A proposed senior living facility in Tysons is heading to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for a public hearing tomorrow (June 25).

The Mather, a proposed two-story senior living complex, is a part of Cityline Partners LLC’s Arbor Row project near Tysons Galleria, which includes the completed Nouvelle residential building and The Monarch.

The development would transform the back of Tysons Galleria along Westpark Drive into a suite of mixed-use buildings.

The Fairfax County Planning Commission greenlighted the senior living facility earlier this month despite concerns over the project’s height, size and open space.

Image via Fairfax County Planning Commission 

The Mile, a proposed mixed-use development, is looking to make Tysons North greener.

The development aims to transform 38 acres of office park east of Tysons Galleria into 10 mixed-use buildings with residential, retail, office, hotel and storage locations.

But unlike some developments proposed and built in Tysons, The Mile is planning on adding six new parks totaling more than 10 acres.

The largest one — Signature Park — would encompass an entire block in the development, the Fairfax County Planning Commission’s staff report said, adding:

The Signature Park includes 216,200 square feet (approximately five acres) and encompasses the entire land area of Block E. The Signature Park is intended as a regional facility intended by the Plan to serve the greater Tysons area and will include a large open lawn area, a performance stage, gaming areas, picnic areas, a children’s play area, walking/jogging trails, and a water feature. The proffers provide for the possible dedication of this Signature Park to the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA).

The development also includes a dog park, linear park, recreation park and two urban parks.

At the Planning Commission’s hearing on the project last night (June 19), the commissioners debated whether or not private ownership of Signature Park would open up the possibility of the developers trying to build on that land later on.

Vice Chairman James Hart said that he doesn’t want Signature Park to be privately owned — like most parks are in Tysons, according to Planning Commission staff — saying, “It could become something else five years later.”

Commissioner John Carter, who oversees the Hunter Mill District, said that any changes to the park would put the project over the density limits.

The developer’s representative reaffirmed to the Planning Commission that the developers plan to offer Signature Park to the Fairfax County Park Authority.

John Ulfelder, the planning commissioner for the Dranesville District, raised a concern that was unrelated to the parks: the project’s uniform rooflines.

“In 2010 when we adopted the Tysons Plan, the expectation was we would get a variety of creative and innovative and attractive architecture throughout Tysons,” he said. “As it got developed, I’ve been a little disappointed with what we’ve seen thus far.”

Ulfelder asked to defer the decision on the project to give Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner, the commissioner for the Providence District who was absent, time to review the project.

The Planning Commission decided to defer the decision on the development to July 10.

Images via Fairfax County Planning Commission

After an earlier work session decried the building design as boring, designers of the Vienna Market mixed-use project came back with a slightly more spiced-up project.

Criticisms of the original designs included notes that the building did not offer interesting or unique street faces on every side of the project. The new redesign of the project was presented at the Board of Architectural Review (BAR) Work Session on Friday, June 14.

Most of the distinctions are fairly subtle, but enough to excite architecture wonks on the BAR. Members of the Board praised the new bay windows — glass spaces that project forward from the main room — as a new visually distinctive feature of the project.

The proposed project is planned to replace the Marco Polo building that was destroyed in a fire last year. The project would add 44 condominiums and 8,200 square feet of retail space to 245 W. Maple Avenue.

Representatives of Northfield, the site developer, said at the meeting that a focus of the work between the last work session and this one was rustication, giving the building a more rough-hewn look as compared to the more clean-cut original design.

The building still has a ways to go before approval. Another work session is planned for next Friday (June 28), prompting one BAR member to remark that his wife was getting suspicious of the number of “work sessions” he was attending for the project.

The Fairfax County Planning Commission greenlighted yesterday (June 12) a proposed senior living facility in Tysons despite concerns from staff about the height, size and open space.

Fairfax County staff recommended denial of the proposed two-tower senior living complex called The Mather.

The proposed building would go 60 feet above the 225-foot maximum. “The excessive height combined with a narrow building footprint oriented diagonally results in a building mass that inconsistent with adjoining structures and overwhelms the street,” according to the staff report.

Staff also took issue with the developer wanting to move the open space from an area on top of the parking garage to a sloping area behind the parking garage.

