"No to Railroad Cottages" signs along W&OD in Falls Church

[DanB]

Just found under “Proposed Voluntary Concessions” that the developer plans to “Implement the City’s adopted vision for the adjacent sector of the W & OD trail …, including provision of air/water stop, bike racks, landscaping, public art, benches, “Welcome to Falls Church” signage and improvements to the architectural detail of the existing maintenance structure, subject to NOVA Parks approval.” You can see the artist’s rendering on p. 53 of this pdf: http://fallschurch-va.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=948&meta_id=63334.

The aerial rendering of the 10-cottage development is on p. 47.

There’s more information here: http://fallschurch-va.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=948.

[Vicegrip]

What is the downside given by the “No” folks? Not going to add kids to the schools, not going to notably increase noise or traffic and not a visually positive plot of land at the moment. Can’t build a row of 1,500 sf homes but right around the corner on Haycock they take down a 2000 sf house and build two 5000 sf tall long skinny houses on the same plot? I know a lady that lives a couple houses up from this plot. will ask her what she thinks.

[Sunyata]

I also saw the signs and was curious. However, I assumed that they would be vacation or short term rentals for trail users. That I could kind of see why there would be an opposition. I am not sure I understand WHY there would be an opposition to what is being proposed. Would the neighbours rather have a couple of outlandishly large homes built instead? Do they think a bunch of empty nesters are going to cause a ruckus of grouped together in close proximity?

[DrP]

So, are they going to tear down the existing houses on Railroad Ave to put these up? There isn’t enough room now to put them in next to the trail. There is one plot (or is it two?) that from Google maps looks like they could put in a few houses, but there isn’t much room there. Wow, looking at application. 11 houses (or is it 10 and a shared space?) and a parking lot in that space. That is dense. It is only mildly better than a set of townhouses. The traffic on that road will get crazy. I can see why neighbors are complaining. It is another case of putting in too much building on too little space – different from the McMansions going in all over in that instead of one family/owner it is now 11 families. And if the residents decide to walk and use the trail, it will get busy along there too (not saying good or bad, but an extra location for people meandering on and off the trail).

[Birru]

I’m not sure why some folks are opposed to a plan that actually builds relatively affordable single family housing in Falls Church. Especially since large swaths of older, modest homes have been and continue to be torn down to build large, $1 million+ houses around here.

[lordofthemark]

Because OMG density! parking! agenda 21! home values! hipsters! (even if these are going to be grey haired hipsters) and other threats to our cherished way of life.

I confess to being a Coalition for Smarter Growth supporter, and a sometimes impatient one at that.

[ginacico]

@DrP 159297 wrote:

It is only mildly better than a set of townhouses. The traffic on that road will get crazy. I can see why neighbors are complaining.

Nah. With that prime location, you wouldn’t need to drive 90% of the time.

I want one!

[Drewdane]

@Vicegrip 159295 wrote:

What is the downside given by the “No” folks? Not going to add kids to the schools, not going to notably increase noise or traffic and not a visually positive plot of land at the moment. Can’t build a row of 1,500 sf homes but right around the corner on Haycock they take down a 2000 sf house and build two 5000 sf tall long skinny houses on the same plot? I know a lady that lives a couple houses up from this plot. will ask her what she thinks.

I live right around the corner from the proposed development. The idea is it’s going to be a retirement community of sorts – not full-service, but geared towards independent elder living. The problem in a nutshell is that it’s too much crammed into too little space. There isn’t enough parking allotted on the property for the number of units proposed, and street parking along railroad avenue is already problematic at best, never mind after the introduction of 11 (IIRC) cottages. Nobody’s opposed to the development per se, just the scope.

[EasyRider]

@Birru 159298 wrote:

I’m not sure why some folks are opposed to a plan that actually builds relatively affordable single family housing in Falls Church. Especially since large swaths of older, modest homes have been and continue to be torn down to build large, $1 million+ houses around here.

Not sure one could call it affordable or family housing. It’s an age-restricted development, for those 55 and older. Not sure if it’s also a “no-kids” development or if that’s just a a softer way of advertising the same. At $600K a pop, it doesn’t really seem “affordable” to me, but I guess everything is relative. For better or worse, I think a community of well to do retired people living steps from the path will exert A LOT influence on the future of the W&OD in Falls Church.

