And if you judge them purely on how they look, from the outside, they are just dandy.

But if you actually have to use them, I’d say that parking garages reduce your quality-of-life, relative to the open surface parking that is currently the norm in Vienna.  Particularly underground and enclosed structures.  They take more time, and they definitely inject an extra bit of urban ugliness into your shopping experience.  But you’d better get used to it.  Skimpy enclosed parking garages are the future of Vienna under the current MAC statute.