According to the staff report:

The three major issues noted above are all interrelated and stem from the manner in which the continuing care facility is proposed to be integrated into the existing Arbor Row development. Staff does not object to the concept of a continuing care facility as a use, and in fact, recognizes the services provided by such a facility are both necessary and desirable within Tysons. However, the continuing care facility has been designed in a way that reflects the unique needs of the applicant’s specific business model, and does not reflect the urban design recommendations of both the Comprehensive Plan and the Tysons Urban Design Guidelines.

While Providence District Planning Commissioner Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner called the proposal “one of the most complicated applications the commission will recall,” he ultimately brought forth a motion to approve the project.

Before the vote, Niedzielski-Eichner asked staff to address each of the three major concerns and allowed the applicant’s representative, John McGranahan Jr., to respond.

McGranahan argued that the recommended denial by staff was not considering the proposal’s height and size in the context of the surrounding neighborhood.

A staffer said that the mass of the building was considered to be out of context to the nearby buildings and that the applicant’s desire for more height for operational and financial considerations wasn’t enough justification to go above the maximum height.

Staff and McGranahan also disagreed on the relocation and redesign of the open space.

By the end of the back and forth, Niedzielski-Eichner said he was persuaded by the applicant’s reasoning.

Now that the proposal has a favorable recommendation from the Planning Commission, it heads to Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors.

The project is a part of Cityline Partners LLC’s Arbor Row project near Tysons Galleria, which includes the completed Nouvelle residential building and The Monarch. The development aims to transform the back end of Tysons Galleria along Westpark Drive into a suite of mixed-use buildings.

The large affordable housing project near the Spring Hill Metro station is on hold, according to the developer.

The Clemente Development Company is currently busy with The View, a 3 million-square-foot redevelopment project planning on being a new residential, retail and arts hub for Tysons. The project includes The Iconic, a 600-foot tall tower that has the potential to shape the Tysons skyline.

The Evolution, a residential development planned just south of The View, popped up again yesterday (Monday) in Fairfax County permitting, but Antonio Calabrese, a lawyer representing Clemente, said there have been no new plans submitted for the project since it was initially proposed in 2017.

The eventual plan is to include 1,400 multi-family units in a high-rise building that would replace the existing commercial building. All units would be workforce dwelling units.

Calabrese said The Evolution is a separate project from The View and is not part of a proffer related to that project.

Meanwhile, Calabrese said Clemente is moving forward with plans to resubmit The View to Fairfax County staff on Friday (June 14) with hopes to have final approval in the fall.

People in the Town of Vienna can learn about how future development might change access to the Maple Avenue area at a meeting tomorrow (Wednesday).

The meeting will focus on how “reasonably anticipated” development through 2030 via the Maple Avenue Commercial (MAC) zone and by-right projects could change traveling along the Maple Avenue corridor, according to the event description.

The meeting is the second one connected to the town’s Maple Avenue Corridor Multimodal Transportation & Land Use Study, which was commissioned to look at transportation needs along Maple Avenue from James Madison Drive to Follin Lane. The study area also includes Church Street from Lawyers Road to East Street as well as Courthouse Road and Locust Street.

A meeting in April summarized the current transportation conditions in the study’s area.

The third — and final — phase of the study will evaluate possible strategies to improve accessibility challenges along the corridor.

“Transportation recommendations could include changes to vehicular access, geometric and operational modifications to specific intersections or locations, transit service improvements, enhancements to bicycle and pedestrian networks, and transportation demand management policies and strategies,” according to the Town of Vienna.

Recommendations from the study, which is being done by Kimley-Horn, a firm that provides transportation, planning and engineering consulting, are expected later this summer, according to the town.

The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Town Hall Council Chambers (127 S. Center Street) and will include small-group activities and discussion.

Vienna’s Board of Architectural Review (BAR) decried plans for the Vienna Market project as rigid, plain and unbecoming for Maple Avenue.

At a work session on May 24, the BAR met with the developers of the project set to replace the Marco Polo building and other surrounding properties. The proposed project would add 44 condominiums and 8,200 square feet of retail space — along with a 32-space underground parking garage — to 245  W. Maple Avenue.

While the project’s architects discussed adding “rustification” and more brick to the building, BAR members expressed frustration with how bland the project appeared.