[lordofthemark]

@Drewdane 159306 wrote:

I live right around the corner from the proposed development. The idea is it’s going to be a retirement community of sorts – not full-service, but geared towards independent elder living. The problem in a nutshell is that it’s too much crammed into too little space. There isn’t enough parking allotted on the property for the number of units proposed, and street parking along railroad avenue is already problematic at best, never mind after the introduction of 11 (IIRC) cottages. Nobody’s opposed to the development per se, just the scope.

Let’s see. It .8 miles to the WFC metro station. Its even closer to the proposed route of the Rte 7 BRT line (and some existing bus service). It is right on the region’s premier bike/ped trail. I would say an ideal location for car free or car lite living.

But sure, lets grant that street parking is tight. So, how about permit parking, with the price for the permit set to clear the market. Or is that too radical?

BTW, it is ten units, with 13 offstreet parking spaces. So we are not talking car free to have zero parking impact, but only car lite. And only two thirds need to be car lite, not all.

[TwoWheelsDC]

Very similar to the fight over “Sunrise” in McLean…apparently building assisted-living facilities in low density suburbs with relatively aged populations is controversial…

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2017/03/31/thumbs-down-for-sunrises-mclean-project-from.html

[lordofthemark]

@EasyRider 159309 wrote:

Not sure one could call it affordable or family housing. It’s an age-restricted development, for those 55 and older. Not sure if it’s also a “no-kids” development or if that’s just a a softer way of advertising the same. At $600K a pop, it doesn’t really seem “affordable” to me, but I guess everything is relative. For better or worse, I think a community of well to do retired people living steps from the path will exert A LOT influence on the future of the W&OD in Falls Church.

Single Family House is a RE term meaning not multifamily – it does not refer to the marital status or presence of children of the residents.

As for affordable, I don’t think there are many(if any) new homes (not condos) selling for under 600k anywhere in NoVa inside the beltway. Its relatively affordable, and by absorbing some of the demand, helps with affordability down the ladder. We sure aren’t going to improve affordability by not allowing new units in this price range.

As for influence, I would hope A. It would draw people who LIKE the trail B. If it does not, I would hope that City of FC would have appropriate skepticism towards people who have “moved to a nuisance”

Edit – per Redfin, there is ONE two year old house for sale in Lincolnia, for exactly 600k.

[DanB]

One thing to watch, I found this on the Fire Marshal Plan (last page of the application). It shows the fire truck turn-around which appears to overlap the trail. I don’t have a problem with the fire dept. doing this, but there should be bollards to separate the road from the trail that only the FD can remove.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]14687[/ATTACH]

[Birru]

@EasyRider 159309 wrote:

Not sure one could call it affordable or family housing. It’s an age-restricted development, for those 55 and older. Not sure if it’s also a “no-kids” development or if that’s just a a softer way of advertising the same. At $600K a pop, it doesn’t really seem “affordable” to me, but I guess everything is relative. For better or worse, I think a community of well to do retired people living steps from the path will exert A LOT influence on the future of the W&OD in Falls Church.

I don’t find $600k affordable either, but for a modern house in the city it is. There are also older folks in the city with fixed incomes and larger homes they bought decades ago. So it might make sense for them to sell those homes and downsize to one of these “affordable” units.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@EasyRider 159309 wrote:

Not sure one could call it affordable or family housing. It’s an age-restricted development, for those 55 and older. Not sure if it’s also a “no-kids” development or if that’s just a a softer way of advertising the same. At $600K a pop, it doesn’t really seem “affordable” to me, but I guess everything is relative. For better or worse, I think a community of well to do retired people living steps from the path will exert A LOT influence on the future of the W&OD in Falls Church.

Median list price in that corner of FC is $788,000. Just across Broad to the east, it’s over $1 million. So $600k is actually pretty “affordable” for that area of Falls Church. I’m also guessing that the seniors that are the target audience will be relatively wealthy and looking to “downsize” from larger homes further out.

[Author]

Posts