Updated at 8:45 a.m. — Corrects the picture of the building and its address.

Passersby the McLean Medical Building would never know that the building is connected to the first doctor in the nation who gave children the Salk polio vaccine.

Denice Dressel, a heritage resource planner for Fairfax County, recently unearthed the building’s ties while working on a heritage study to identify potential significant sites as downtown McLean prepares for a new look.

Her research revealed that the building (1515 Chain Bridge Road) was constructed in 1964 and first owned by a group of doctors that included Dr. Richard Mulvaney, who is credited with being the first doctor to give the vaccine to kids with the crippling disease.

Mulvaney died at the age of 88 in 2006 at Inova Fairfax Hospital, according to a Washinton Post obituary.

The building does not have any markers or plaques indicating its connection to Mulvaney, Dressel said.

Dressel’s finding flummoxed some members of a task force made up of McLean residents working to revamp the downtown area during a Monday (May 20) meeting.

“Who determines whether or not that is an architectural gem or a building that could use some substantial demolition and work?” Kim Dorgan, the chair of the task force, asked. “A quick point — I think many of us are surprised to find that building on this list.”

Dressel said that there are no regulations to preserve the buildings on the list, which might affect the fate of the McLean Medical Building.

“While I was conducting the fieldwork, a redevelopment proposal was submitted for the site, which proposes to raze the building,” Dressel said, adding that redevelopment is in the very beginnings of review.

Image via Department of Planning and Zoning

The Sunrise Senior Living Facility proposed for downtown Vienna received approval from the town’s Planning Commission last night (May 22).

The senior facility has faced a myriad of concerns around its parking, retail space and location at the corner of Maple Avenue and Center Street.

After public hearings, dozens of residents and some of the planning commissioners said they are worried that the parking spaces might not accommodate all of the visitors, employees, shoppers and roughly 100 residents.

Recent modifications that the Planning Commission OK’d last night dropped the number of units from 83 to 82, removed the mezzanine, reduced the retail to 2,264 square feet, altered the fence height and removed the grand staircase inside the facility — changes the developers said addressed town residents’ previous criticisms.

The changes mirror a solution proposed by Planning Commissioner Mary McCullough at the May 8 meeting to reduce the retail space to free up the parking spaces that retail employees and shoppers would use.

“The improvements are a true reflection that you listened,” McCullough told the developers last night.

While most of the planning commissioners said they thought the modifications improved the project, Commissioners Sharon Baum and David Miller said they still had reservations.

Baum said that she wanted to see more retail space instead of less, while Miller brought up a concern about the senior living facility’s placement.

“Is this the use we want at this corner?” Miller asked, questioning how many of the older residents would visit nearby retail and restaurants. Miller said that he would rather see apartments or condominiums, hinting at younger residents.

Ultimately, the Planning Commission approved the modifications and the proposal.

“Is it perfect? No,” Michael Gelb, who chairs the Planning Commission, said. “I haven’t seen a perfect project yet.”

Next up, the proposal has a Vienna Town Council meeting scheduled for June 3. Town Council has until Aug. 2 to make a decision.

Rendering via Town of Vienna

Could a desire for more park space make McLean less attractive to developers? That was the question residents pondered at a meeting earlier this week.

Currently, a task force made up of McLean residents and civic group members has been working with Fairfax County to revamp the McLean Commercial Business Center (CBC).

While the Fairfax County Park Authority pushed for more parks at the task force’s Monday (May 20) meeting, some of its members worried that an emphasis on more parks might push developers away.

Ryan Stewart, a senior planner for the Fairfax County Park Authority, said that a long-term vision for green space in McLean would move toward a mixed-use model, possibly emulating Fairfax Corner, Reston Town Center or the Mosaic District.

Population size determines countywide park facility service level standards, Stewart said.

With projected population changes that could have McLean see nearly 3,000 more residents and 1,500 fewer employees, the Park Authority recommends an additional 4.25 more acres of urban park space, a new playground and another sports court at full buildout in McLean.

“Any development scenario should consider how these needs will be met within the CBC or nearby,” a Park Authority presentation slide said.

The immediate area of the CBC has several parks, including McLean Central, Lewinsville, and Bryn Mawr.

Stewart stressed that urban parks provide a variety of benefits, including social connections, urban cooling and air and water quality improvement.

Kim Dorgan, the chair of the task force, supported a common sentiment among the task force members for more greenery.

“We all want trees,” she said, adding that McLean already has a green space deficit. “We are already 2.5 acres under where we ought to be in today’s standards in terms of green space,” Dorgan said.

While members of the task force said that adding more parks is important, they also expressed concern that developers might balk at more green space requirements.

“I’m all for green space, but stick it to a developer and say you need to give me an acre is going to be challenging,” one task force member that Tysons Reporter was unable to identify said.

Dorgan suggested finding a “creative” way to improve access to the McLean Central Park as a possible way to avoid the trade-off between more green space or more development.

