Vienna Struggles to Find Middle Ground with Sunrise Development

(Updated April 8) Despite a host of other compromises, the Sunrise Senior Living Facility and Vienna Town Council are still at odds over the project exceeding the town’s height requirements.

Both parties agreed at a work session on Monday (April 1) that there’s been compromise from Sunrise. There were modifications made to spaces on the ground floor and mezzanine and the number of proposed units was taken down from 85 to 83.

But a mezzanine that cuts just under the town’s 50-percent coverage limit for what can be considered a floor is still a sticking point for Town Council members who say the project is out of line with the town’s five-story height limit.

Jerry Liang, senior vice president of development for Sunrise, argued that Vienna should reframe its limits rather than force the building to come in under a certain height.

“There’s different ways to think about density, [like] units and square footage,” Liang said. “By setting your limits on floor and height, you’ve created the maximum box. We believe the building we designed is visually pleasing.”

Planning Commissioner Mary McCullough said there were concerns from nearby residents that the back half of the building still had a “five-story look.”

The next public hearing for the project is tentatively scheduled for April 24, when the Planning Commission will discuss the development.

“Part of our goal is to satisfy a lot of particular needs for a lot of stakeholders,” Liang said. “We’re trying to find the right balance between providing critically needed service with the cost-benefit balance to really solve that Rubik’s cube.”

Image via Town of Vienna

Recent Stories

A new report says there are disparities between Fairfax County neighborhoods in health, income and other factors that affect residents’ quality of life (via Northern Virginia Health Foundation) In between…

AC Milan, the Italian soccer club, is opening a Virginia youth training academy in Tysons (courtesy AC Milan) A top-tier Italian soccer club is making a play for Tysons. AC…

Laura Schwartz is a licensed Realtor in VA and D.C. with McEnearney Associates in Vienna. You can follow Laura on Instagram at @LauraSchwartzRealtor or her Facebook page. Laura can be reached at 703-283-6120 or [email protected]. Did…

The Wedgewood Apartments and other properties owned by the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority would be subject to the new relocation guidelines if redeveloped (via Google Maps) Fairfax County…

×

Subscribe to our mailing list