Category: Town of Vienna, VA

MAC is just the beginning — take a look at what the Town is planning next. Updated 12/4 for a discussion of “by right”.

REVISION:  After writing the article below, I’ve heard from other people who have looked at this and come to a different conclusion.  Others believe this is just a routine, long-overdue maintenance of the Town of Vienna building code.  Under that interpretation, the verbiage about increased redevelopment and about more mixed-use buildings outside of Maple and Church is just there to get Fairfax County to pay for the work under the guise of “economic growth”.  I guess that’s possible.  But the plain reading of what was written is still as outlined below, in the quoted sections.  It was certainly written up with an agenda of increasing redevelopment and bringing mixed-used buildings to areas where those are not allowed (or at least, not economically feasible) under current Town of Vienna code.

My original writeup follows: Continue reading MAC is just the beginning — take a look at what the Town is planning next. Updated 12/4 for a discussion of “by right”.

Two months into the MAC moratorium, an update 11/20/2018

Background on the MAC moratorium

At the 9/17/2018 Town Council meeting, the Town Council voted to suspend any further acceptance of MAC rezoning applications until (probably) after the next Town election in May 2019.  You can see my write up of that here.  In addition to the three projects that had already been submitted, two more were submitted prior to the moratorium deadline, and it appears essentially certain that the Town will approve both of those additional projects. Continue reading Two months into the MAC moratorium, an update 11/20/2018

Review of the 10/4/2018 Town Council work session

At some small risk of sacrilege, I will subtitle this one “An Appeal to Saint Jude”.

I attended the Town Council’s 10/4/2018 work session where they reviewed the revised plans for 444 Maple Avenue West.  Though, honestly, sitting here this morning, I’m not sure why I bothered.

Here’s what I think I learned.  Five Town Council members will vote for every MAC project, no matter what.  Two won’t.  Everything else is detail.  Until the Town Council changes, every MAC project that complies with the law will be approved. Continue reading Review of the 10/4/2018 Town Council work session

The traffic legacy of the W&OD railroad, 10/2/2018

Few people other than avid bicyclists know this, but to some degree, the awful traffic on Maple is a legacy of the W&OD railroad.  That railroad cut Vienna in half about a century ago.  And today, Vienna is still very nearly cut in half.  For a roughly 4.5 mile stretch, the W&OD road bed prevented roads from crossing Fairfax County in an East/West direction.  And now, for that entire 4.5 mile stretch, the only  roads that cross the W&OD are a handful of streets in downtown Vienna.  And of those, the only one that can handle any traffic is Maple. Continue reading The traffic legacy of the W&OD railroad, 10/2/2018

Town of Vienna Capital Plan, 9/26/2018

On 9/24/2018, Town council looked at a draft plan for future capital expenditures.  This is the “Town of Vienna CIP Review (Fiscal Years 2019-2034) Presented to Council September 24, 2018″.  I did not attend that meeting, but I can see from the documents that it differs materially from what was in the current budget.  Let me line out the differences that matter vis-a-vis MAC zoning.  The major differences I see are: Continue reading Town of Vienna Capital Plan, 9/26/2018