“If we do nothing and there’s nothing that happens in McLean, we are still not where we want to be,” Dorgan said. “We need the change to get where we want to go.”

Two more bidders are now vying for a Tysons property poised for redevelopment and new owners.

McLean-based Tepe & Hisar LLC submitted a bid earlier this month to buy the property for $19.5 million, while Virginia Beach-based Cobalt Real Estate Solutions LLC offered to pay $30.4 million for an adjacent office building, the Washington Business Journal reported.

Shortly after Fairfax County OK’d the redevelopment project near the corner of Leesburg Pike and Gallows Road in the Old Courthouse district two years, the developer filed for bankruptcy.

The approved plans for International Place (8201 Leesburg Pike), which were submitted by a limited liability company as a project of the Stafford-based Garrett Cos., would add one main new building and five secondary mixed-use structures.

The Washington Business Journal previously reported that the LLC arranged a May 7 hearing to seek permission to sell the property to a Middle Eastern real estate developer who chairs the United Arab Emirates-based Nobles Properties.

While neither of the new deals is final, a bankruptcy judge authorized the new purchase agreements on May 10, the article notes.

Now, the stalled development may face a decision on new ownership at an upcoming June 4 hearing.

“Representatives for the debtor filed a motion with the court seeking authorization to reject an earlier purchase agreement stuck with Thallium so the office building at 8133 Leesburg can instead be sold to Cobalt,” the Washington Business Journal reported.

Image via Fairfax County

(Updated 10 a.m.) There’s no shortage of luxury housing coming into Tysons, but what about affordable housing?

According to Brian Worthy, a spokesman for Fairfax County, the limited number of affordable units in Tysons are near max occupancy. But with new mid- and high-rise developments required to devote a portion of the new units to affordable housing, Worthy said there are more units on the way:

As of May 15, 2019, there are approximately 536 rental Affordable and Workforce Dwelling Units (ADUs and WDUs) that have been constructed in Tysons. The average occupancy rate is 94 percent.

Currently, there are approximately 3,919 rental ADUs and WDUs that have been committed by developers through Board of Supervisors approved rezoning actions. We don’t currently track the total number of these units that have been proposed as part of unapproved developments in Tysons, but to date, the major, approved rezonings have all committed to provide affordable or workforce dwelling units.

Worthy noted that ADUs serve households with incomes of 50-70 percent of Area Median Income (AMI). Fairfax County documents show that range as $38,600-$54,050 for single-family households, increasing proportionally to the size of the household.

Tysons’ WDUs serve incomes ranging from 60-120 percent of AMI, reflecting the higher cost of living in Tysons as compared to the rest of Fairfax. The WDU program is designed to help working households find housing close to employment centers and transportation options.

Creating housing affordable to locals at all ranges of the income spectrum has been a countywide problem. According to the FY 2020 Fairfax County budget, a total of 3,016 affordable units — privately-owned homes that are not bound by rent restrictions — have been preserved in Fairfax County between 2004 and 2018, but the county fell 82 units short of its affordable housing goals for last year.

The county projects a growth of 62,184 households over the next 15 years, of which 18,622 are expected to earn 80 percent of AMI and below.

Chart via Fairfax County Government

The showroom’s closet full of prop Gucci and Saks Fifth Avenue bags says just about everything you need to know about The Monarch — Tyson’s new mega-rich condominium building under construction.

Yesterday (Wednesday), developer Renaissance held a project launch celebration inside their ninth-floor office in the Ritz-Carlton (1650 Tysons Blvd) overlooking the site.

The office also doubles as a fully furnished model residence. Renaissance staff guided prospective residents through lavish bedrooms and kitchens, noting amenities like a direct-access elevator that opens right into the living room and white-glove lobby attendants who can carry groceries for residents.

The building offers a kind of opulence unfathomable to anyone making less than $100,000 a year. Units in The Monarch range from $600,000 to just over $3 million.

Kami Kraft, the vice president of The Mayhood Company, which is marketing the project, said the types of employment in Tysons and the proximity to Tysons Galleria were indicative to a need in the area for new luxury condominiums.

The building is currently under construction and is scheduled to open in late 2020.

The project is part of the Arbor Row development, a 19-acre stretch of mixed-use buildings along Westpark Drive. The first building of the project, the residential Nouvelle, was completed in 2015 and the next phase, the senior living facility The Mather, is going to the Fairfax County Planning Commission tonight.

The Falls Church City Council recently voted to move forward a series of developments that would transform the area south of the West Falls Church Metro station into a new commercial center and gateway into the city.

The council unanimously approved the signing of a comprehensive agreement with EYA, PN Hoffman and Regency Centers for their planned development of nearly 10 acres at the George Mason High School, the Falls Church News-Press reported.

The current George Mason High School is set to be demolished and replaced with a new commercial area like the Mosaic District in Merrifield.