“My main concern here is the overall feel has gone [away] from all four sides offering something of interest and unique in the town,” Laine Hyde, the vice chair of the BAR, said. “I look at all four sides and I see flat. I’m not seeing the detail and mix of materials. I’m not seeing the variety of individual buildings; just sameness on all sides.”

Paul Layer, the chair of the BAR, said that earlier towers and variance to the rooftop gave the building some prestige on the Maple Avenue side.

“I think Maple Avenue deserves more than this building next door,” Layer said.

But the designers of the building noted that the project is trapped between ambitions from the BAR and a community that regularly rallies against projects that don’t fit with existing buildings on the street.

“We are trying to keep the building grand,” Bill Foliaco, a representative from Lessard Design, said. “It’s going to be large. But we wanted the storefront to feel like more than standard suburban town center. We want this to feel like it’s been here a while, not brand new. My concern is not financial, but in the current world we live in, I’m afraid it won’t come out the way we imagine it.”

The BAR concluded that another work session will need to be held at an unspecified date for it and the developer to continue working together to find something that will not only satisfy both parties but is likely to be approved by a Vienna Town Council with a new, decidedly anti-outsized development bent.

Image via Vienna Board of Architectural Review

An upcoming meeting will provide the latest information on the Founders Row development currently underway in Falls Church.

Mill Creek Residential’s mixed-use development plans to have more than 300 luxury apartments and more than 90,000 square feet of retail, including a 4,693-square-foot Studio Movie Grill and a 9,476-square-foot City Works Eatery and Pour House.

According to Mill Creek Residential:

Modera Founders Row will consist of 322 studio, one- and two-bedroom homes contained within five stories with an average square footage of 940 and den/office layouts available. A separate age-restricted community will feature an additional 72 luxury homes reserved for adults 55 years and older. Shared community amenities will include a resident clubhouse with connected business center, library, game room, kitchen and bar, two 24-hour club-quality fitness studios, pet spa, hotel-inspired pool, outdoor social area featuring grills and fire pits, self-serve package lockers, coffee bar and controlled-access garage parking.

Additionally, some of the apartments include quartz countertops, wine refrigerators and private balconies and patios.

Located at the corner of W. Broad and N. West streets, Founders Row broke ground in February, Patch reported. The 4-acre site was once home to a Sunoco gas station, 7-Eleven and several small businesses.

The meeting is set for 5 p.m. next Wednesday (June 12) at the MCR construction trailer on the construction site, located near the old 7-Eleven.

Rendering and maps via JBG Smith

The Vienna Town Council delayed voting on the controversial 380 Maple Avenue redevelopment to allow the developers and residents more time to try to reach a consensus through a mediation process.

Some Vienna residents have argued that the four-floor, mixed-use building creates traffic, safety and scale issues that warrant the Vienna Town Council rejecting the proposal. Others have argued that the building could revitalize the downtown area.

After more than half of a dozen meetings and multiple changes by developer Dennis Rice, a mediation process started last month between the citizens and developers to see if they could achieve consensus on the project.

In an update to the Vienna Town Council on Monday (June 3), Ray Brill, a Vienna resident who offered to mediate the discussions, said that six neighbors and two developers met for two hours on May 28.

“We talked primarily about lowering the density and the height, and we offered a modification that might have a terrace effect so there wouldn’t be four floors from [the neighbors’] point of view,” Brill said.

Brill said that the two upcoming meetings on June 6 and June 13 should determine the fate of the project.

“It seems they made a good faith effort to discuss it,” Brill told the Town Council. “I think these two meetings should either decide that we can come to a compromise or we cannot.”

The Town Council decided to delay voting on the project to Monday, June 17, to allow time for the two scheduled mediation meetings.

“I’m practical and I don’t want to drag it out,” Brill said. “By the 13th, we will know one way or the other.”

Image via Town of Vienna

The sprawling Boro development that hopes to become the new beating heart of Tysons could be getting a little larger.

The Meridian Group — developers of The Boro — are planning to submit designs this summer for a recently acquired property across Westpark Drive at 8333 Greensboro Drive, according to the Washington Business Journal.

The Business Journal reported that the new development would likely be a mix of residential types including townhouses, apartments, for-sale condos, and a high-rise senior living component.

Senior living has been particularly hard to come by in Tysons, especially with The Mather facing some difficulty in the approval process.

Image via Google Maps