By Brian Trompeter
Faced with their last potential off-ramp for a joint project with Fairfax County to build a new Patrick Henry Library and an adjacent parking garage with some municipal-parking spaces, Vienna Town Council members kept their feet on the accelerator Dec. 4 and voted unanimously to forge ahead with the initiative.
The Council could have agreed to back out of the deal, in which case Fairfax County would have built the library and a smaller parking garage and the town would have had to refund half of the design fees it had contributed, amounting to $331,500. The town now is committed to moving forward with the construction phase.
The agreement to move ahead came with a higher price tag, however. The project will be put out to bid next fall, but county officials already are estimating higher costs. The Town Council agreed to a one-time $590,000 increase toward the project and authorized Town Manager Mercury Payton to negotiate a final price with the county that will not exceed $4,790,835, or 19 percent of the project’s construction cost.
That increased amount applies only to the parking garage; the county will foot 100 percent of cost increases associated with the new library, town officials said.
Lopping one level off the garage as a cost-saving measure would not have been practical, said Vienna Finance Director Marion Serfass, because the top level as currently planned has 64 of the 84 anticipated municipal-parking spaces.
Moving ahead with the project was the best option, said Council member Howard Springsteen.
“The train has left the station,” he said. We’re doing good. [The project] will give us the parking we need and improve the vibrancy of Vienna.”
Vienna Officials: No Dice to Casino Proposal: Faced with rumblings that some state legislators again might try to authorize a gambling casino in Fairfax County, Vienna Town Council members on Dec. 4 formally signaled their opposition to that prospect.
“Any such facility likely would have substantial deleterious effects on the quality of life in Vienna, including increased traffic, additional costs to locally owned independent businesses, and erosion of public morals,” read an item on the 2024 legislative agenda approved by the Council that evening.
“This casino thing is pretty imminent, a real threat,” said Council member Nisha Patel, who successfully moved to have the casino-opposition statement placed within the 19-item legislative agenda’s Top 5 priorities.
During the General Assembly session held earlier this year, one proposed bill would have authorized a casino near any of Metrorail’s Silver Line stations in Fairfax County that were located outside Interstate 495, said Supervisor Walter Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill), who attended the Council meeting. The General Assembly has authorized a limited number of full (i.e., permanent) casinos, Alcorn said.
Council members rejected the casino prospect, especially a rumored location at Routes 123 and 7 in Tysons where a Koons auto dealership is located now.
“It would be a real body blow to Vienna,” said Council member Charles Anderson.
“It’s not wholesome,” agreed Council colleague Howard Springsteen.
Mayor Linda Colbert also opposed the casino idea and said she had been consulting with former U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-10th), a longtime scourge of the gambling industry. Wolf has compiled copious information on the detriments of casinos, Colbert said.
Besides the casino item, the Council’s other four top priorities included requests for the General Assembly to:
• Authorized a state-code amendment that would allow the town to provide tree-canopy credits for development that preserves medium- and large-sized trees on lots under development or require developers to meet 20-percent tree-canopy coverage within 10 years, versus the current 20.
• Change the Virginia Department of Transportation’s local-road-maintenance funding formula from lane mileage to lane volume or provide additional funding to localities, such as Vienna, that have average traffic volumes exceeding state averages by more than 20 percent. This has been a perennial request by the town.
• Authorize localities to hold municipal elections in May, the way things used to be before a 2021 General Assembly bill switched them all to November.
Council member Ed Somers did not run for re-election this year, but said he found this November’s election in Vienna – which featured a slew of races for the General Assembly, Board of Supervisors, constitutional offices and other items – a depressing experience.
“It was very different from May elections,” he said of the November contests, which sent Vienna voters to four precincts, versus the previous one used in May. “It diverted people from thinking about the town. There was something very special about having our elections [in May] be about our elections.”
• Not approve any bill that reduces or eliminates local land-use authority.
• Maintain qualified immunity for police officers, in recognition for split-second decisions they sometimes have to make. The town also opposes any changes to sovereign immunity.
Council Approves Construction-Management Contract for 3 More Sidewalk Projects: The Vienna Town Council on Dec. 4 approved a $171,115 contract with Whitman, Requardt & Associates to provide construction-management-and-inspection services for three upcoming sidewalk projects.
Using funds from the Maud Ferris Robinson Charitable Trust, a $7 million bequest from the late Council member Maud Robinson, the town plans to build sidewalks on:
• Beulah Road, N.E., between Church Street and Ayr Hill Avenue.
• Tapawingo Road from Park Street, S.E., to Plum Street, S.W.
• Lawyers Road, N.W., from Windover Avenue to West Street.
Council member Charles Anderson pressed for this sidewalk, saying that section of roadway was a blind corner where trees had been falling into the street.
“There’s really no way to walk on that side,” he said.
Mayor Linda Colbert was enthusiastic about all three projects.
“This will be huge,” she said. “All three of these are places where people walk. All of these, I think, are great projects.”