The approval of the comprehensive agreement now allows the Falls Church City Schools to solidify plans for the construction of a new high school next to the current one, the Falls Church News-Press noted.

The council decided to delay a final vote to July 8 on the specific exception entitlement after the development faced last-minute changes, which included removing the structured parking lot near the new high school and reverting back to a surface lot for school use, according to the Falls Church News-Press.

Rendering via City of Falls Church

A moratorium on new development applications for Maple Avenue that was scheduled to expire in June has been pushed to November.

The Vienna Town Council voted on Monday (May 13) to extend the temporary suspension of the Maple Avenue Commercial (MAC) zone to November 15.

The moratorium first went into effect last September to allow the town staff time to redesign the town’s guidelines.

Since then, the Planning Commission, the Board of Architectural Review and the Town Council have held individual and joint work sessions on draft design guidelines.

Additionally, the Town of Vienna also commissioned a Maple Avenue Corridor Multimodal Transportation and Land Use Study, which is expected to be received this summer and could be incorporated into the design guidelines.

Final design guidelines and amendments are anticipated to be done by September.

The Vienna Town Council delayed voting on the proposed redevelopment of 380 Maple Avenue after a resident questioned if the town had notified Fairfax County about the proposed rezoning — the town hadn’t.

Resident John Pott asked during the public hearing last night (May 13) if the town had notified the county about the proposed rezoning since the property is within half of a mile from the county line. Pott said that the notification has to happen before the Vienna Planning Commission hearing.

Turns out, the town had not notified the county yet, Town Manager Mercury Payton said, adding that “this was an oversight on the part of staff.”

“This has not been a practice,” Payton said. “It was not intentionally inaction based on staff to not notify the county.”

“I’m a little bit dismayed we didn’t follow the law,” Councilmember Howard Springsteen said, telling town staff that “ignorance is no excuse.”

In addition to the legal conundrum, Springsteen urged the developer and residents to work together — possibly using a mediator — to try to find middle ground on the contentious issues around the proposed project, such as safety, privacy and scale. “I would like to see if we could get a mutual, agreeable resolution to things,” he said.

The proposed project has received mixed reviews from residents.

While some people have said at previous public hearings that the mixed-use, four-floor building, which would include ground floor retail and more than three dozen multi-family residential condominium units, could revitalize the downtown area, others have argued that traffic, safety and scale issues plague the project.

Dennis Rice, the owner of J.D.A. Custom Homes, appeared frustrated when relaying to the Town Council some of the back and forth changes he’s made to make the development more desirable to nearby residents. But, he reiterated he is willing to keep working with neighbors on the project.

Mayor Laurie DiRocco told Rice to submit a written list of proffers. While proffers have been written down and spoken about at meetings, DiRocco said that Rice needs to provide the town with a comprehensive and clear list.

Town Attorney Steve Briglia advised the council to keep the public hearing open while getting in touch with the county. The Town Council voted to continue consideration of the project at the June 3 Town Council meeting and directed staff to send a notification of the proposed rezoning to the county.

Photo via Town of Vienna Planning and Zoning

Ten acres of vacant St. Paul’s Lutheran Church property at the intersection of Leesburg Pike and Idylwood Road could soon be redeveloped into a residential neighborhood.

A zoning application to the Fairfax County Board from developer Toll Mid-Atlantic LP Company requests permission to build 67 residential units — a mix of 39 single-family and 28 multi-family units.

St. Paul’s facilities at the site were built between 1954 and 1967, but have been vacant since Lutheran Social Services moved to the primary St. Paul’s building.

The church property sits at one corner of a busy intersection, requiring transportation improvements in the project application. Approval of the homes would require frontage improvements to Idylwood Road, a dedicated right-of-way along Leesburg Pike for a future right turn lane and a few other local road connections.

“Collectively, these road improvements will mitigate the impact of the vehicle trips generated by St. Paul’s and the Proposed Development, and will provide greater benefit than the previous commitments,” the developer said in the application. “The applicant proposes an eight-foot asphalt trail along Leesburg Pike, an eight-foot concrete sidewalk along Idylwood Road, and a bus shelter at the corner of Idylwood Road and Leesburg Pike.

The deal would allow St. Paul’s to finance a long-planned family life center. The facility would increase the overall size of the church from 17,196 square feet to 27,928 square feet.

According to the application:

The purpose of the approved expansion is to create a new family life center for use by the congregation and the community. Since the approval of the family life center… in 2005, however, St. Paul’s has been unable to construct the building due to financial constraints and the significant cost of the project. As a result, St. Paul’s has entered into an agreement with the Applicant to sell a portion of the property… which will provide the funding necessary for St. Paul’s to achieve its long-term goal of developing the family life center.

The project is tentatively planned for a Planning Commission hearing on Sept. 25, with a Board of Supervisors hearing to be determined.